U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 1, 2024

Catrin Nilsmark

Fox Chapel Golf Club

Quick Quotes

CATRIN NILSMARK: I managed to save some good putts and I holed a bunker shot, and I hung in there. I was scared of every shot I hit today. That's how bad it felt. I did hit eventually some good ones.

Q. How do you finish a round with 10 straight pars? That's a quite a feat here.

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah, I putted really well today. I did. I loved the pace they rolled, and they just rolled beautifully.

On the greens I felt really confident. Just wanted to get it up there, and I think that was the key.

Q. Where did you hole the bunker shot?

CATRIN NILSMARK: On that hole that turns around. 13 maybe, 12? Is it the one that's a dogleg right -- 13. I hit a great shot from the tee in the left bunker with no green to work with, and I just holed that bunker shot.

Q. That's a nice thing early in a round.

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah.

Q. Did that jump start thing?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Not really. It was really a hard struggle all the way around. I've been hitting my irons really well lately, but my woods not so. But I sort of lost it a little bit yesterday on the range and this morning definitely. I didn't hit many good shots this morning, so that was hard to go out and play with that feeling.

Q. Besides the bunker shot, were there any pars that really kept the round intact?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Oh, yeah, in the beginning. I hit a great drive on my first hole, and then I just topped one 6-iron to the right and I got up-and-down out of the bunker. Beautiful wedge shot and not that long of a putt.

Q. On the 9th hole?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah, on the 9th hole. I holed a really long putt on 10. Again, I was somewhere. So those two. With that start, that helped.

Q. You've had success in this championship before. What was your expectation coming in?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Well, we know it's always a great golf course, so it's just wonderful to get here.

Expectations, unfortunately, probably a little bit high because I've been -- not that I play much tournament golf, unfortunately, but I've been hitting the ball really well, and as you said, I've been doing well in this tournament before, so I think I really wanted to just be able to feel that everything feels really confident. But it just wasn't that way, and that's tournament golf. It's hard out there once the tournament starts.

Q. I think I read you stepped away from the game a little bit?

CATRIN NILSMARK: For a long time, 11 years.

Q. What brought you back?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I don't know, honestly. One night I was going to bed, and I thought, hmm, I think I'm going to play golf again. So who knows. I really don't know. But my family really likes golf, my husband loves golf, so I'm a golf environment a little bit. We live almost on a golf course.

Also, actually, it's good to do something that you're good at, and I had done a lot of stuff in those 11 years that I was not that good at like horseback riding and whatnot. I think finally I just said I want to do something I know I can do well. So yeah.

Q. When you came back, do you feel like you're happier on a golf course, not that you weren't before?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Definitely, definitely. I was really happy that I got the urge to play again. Really happy.

Yeah, it's a bonus to be here, really. It's a bonus to do this with my husband because he loves golf, and I know my kids at home -- I'm a grandma now, so they're all cheering on, so it's fun. It's a family thing, although they're not really here. I think that also puts a little bit of high expectations on myself because I know they're updating the computer at home.