MAYBANK CHAMPIONSHIP

October 26, 2023

Natasha Andrea Oon

Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the media center Natasha Andrea Oon after your first round at the Maybank Championship. Give us some opening thoughts on the round today and what it was like to tee it up in your home country.

NATASHA ANDREA OON: Yeah, I played with Lydia and Hannah today who I really looked up to being in college golf, growing up, junior golf. I really idolized Lydia, so that was kind of surreal for me.

I started out really well. We were kind of going at it. I had three birdies -- four birdies in the first nine, and then the second nine I didn't really get on it and I hit something on 17, so things didn't really go the way I wanted the second nine.

Just teeing off in my home country and having a lot of support and everybody cheering me on, it was kind of surreal. Felt like a celebrity, so that was really nice. I had a good time.

Q. You started off with a few birdies, but coming back I see there is a lot of pars.

NATASHA ANDREA OON: Uh-huh.

Q. Can you share about what was going on in your head and how was it out there finishing up?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: I was just trying to maybe hole some -- I had a few chances. I just had a few bad breaks and things were just not going in. I had to settle with par.

Hannah was obviously rolling everything she saw in. Lydia, too. I was like, okay, let's try. I was hitting it to like ten feet, eight feet. Sometimes my ball just stopped sometimes like on grainy greens like that.

Something I'm going to have to get used to going forward and kind of have more confidence going into them.

Q. So any game plan for tomorrow?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: I think I was doing well today. They have a lot of attackable pins, so definitely some low scores out there. If you really want to make this course hard, you definitely could put these pins in some locations and it will turn into a completely different course.

So no game plan yet as of now. I mean, just kind of -- I have this really good kind of inner instinct of like when do I pull back, when do I go for it. I mean, with years of playing you kind of develop that.

So not knowing how the pins are tomorrow and how the weather will affect the course it's a little in the air. Kind of the same thing.

Q. Are you hoping to play with any other idols of yours?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: I mean, everybody here is somebody I probably looked back and grew up, I mean, I'm so invested in the golf world. I played with Lydia the first time and I was like, oh, okay. Wow. I was definitely expecting a crowd, and I told my parents and they had a great reaction, too.

Maybe some top golfers like Nelly. Even Rose. I love Rose. We kind of went to college in close proximity and we played a bit in college golf. Yeah, those two are like my favorites, especially Rose. I was just looking forward to hopefully playing with her, yeah.

Q. You said you talked to Lydia when you played today. That's a good thing. A few pointers you might have learned? Maybe not so much learned. The other thing is (regarding weather.)

NATASHA ANDREA OON: So I'll answer the weather one first. I honestly -- it depends. I feel like the weather, if you're like mentally not in it, you know, things are going haywire, it really like adds the affect and you can really see it on your score.

But there are some times where I really got it going in the rain and I'm like, oh, maybe I'm good at the rain. And then third day, oh, I'm not. So I don't know how to answer that question. Really depends how I'm feeling on that day.

I think in the weather, if I can just get my momentum going, then that kind of sets me up on a good foot. Hopefully with more experience as a professional in bad weather this will set me good for weather -- I don't know if we're going to play in the weather.

The next one, what I learned from Lydia, she was extremely calm. I remember she had like a bad break on 11. She hit a good shot; was short; kept rolling down to like a sprinkler head.

Then she just looked at her caddie and shrugged, like oh. Like she's got that attitude going, and obviously she's accomplished so much and she's true to herself and, you know, even with all her accomplishments you can see how humble she is as a person and how open she is to talk to you and just be friends.

Even Hannah was like that. I just had a great time. I felt like I was friends with them and we were cracking jokes on 18, so kind of cool.

Q. What do you make of the course setup?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: Course is kind of set up long. I think it's long. I had like 7-, 6-, 5-irons in. There is no par-3 that I did not hit less than 5 I think.

Oh, maybe on one par-3, but the others are kind of long.

But, yeah, they're set up long. 6, 7 is not short at all and I thought that was like a major yardage but we have it here, so...

But today the pins were a little more on the open side. I'm excited to see how they're going to make the course harder as the days go on.

Q. Can you describe the feeling of playing with Lydia?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: Oh, Lydia, and Hannah. First hole, that was scary. That was really scary. That was a lot of people, and I was just kind of walking down and I was not expecting like a Thursday morning -- it is a big event, but I remember just hitting it and just pulling it and everyone is like ah, that's fine.

I was just really nervous. As the round went on I felt a little more comfortable. I think it's kind of an experience to see people that you view virtually or follow and then just kind of like have four hours as a person. Made me realize they're all people and they've all gone through their own things and they're amazing people.

It was just a nice round. Like I don't know how to tie it up. It was just like playing with friends. Yeah, they definitely did not add to the affect of like, oh, my God, it's a big event, they're my idols.

They were like, so did you grow up here? Oh, yeah, I kind of grew up here. Where did you go to college? Oh, this is where I went to college.

So it was like cute, hot girl walks. I don't know. (Laughter.) It's a TikTok term.

Q. Did you set yourself any personal target for your game, for this tournament?

NATASHA ANDREA OON: I honestly have not had a personal target. I feel like everybody has an internal expectation, but I don't have a number. I kind of learned growing up having numbers, it's hard to predict what you're going to shoot that day.

My target is honestly just kind of like commit to every shot. If I can set mental goals, that's like number one.