FORD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY KCC

March 31, 2024

Lauren Coughlin

Seville Golf and Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, I'm here with Lauren Coughlin after her 64 today on Sunday. What was the game plan going into today? I mean, very aggressive round, some birdies, an eagle out there. What was going through your head?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, just with the conditions and stuff, my husband was -- is on the bag and he was just kind of like, you know, let's embrace it and don't shy away from it.

I think he kept it really light and fun and stayed relatively dry, so we were doing good.

Q. Talk about that stretch there in the last four holes on your front nine?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Uh-huh.

Q. Birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle.

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I just kind of started hitting it really good. I mean, that stretch of holes I made about a 60-footer on 15; and then I hit it to about ten feet on 16; made about a 12-footer on 17; and then, yeah, then rolled in about a 35 foot putt on 18.

So, yeah, I was just seeing the lines really well all day, and had really good speed control. Yeah, it was really great.

Q. And you moved up the leaderboard several spots. After being worried about making the cut, after Friday, what does that mean to you to move up the leaderboard and have a really good finish?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, it's great. I was -- through ten holes on -- no, through nine holes on Friday I was at 2-over par for the tournament, and, yeah, just kind of -- I found my swing kind of mid-round through the first day, and just finally started making some putts there on that back nine and started hitting it really close and kind of just kept it going throughout the rest of the week.

Q. For you mentally, what does it take to kind of claw yourself back from the depths like that and just play free over the weekend? A lot of people can go for broke and don't; looks like did over the weekend. What does it take from you mentally to have this turnaround?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I think it helped a lot having my husband on the bag. I'm going through a caddie change, and he's been begging me to give him a shot for a while. So finally I was like, all right, I'm going to give him a shot.

Last week was tough, first week on the bag. It was more growing pains. He's never really caddied full time. He's filled in for me here and there. He kind of stared figuring out the process and he did a great job staying in it all week, so that was I think the big key.

Q. And then just looking at your trajectory over the last two years, to play this well this early in the year, is it fun for you to kind of have that opportunity to maybe go ahead and get that reshuffle up as early as possible?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, I think it was great being in Asia for the first time in the spring. I feel like I played solid in Asia, but definitely left a lot out there.

So it was nice after last week not playing really well, but this week just really found something I think with my swing that I kind of hadn't found. A lot of it was just -- I talk a lot about acceptance with Doctor Julie and my husband, and I think just watching like Scottie Scheffler, I think a that's partly why he's such a good fricking ball-striker is that he accepts he might sometimes have 20, 30 feet, and that's okay.

I think I was really struggling with that because ball striking is my strength, but I was just really trying to be too aggressive at points and then just not being accepting, oh, yeah I hit a good shot to 20 feet instead of being mad I hit it to 20 feet. So that was a big shift as well.

Q. Ramping up and getting into the major season here in just a few weeks. Playing this solid so far, how much confidence are you going to carry with you looking ahead to those big events?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Yeah, a big one for me is putting and I tried a new putter this week. It did its job for sure. Yeah, my husband was getting fit for Ping clubs on Monday morning and I was just kind of messing around and pulled one out of the bag out there on their putting green and was like, eh, feels pretty good, and just kind of kept it going.

Yeah, that was a big one. I think again, on Thursday I putted well. I didn't make a lot of putts but I could see it was a really good fit. Yeah, so I'm excited about having that going forward. Putting has always been my thing and if I can get that dialed, then who knows.

Q. What's the putter model?

LAUREN COUGHLIN: Ping Oslo 3, the PLD.