THE AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 2024

Madelene Sagstrom

Evian Resort Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Madelene after the first round at the Amundi Evian Championship. Just talk about the round today. Posted a nice score for the first round.

MADELENE SAGSTROM: Yeah, really happy with the score. To be honest, I wasn't hitting it great. I was struggling a bit off the tee, finding fair bit of rough. I took advantage of the par-5s, so I got my second shot back into the fairway and then made some nice birdies. Putted really well.

So I still need to go to the range and figure out my driver a little bit. You can't miss too many fairways here at Evian.

Q. Just talk about for the people that can't see all the fairways and just like I was out there yesterday and saw a lot of narrow fairways. How would you describe some of the tee shots out here?

MADELENE SAGSTROM: Well, it is narrow, first of all. Second, it's very slopey. So preferably you would like to have the right curve on the ball to make it stop on the fairway.

So if you play a little bit too much of a play draw some holes are going to be hard, and the same thing with the fade.

So I think we work hard on trying to shot shape a little bit this week off the tee. Distance is not -- other than there was some par-5s today that were reachable, but distance is not really an advantage here. It's more hitting the fairway and then managing the uneven lies.

It gets really narrow and you just -- the rough is really thick, so you want to be in the fairway.

Q. And anything you kind of learned from the course today, maybe something you'll carry into the next few rounds?

MADELENE SAGSTROM: I think I'm reading the putts really well. I felt that the whole week. I got the pace really, really well. I read the putts well yesterday in the pro-am. I feel very comfortable with that.

So I think if I can just tighten up a bit off the tee I know I can -- that's kind of why I stayed patient. I didn't worry so much because I knew I could make putts both for pars and birdies.

But tighten up a little bit from the tee and they should be good.

Q. How nice is it too to see that kind of scrambling in a major championship with all the pressure of the week and being able to pull off some of those shots and save yourself in some areas maybe?

MADELENE SAGSTROM: Well, I think -- I mean, it's the worst when you feel like you play well and you don't score well. Like the days when you don't feel like, oh, I wasn't great today but I scored really well, like those are the days you can keep building on.

And I think that it's -- been probably in the past I'd get a little bit frustrated on a day like today. I'd try to maybe start fixing a little bit too much. I said to Shane probably on the back nine, I was like, I need to stop fighting it and just play with what I got right now and we'll go figure it out after.

And I did hit some better shots after then, but it's easy to try to make it better on the course. So I mean, I was just taking it, like okay I'm still scoring. I'm not playing great but I'm still scoring, so it's one of those days, which is a good day.