DANA OPEN PRESENTED BY MARATHON

July 15, 2023

Maria Fassi

Highland Meadows Golf Club

Quick Quotes - 2

THE MODERATOR: Here with Maria Fassi. Done with day three finally, especially after a four-hour delay. Just overall what was today like for you?

MARIA FASSI: It was good. I think ball striking-wise it was probably my best ball striking day. I gave myself a lot of very good birdie looks. I burned a lot of edges. I left quite a few putts short, dead on line. So, yeah, I mean, of course always happy to keep climbing up that leaderboard and see that all the work that we've been doing is paying off. But extremely excited for tomorrow. I think there's a lot of birdies out here. We're seeing it with some of the rounds that some of these players are putting up. So I'm just kind of looking forward to that challenge tomorrow and see how low I can go and then see if that's going to be enough.

THE MODERATOR: You talked about that this is obviously one of the first time you think you've only had three bogeys through 54 holes. What does that say about, as you said, all the work that you've been putting in, but also being able to capitalize in the right moments?

MARIA FASSI: Yeah, I think we've been very smart in our game plan. There's I think a lot of holes out here that kind of want to get you to do something a little bit aggressive and then if you're not quite on the perfect spot you can find a bogey pretty easy. So I think that that just says a lot about our game plan and how disciplined we stayed with said game plan. And again, just excited to go out there tomorrow, stick to my game plan, hopefully see a few more putts drop and like I said, just see what happens. I'm excited for the challenge. I love this golf course. I think, yeah, we're ready for tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Especially these closing par-5 holes on 17 and 18, I mean, how do they play to your strengths as you are working out the game plan for tomorrow?

MARIA FASSI: Yeah, it's nice always kind of knowing that especially with 18 being kind of reachable and 17 having kind of like a nice entrance to the green. Like you just know you can have something short into 17 and a chip or a long putt on 18. So I think kind of knowing in the back of your head that if you could close with birdie, birdie, I feel like it keeps you motivated as well and it keeps you in it maybe a lot longer than if the finish was just a two normal par-4s. And of course with my length and how I've been striking it this week I feel like it's been nice to be able to finish like yesterday and today with both birdies on those two.

THE MODERATOR: As you know, anyone can go low here. We saw it with Gaby on the final day last year with the 63. Is that kind of the mentality that you have that anything could happen?

MARIA FASSI: Yeah, I mean, I know Linn hasn't finished, but she's 8- or 9- or however many under, like it's doable. I'm not going to say it's easy, but like you said, Gaby did it last year, Linn is doing it this year, Annie Park did it yesterday. Like it's very much out there to get. So I think that this tournament is everybody's at this point too. Like, of course, Linn's going to go home with a big lead, but you know, if she just shoots 1- or 2-under par and one of us closes with a very good round, anything could happen tomorrow. So, yeah, I mean, I'm excited, like I said, for the challenge. I'm excited to try to go make as many birdies as I can. But at the same time not changing anything in my game plan and not chasing birdies by any means.