THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 20, 2023

Megan Khang

The Club at Carlton Woods

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Megan Khang after her first round at the Chevron Championship, and as you mentioned, not the start you may have wanted, but you certainly did claw your way back. Take us through that thought process and how you pulled yourself out of it.

MEGAN KHANG: I mean, definitely, whether it's the first event of the year or your first major, I think anytime you come back from a break, like I didn't play Hawai'i, so I was kind of coming back not competing, so I had two weeks off, and those first-tee nerves always come in, let alone it's a major at a new course, you try to get off to a hot start, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but managed to stay calm out there, and Jack and I were having a pretty good time even though we were a little bit behind the 8-ball at the start.

Q. Walk us through the eagle on that par-5 and how much that might have changed your mentality from there.

MEGAN KHANG: No, definitely. I had missed like a gettable birdie on the par-3, 7, right before, and I think that was kind of like hey, okay, let's get it going. Gave myself a chance, didn't make it, and we knew 8 was coming up, and you've got to take care of the drive first. Hit a good drive out there. We roughly had 205 to the front, but it was downwind. I was kind of in between clubs. I told Jack, I was like, hey, this is why we practiced the chip behind the green yesterday, because if there's a back pin, I don't mind being back there because you've just got to get on the fringe and get it rolling on a good line. Happily, everything panned out the way I wanted it to, and like 9 I watched Janet and Alison kind of roll their birdie putts in, and I was like, I can't be left out, so had to follow suit.

Q. What does this course sort of require from you challenges-wise?

MEGAN KHANG: Challenge-wise, I've been telling everyone, these greens are smaller than you anticipate for Texas. They're firm. They're fast.

It's nothing you don't expect coming into a major. I think the fact that it is pretty grainy around the greens, missing it to the right spots is definitely going to help you and hitting center of the green and taking your putts is definitely going to be your front out there.

Q. I'm curious about your preparation before coming into the first major of the year.

MEGAN KHANG: Honestly, my dad and I tried to kind of keep it leisurely, always working on things during the off weeks, whether it's a major or any other event, and kind of giving the mentality like go out there and do the best you can and then we'll see how we do, because as long as we try our best and do our best, there's nothing more we can ask for.

Q. What did you tell yourself after you walked off the 5th.

MEGAN KHANG: Gosh, what's the 5th?

Q. That's where you got to 3-over.

MEGAN KHANG: Thanks. Yeah, no, obviously there were some words said that weren't the nicest towards myself. But you know, Jack and I again were just kind of like, hey, I wasn't hitting it the greatest at the start, and I was like, hey, I think I'm not reading the greens that well. I think I'm going to need you to come in to have like a second pair of eyes.

Especially when we got to around 7, we started reading the greens together, and it really was meshing well together. It was nice having that second pair of eyes and the confidence that hey, we both see the same thing.

Q. Was there any adjustment you made to your swing after that?

MEGAN KHANG: No, I think it was just the nerves calming down from excited to get the round started, and told myself, hey, we need to calm down, slow it down, and swing like we know how to swing, like we practiced.

Q. Are you happy to have some of those bogeys out of the way knowing how to deal with those? Obviously with the difficulty of this course, I'm sure there might be more, so you're happy to sort of get the mentality right for overcoming them?

MEGAN KHANG: I mean, no one likes making bogeys. I was joking with the crowd at the turn, and one of the guys was like, oh, I can show you how to make bogey, and I'm like, I'm trying to stay away from them, I made enough on my front. But you kind of expect bogeys to happen and trying to minimize it is the best you can. They are going to happen. I'm trying not to get too frustrated out there. It's a tough golf course, it's a good challenge, especially when the wind starts to pick up.

Knowing that it's okay to make bogeys, but as long as I try to make them kind of like a good bogey, as he would say.

Q. Just curious what your first impression was of this golf course and the buildout and the event itself.

MEGAN KHANG: I was like, we're not in Palm Springs anymore. It's a huge property. I joke around, I don't carry the golf bag, but it's a long walk. Coming into Houston, I for sure thought greens were going to be big kind of like U.S. Women's Open a few years back in Houston, and this was not at all what I expected. These small greens, the undulations and kind of the run-outs are definitely what caught my eye, and that's what I definitely thought was going to be kind of the hard part about playing this course.

Q. With a couple of weeks off, did you have any thoughts about how important a performance this week is, not only for this upcoming Solheim but the next one, as well?

MEGAN KHANG: Honestly, I sound like a broken record whenever it comes to Solheim. Every week we come, we try to take care of business, the task at hand, which is the tournament that we came here to play in, and for me I kind of say, hey, if I do my best, just focusing on the tournament, everything else will follow, whether it's points, money, rankings. I try to -- every one of us tries to come out and win, and that's kind of the goal, and everything comes following a good event.