DOW CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2024

Atthaya Thitikul

Ruoning Yin

Midland Country Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: I'm here with Ronni and Jeeno after their first round of the Dow Championship. Talk about the day you had out there today, top of the leaderboard, really apparently gelled very well together. Talk about it from both your perspectives.

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: We had a lot of fun out there, to be honest. I think that's the key to playing well. She hit it so good. Her approach shots were on the green where I can putt it, try to make it. She gave me so many chances to putt out there. Make some, miss some, but still a good round.

RUONING YIN: Yeah, definitely we had a lot of fun. Jeeno's putter is just so hot. You don't want to touch that. It's getting hot.

My job was just to hit a shot, just make sure the ball is on the green, and she'll make everything. It's pretty fun. We had a great time out there.

Q. It looks like you made the turn and really kicked it into gear. Was it just your putter -- you went together so well on the back nine. Is that what it was?

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: Yeah, the back nine was our first nine. We started on the back nine.

Q. You came out hot?

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: Yeah, we came out hot.

I think we both had really good ball-striking today, especially her. She hit like -- you have to accept the truth. Like I said, she gave me a lot of chances to make a birdie and so many putts.

Mine is not that good for the approach.

Q. What does a day like today where you both saw really strong things in each of your game, what kind of confidence does that give you for tomorrow when you're back to playing your own game a little bit?

RUONING YIN: I mean, like she said, our ball-striking is pretty good, and our short game is pretty good. Putting is pretty good.

Today we had some mistakes, but a lot of positivities.

Back to our game tomorrow, I think just we know each other are going to be -- I think more chill. Our vibe is going to be more chill. I know she's got my back, and she knows I've got her back, too. It's going to be fun.

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: It's like the kind of golf course we can play out there. We saw it last week for sure. Just a lot of aggressive tomorrow because we're playing foursomes. When you miss, you still have someone, you can just like give that hole to her. But just pretty aggressive with the four balls, honestly.

Q. Thinking back to your day today, any fun moments you guys remember out there in particular, any fist pumps or anything like that you remember?

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: We have our own --

RUONING YIN: Not like handshake, but we have our own special celebration.

Q. What does it look like?

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: It's like here and here.

Q. Who came up with that?

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: It's kind of my thing, but she did it before.

RUONING YIN: It's kind of from -- it's teamwork. I always do that, and she came up with that.

Q. So you're debuting it this week. You haven't done this before.

ATTHAYA THITIKUL: No.