PORTLAND CLASSIC

August 1, 2024

Nataliya Guseva

Columbia Edgewater Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. I'm here with Nataliya Guseva after her first round at the Portland Classic. Take me through the round today and just maybe some of the highlights.

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah, honestly I was just playing well. Really got into that momentum. Started out with birdie, par, birdie, and then after that I just kind of felt the confidence in myself and just hit it a lot of good drives, made some putts.

Yeah, I was just really enjoying myself on the golf course. That's probably like -- that was probably one of the best times for me on the LPGA, like on the golf course when I was just really, you know, like going, talking, not even paying attention to my game. I was just like hitting it well and knocking it in, so it's always nice when you get into that momentum.

You know, just the golf comes to you so easy, so, yeah.

Q. This is your first time playing this course, right?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah.

Q. Just tell me your thoughts about it and how it may have suited your round today.

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Honestly, coming out from the Canadian championship, I had a good finish, so I really knew that my game is in a good place.

For me, just staying in the present and getting the momentum would be the best ways I could do, so that's basically what I did today.

Just for the next three rounds I'm just going to stay in the present, just be confident in myself, believing still. Because I mean, it would be nice to get win for sure.

It's always nice to stay in the momentum and just enjoy playing golf, yeah.

Q. Obviously this course is really different than last week. How does a good performance help when this is more of a birdiefest out here?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah, I mean, I enjoyed last week just in general. The crowds and everything was amazing. The golf course was super hard. It's kind of a major hard in a way for us. For the girls, they treat Canadian championship as sixth major so the rough was really thick, winds were fast.

It really prepared myself for this golf course, because I mean, definitely coming out from the Canadian championship this course is really scorable. I will just try and do the same thing.