DANA OPEN PRESENTED BY MARATHON

July 13, 2023

Ariya Jutanugarn

Highland Meadows Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, joined now by Ariya. Ariya, bogey-free 65. What was working so well for you?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say my iron is work out pretty good today. I hit pretty solid out there.

I still miss some tee shot but I can get back to the green.

Q. Take us through some highlights of the birdies. Were there any that stood out or boosted your confidence for the rest of the round?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say to me it's nothing really happen at all today. It's like I have really good first hole. I hit 6-iron, 9-iron, and have like ten feet to the hole and make the putt.

So that kind of gave me like the feeling like have more confidence and feel like I just have to have like good commit and keep doing like what I'm doing.

Q. When you play bogey-free and taking advantage of some of the scoring opportunities, what kind of confidence can that give you for the rest of the event?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say like what I say today, like my iron is work pretty good so I just have to keep working on that and not think about bogey, par, or birdie. Just shot by shot.

Q. With all the low scoring today, I know it's only round one, but does that add or take away any pressure knowing how achievable the greens and holes are?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say I don't have any like pressure because like, you know, how I play last week I didn't expect I'm is going to play this good today. So I just felt I have something to work on, so I just want to keep working on that.

Q. How great is it to get the first round out of the way and kind of use your experience in this performance going into tomorrow?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: It's great because like honestly, first few hole I think today is going to be so hard because really windy this morning. So I don't think I'm going to shoot even more than like even because like really windy.

So after the round today just feel much better because like it's a lot better than what I expect.

Q. Just two more from me. You mentioned you didn't have a lot of expectations after last week. What were those expectations coming into this week, or what did you expect to happen this week?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: Honestly, like before this week I only have like one practice round and then pro-am on Wednesday. No expect at all, because like the way I play last week I feel I have so much thing to work on. I hope it's going to get better when I keep working on that.

And today when you have no expectation it's come -- it's show you like that the way to play golf.

Q. Does having that kind of mentality coming in, trying to work on your game, play your game, how does that work well for you?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say it's so hard, you know, especially we only think about the outcome. We want to play well. We want the scores to be low. We want to finish Top 10.

It's just like test you like how you going to be patient with it. And how you going to be even more not thinking about the outcome.

Q. Just what was something that in this round that you're going to take away and really emphasize?

ARIYA JUTANUGARN: I would say I'm so happy about my game right now even I miss some tee shot, only because I play without expectations.

So I think it's really challenging for me to keep doing this in the last whatever round we play.

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