ISPS HANDA WORLD INVITATIONAL

August 20, 2023

Esther Henseleit

Galgorm Castle & Massereene Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Esther Henseleit, our runner-up here at that time ISPS Handa World Invitational.

Take me through your round today. A lot of big birdies for you on the back nine. How did you turn the round around to get those?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: Yeah, I mean, I played all right on the front, just the putts didn't really drop.

Hit one -- two actually -- bogeys, but I played good and just burning a lot of edges. Yeah, then on the back nine had some birdies. Birdied 9 and 10 again, so they were nice to have.

And then, yeah, just burning edges all day really. I felt like I left quite a bit out there, but to birdie three of my last four, being in contention, I guess I can take a lot from that.

Q. After your birdies on 15 and 17, what was your thought process on 18? Did you look at the leaderboard? Did you know where you stood?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: Well, I knew that Alexa was I think 7-under going down the last, and I mean, they moved the tee up today so it's basically a par-4.

It's a very tricky and scary par-4, but it basically is, so I knew I had to make birdie. I mean, the two girls playing with me were also in a good position so I knew I had to score coming down the last.

Q. Making that putt there on 18 to force the playoff, were you nervous? What was going through your head there?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: I mean, yeah, I was. I knew I had to make it, so it wasn't much room for thinking. I just knew I had to hole it.

So, yeah, I mean it was good to hole it, but it wasn't the longest and it was just slightly right to left inside the hole, so it wasn't the trickiest putt.

Q. Can you take us through the playoff hole on 18?

ESTHER HENSELEIT: I mean, probably my first missed drive of the day. I've been hitting my driver really well. I mean, I was only like maybe five meters from the fairway and then hit a decent shot out of the rough with my 5-wood.

Then I was in a good spot, but, yeah, the lie wasn't great. I had quite a bit of mud on my ball. Hit a decent chip and then the putt burned another edge.

So just a bit unlucky coming down the last. Yeah, it was all right.

Q. Last question: Just how happy are you with your performance this week and your game in general? I know you've had a lot of good finishes in the past couple weeks.

ESTHER HENSELEIT: Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how my game is at the moment and how it's been the last couple months. Yeah, I feel really good on the course. I had a lot of fun playing in contention the last two days, so, yeah, hopefully we'll be back.