FORD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY KCC

March 30, 2024

Sarah Schmelzel

Seville Golf and Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, I'm here with Sarah after her third round at the Ford Championship. Tied for the top of the leaderboard. How do you feel like today went for you?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: It was a grind. It was definitely a grind. It's so tough putting in those conditions when it's so blustery. You just have to add an element into your reads and everything.

So I didn't make as many putts obviously, but just happy to get out of there with an under-par round today and put myself in a good position for tomorrow.

Q. How do you stay patient out here? I know you're local to the area. Not sure if you normally play in these type of conditions or if you chose to or not, but how do you stay patient when things are like this?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, usually if it's like this during the off-season I'm just staying in my house the whole day. We usually play in the dome so we're very spoiled.

But just try to put one foot in front of the other. The weather in a way was a nice distraction of everything going on. You just have to stay so present and so committed when conditions are like this in order to give yourself even a chance to hit good shots and play well.

So I was really happy with how we did that today.

Q. And some different conditions looking like for tomorrow. How do you mentally prepare and lock in for that?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, I mean, a little bit of rain; might make it a little softer. I think there will be a ton ever birdies out here tomorrow so maybe a little bit more that I can Thursday and Friday.

Just go out and try and stay aggressive and see what happens.

Q. And I know I've talked to you a lot in the past few starts you've had and some other people have, but you played some really good golf recently. What do you attribute that to?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: A little bit of a change in mindset and, you know, changed stuff in my swing that's helped me a lot. It's made me feel more athletic when I'm on the golf course. It's something that I can rely on week in and week out, which has been nice are.

Swing thoughts that just travel from a day to day which has been really awesome. And you know, I think just tackling each day for what it is, rather than looking at oh, my gosh, this week is so huge or next week is so huge and this and that.

So really just trying to stay super present and that's helped a lot.

Q. And being back in Arizona this week, we just talked about it a little bit, but how has it been to be near home?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, it's awesome. We don't play much on the west coast so I don't get very many weeks where I'm looking out into the gallery and seeing my brother and my mom and my dad or sponsors or anything like that.

It's just awesome. I've had high school friends come out and people I haven't seen in a long time, so it's just nice to have that little added support this week.