T-MOBILE MATCH PLAY PRESENTED BY MGM REWARDS

April 3, 2024

Caroline Masson

Shadow Creek

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Caroline after her first round at the T-Mobile Match Play. Three birdies to end your round, I believe, right?

CAROLINE MASSON: I played it the other way.

Q. Three birdies to make the turn. How did you feel about with your game out there today?

CAROLINE MASSON: Yeah, really good. It was kind of in the early morning, the colder early morning, so bogeyed my first hole after leaving a putt short. I was like, wow, what am I doing?

I played some really solid golf after that. You know, made those three birdies in a row to get it under par after nine. Yeah, just hit a lot of solid shots on my back nine, the front nine and happened to finish with a birdie on nine, which is obviously a great feeling.

Q. What did you like most about this course? How do you feel like it might suit your game?

CAROLINE MASSON: I think it's because you have to be very precise. You have to sometimes play away from the pin in order to get it close. I think communication with the caddie is super important.

I feel like sometimes I'm just a little bit better when I, you know, I have small targets and exact targets, which you need here.

Today I was able to execute what we were trying to do, which was fun.

Q. A little bit of Nelly rubbing off on you here today?

CAROLINE MASSON: (Laughter.)

Q. Given that you just come back to the tour, is this a kind of bonus for you to be playing well at this point or did you expect this at this point?

CAROLINE MASSON: I mean, definitely the first tournament was like, I mean, no expectations. Just trying to see where I'm at. Obviously being at a difficult golf course at Palos Verdes was like the scoring wasn't good, but I saw a lot of good things. It gave me a lot of confidence. I feel like I'm playing some really good golf.

I don't feel like it's an accident or like I'm just doing one thing really well to keep my rounds going. I just feel like I'm actually hitting it really good, especially my irons. The putter sometimes is a little rusty. The timing is a little off.

In terms that, I think being comfortable out there, especially later in the week, you know, that's one of those things that I have to get used to again.

Other than that I really feel like my game is good. Yes, it's only the third tournament and expectations still aren't very high. But I think it's okay to be confident when you're hitting it good and playing good golf and trying to go for it and take advantage of it.

Q. Given the format here, two cuts and only eight will make it to the weekend, does a good opening round change strategy at all to try and stay in the top eight?

CAROLINE MASSON: No, I think you just have to go for it no matter what. Top eight is a tough one after three rounds, right? Obviously we have some difficult weather coming in I think tomorrow with a lot of the wind, so it's definitely nice to take advantage of the nice early morning, calm conditions today and get off to a good start.

Then the game plan will probably change and I think the scoring will be a little bit different tomorrow with the wind. So it's just about hanging in there and keeping it going. I think for me especially right now, I don't want to really get too far ahead of myself. I really like to try to pick every target and hit every shot at my target and try to execute and not really think about tomorrow, the cut, three rounds, match play.

I think if I play well, I think I can be in match play on the weekend. It's more important to stay in the moment and execute.

Q. Your third tournament as a LPGA mom. What it's been like to juggle the mom duties? Some other moms mention you get off the course, mom duties switch on. What is your perspective on that?

CAROLINE MASSON: Definitely. I have a little bit less time to myself obviously. You know, where I think before you take it easy here, you go home, maybe take a nap, get your work out in.

Those things are a little bit more difficult because of course I get back to the hotel, I want to pick him up and spend some time with Benton.

You know, I think the big thing is not to feel guilty about not doing certain things you should have done in the past. Just enjoy the time I have with him. I think it was a tough transition spending obviously the last ten months basically with him every day all the time to coming out here and dropping him off at daycare and feeling a little bit of that guilt that you're not doing enough, spending enough time with your child.

Especially with that I think it's important to enjoy the time that we do have together, and the golf, just kind of forget about it once I get him back.