COGNIZANT FOUNDERS CUP

May 11, 2023

Samantha Wagner

Upper Montclair Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. I'm here with Samantha Wagner. Samantha, great round today.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Thank you.

Q. Congratulations.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Thank you.

Q. You had a good bit of birdies out there today. Let's start with that. Eight birdies I believe. How do you think that helped your round today?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: I was just really feeling confident with my putter. Felt really good reading the greens, and when I had my dad help me he was pretty on pointe, too.

Got a little nervous a couple times, but also like just kind of settled down and went back to work with my putter at the end.

Q. I heard the greens are a little tricky out there. Anything else that you're seeing out there?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Oh, yeah. The greens felt like cement on the back nine. If you're out of position like in the rough, it's just tough. It's tough to kind of put a good shot on it.

I mean, I caught a couple lucky breaks, but still struggled in a couple spots, which okay. I mean, not everything is going to be perfect, so you just got to roll with it.

Q. Game of golf, right?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Yeah.

Q. Let's talk about you're a rookie this year on the LPGA. How has it been this year so far?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Oh, man, it's been frustrating. I've had some close calls and some tournaments where I'm like I could easily count three shots where I could have changed things.

I think that's part of the learning process. Took me a couple weeks to just be okay with that and roll with the punches and know that I earned my spot out here and just trust that and keep sticking with it.

Q. What does it mean to you to be here at the Founders Cup with pioneers around?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: It's so exciting. I mean, just to be around people who made this happen for us and who are still helping us get even further and grow the game even more is awesome.

Even me just being a little bit close to where I grew up is awesome too because I have a lot of family here.