U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

July 4, 2023

Leona Maguire

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. How are you feeling coming into a week after a busy last couple weeks?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, feeling good. I think it was nice to have a week off last week and sort of recharge and reset and be ready to go again. I think this is obviously going to be a really good test again this week. Been pretty spoiled the last few weeks. Some really, really good golf courses. I think Pebble is definitely living up to the hype. It's a pretty cool place to be.

Q. What was your feeling coming out of last week and anything you learned from it?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think I played some really good golf. It was nice to be in the last group for Saturday and Sunday. Showed me that I have the golf to be able to compete with the best players in the world. Yeah, some good momentum heading into the rest of the majors this summer.

Q. You mentioned Pebble. Any other first impressions from playing the last couple days?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, it's a really good golf course. I think the front nine is very different to the back nine. Front nine there's obviously a lot more out on the cliffs and the water and everything. Back nine is a bit more inland. I think you really have to hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. Missing the greens, there's a lot of really thick rough around the greens and chipping is really difficult. I think staying below the pins on the greens, as well, they're pretty slick above them, so lots of greens, lots of fairways, and that will go a long way this week, I think.

Q. Any particular holes that stand out or that suit your eye?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think there's a lot of iconic holes out here. Obviously 7 was quite a bit shorter than I had thought about on -- 18 is obviously one of the most famous holes. You're obviously trying to go as tight to that cliff as you can staying left of the Cypress tree, and obviously there's been a lot of famous shots over the years surrounding that, so I think that's a pretty cool one, having seen it on TV for a long time, getting to actually play it in real life.

Q. Being at Pebble, how important is it for women's golf to have a major championship at a venue like Pebble and other iconic venues?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think a lot of us have grown up watching the guys here and U.S. Opens, the AT&T Pro-Am and all that, so it's really special to be here for a U.S. Open. It's one of our biggest events of the year, so I think we're all just enjoying the week. Pebble is one of those bucket list places for a lot of people, so for us to be able to play seven days in a row out here, it's something that I think none of us are going to forget for a long time.

Q. Any tips or takeaways you got from your Lake Nona neighbor Graeme McDowell or his caddie Kenny when you spoke to them about Pebble?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think course management is huge out here. G-Mac talked about hitting to certain sections on greens and things like that, a lot of strategy. He's not the longest hitter, nor am I, so I think strategy is key when you come to a place like this. Obviously Dermot has been here a bunch of times before, so he has his own strategies on theories from being around here quite a few times.

Q. Anything you remember about Graeme's win in 2010 or Gary Woodland's win a few years ago?

LEONA MAGUIRE: I remember them being sort of different setups. I think it was quite firm and fast when G-Mac won, and then when Gary won it was a lot longer and a lot more lush, I think a lot more like this probably. We'll see. I would imagine that the golf course will firm up and get a bit faster as the week goes on, especially if we get a bit of wind and it stays dry. I think it's going to be sort of a mix of both almost.

Q. What would it mean to follow in Graeme's footsteps and be the first Irish woman to win a U.S. Open?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think it's everybody's dream to win a major, and to do it at a U.S. Open at Pebble would be incredibly special. But I suppose there's a lot of golf to be played between now and Sunday, so we'll take one round at a time and try and play as well as we possibly can.

Q. Finished T8 last year. Anything from that week that turned your U.S. Women's Open form around or anything you were taking from that week?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, obviously had a lot of fun going back to North Carolina last year. Pine Needles, I really liked it. It was a really good test. It definitely got firmer and faster. You could see between Monday and Sunday as what a U.S. Open normally does. I think this is a very different test. There wasn't much rough at Pine Needles. Here there's definitely a high premium on hitting fairways and on hitting greens this week. It's a very different test, but at the same time, it's still the same skills of patience and discipline and stuff that you need at a U.S. Open.

Q. Any expectations for yourself, or do you kind of avoid putting pressure on yourself that way?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I think avoid any expectations. I think it's one of these golf courses you just have to enjoy the challenge of it. We'll try and execute on the targets we've picked and ultimately see where that ends up at the end of the week.

Q. Another Irish compatriot in the field, Aine Donegan; have you spoken to her, and any advice you maybe gave to her playing in her first major?

LEONA MAGUIRE: Yeah, I was chatting to her earlier. I think she played a practice round with Annika this morning, so I think Annika probably had a lot more wisdom to pass on than I would yet, but it's obviously a fantastic achievement for her to even be here to qualify, and hopefully she has a fantastic week. It's obviously her first major, so it's a pretty special one to be able to say your first major was a Pebble Beach.