MEIJER LPGA CLASSIC

June 13, 2024

Lauren Hartlage

Blythefield Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Lauren Hartlage after her first round of the Meijer LPGA Classic. First time playing this event, isn't it?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yes.

Q. Really good start for the first time on this course. What were you seeing out there today?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, it was definitely a great start. I think looking back I got a great tee time. I was second off this morning and it was pretty calm. We did have a break with a storm for about 30, 40 minutes. I took advantage of the calm conditions.

It really started getting windy towards the end, and stayed patient throughout the day and made a bunch of great putts.

Q. This is usually a birdiefest out here every year. You certainly had a lot of birdies. What is it about this course that makes it that way?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, I think if you just keep it in the fairway. Today like it was calm for me in the beginning, so some of the pins were gettable. I think because it's supposed to be so windy this afternoon I took advantage of that.

Decent amount of the par-5s are reachable in two so if you have a good strategy you can make quite a bit of birdies out here.

Q. You had a good stretch there coming down your last nine.

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah.

Q. I think 6, 7, 8. Talk us through some of those birdies.

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, I'm trying to think. Yeah, No. 6 I hit a good shot. Honestly, I made a bunch of really good putts today. I think I made like a 15-footer and then the par-3 was playing pretty tough with the wind off the right, and I hit a great shot to ten feet and made that one.

Then 8, par-5 straight downwind. I had an 8-iron into, so I just hit it on the green and two-putted, which is very nice feeling to have.

Q. You also opened with a 67 last week. What is feeling good about your game the past couple weeks?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, been working a lot. Had a couple weeks off because I didn't get into Mizuho and the U.S. Open, so I had some time to practice and work on my mental game, which has been really helpful these past couple weeks.

I have kind of like a new mindset going in and taking it shot by shot and seeing how it goes.

Q. Can you explain some of the work you've done on your mental game?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: I've been finding myself getting ahead, thinking about where I want to be or what tournaments I want to get in, and it's just causing me to play in the future, which hasn't been helpful at all.

I just kind of realized that, and just trying to focus on each shot and see how they go and be accepting of whether or not it goes where I want it to.

Q. How important is that on the mental side if you're not getting a lot of starts to be sharp?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: It can be hard because obviously I really wanted to qualify for the U.S. Open and we got major Evian coming up and I'm not in right now. It's easy to think, oh, if I just have one good finish I could be in all these tournaments. That usually makes it a lot harder to play well.

I kind of realized that. The past couple years I've done that too trying to keep my card and think about the end the season when I'm playing right now and it's June. So just trying to stay more focused own each day.

Q. Coming in, you said you hadn't played here before but you have to go low. What kind of mindset does that put you in from the start?

LAUREN HARTLAGE: Yeah, it is hard because I never played here. Tried to Monday qualify my first year and didn't make it. I skipped it last year because in the middle of a big stretch.

It's hard when you come in and everyone is like, oh, there is so many birdies out here. Again, it can be easy to think, oh, I have to shoot under par or get ahead of yourself.

That's kind of hard. The greens are great so you can definitely roll in a lot of good putts if you just putt yourself in positions and that's what I tried to do today.