MEIJER LPGA CLASSIC

June 13, 2024

Daniela Darquea

Blythefield Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Daniela Darquea after her first round at the Meijer LPGA Classic. Really solid 67. What were you seeing out there?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Well, it's -- I saw a lot of birdie opportunities to be honest. I think my putting was pretty good today. I still think that I can make a couple more.

But I'm pretty happy with my round. Very happy the way I handled to mentally, so that was good.

Q. Can you elaborate on this mentally. Was it challenging or what did you have to keep in mind mentality to help out there?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah, playing golf things never go the way they are supposed to go. It's never perfect. I did miss a couple of drives out there and put myself in like pretty bad positions. Especially on 14; I hit it in the water.

I feel like I was very confident and I knew that I could make the up and down there for a par and just keep the round going pretty good.

Q. This is usually a really big birdiefest out here. What is about this course that makes it so scorable?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah, well the par-5s are reachable. Most of them. Especially for the long hitters. Today actually on 18 I hit driver, 9-iron. It's windy today.

Q. Love that.

DANIELA DARQUEA: So that obviously gives you a couple birdie opportunities. Also the greens are in really, really good shape. That makes putting a lot easier. Makes our job a lot easier. So that's nice. I feel like obviously in the past years I've seen so many birdies out here. There is a lot of opportunities and obviously that motivates me for the next days.

Q. Can you take us through that birdie stretch, 4 through 7?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah. Pretty much I tried to keep very patient. I stayed very patient throughout the round. We had a little weather delay. Play got suspended on 3. Obviously I wanted to keep going. You want the momentum to keep going. I started with a birdie and I think that little break gave me a little bit of a good -- like I paced myself pretty good at that point.

And I had some chances; I made the putts. Just worked out.

Q. Hitting it close?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah, I mean, I made a couple ten, 20, and then 7-footer, around that area. A little bit of everything. Just putting, it's nice. The greens are very true, so I just put a good roll on them and just they went in, you know.