U.S SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 2, 2024

Juli Inkster

Fox Chapel Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Juli Inkster to the flash interview area here at the U.S. Senior Women's Open. 3-under 68, and it ties the lowest round ever in the second round, which you shot a 68 in 2019 along with Wendy Doolan. Nice to finish with a birdie.

JULI INKSTER: Yes, I played extremely well today. I drove the ball well. I think I hit every fairway. I missed one green, and that's just because I hit the ball fat.

I had a lot, a lot of opportunities and I thought I rolled the ball okay. Just didn't get them to go in. But made a nice birdie on the last hole, which was nice.

Q. You were straight off the tee today and you hit a lot of greens, so your iron play must have been sharp?

JULI INKSTER: Yeah, my iron play was good, and my distance control was pretty good. Yeah, these greens are tricky, and sometimes they break more than you think, and sometimes they don't break as much. I was kind of in that gray area all day.

I thought I made some good par putts after I got a little frisky. I felt a lot better about my putting.

Q. You got off to a good start. Talk about the back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16, which kind of propelled you there a little bit.

JULI INKSTER: I hit a really good drive on 15 and hit 8-iron to the back, about a foot, foot and a half, and made that.

On 16, I hit driver, a little wedge to about five feet, made that for birdie.

Then I immediately three-putted the next hole.

Q. You went to the longer putter. Can you tell us how that's going so far?

JULI INKSTER: Well, it's a learning process. I still sometimes feel like I get a little wavy but I just feel a little more solid over it. I feel like I can get the ball started a little more on line. I'm going to stick with it and see how it goes.

Q. You've put yourself in position here, and I know we're only halfway home, but some folks will not finish their round today. What's that like to be in the home halfway --

JULI INKSTER: Oh, I'm so happy. The USGA did a great job this morning, too, letting everybody know about 5:00, 5:05. I woke up and set my alarm and had a thing that it's delayed, and that was just a dream, so I could go back to bed and kind of watch the Olympics and hang out. Came out, had a little breakfast and got going. I'm really happy to be done.

Q. Which Olympic sport do you like to watch the most?

JULI INKSTER: You know, I don't know. I kind of like the ones where they're actually athletes that don't get paid much. I watched handball and I watched the -- well, the swimming is great. I'm looking forward to the track & field. Oh, the beach volleyball I love, and the indoor volleyball I love. I just think they're amazing athletes, especially the beach volleyball. I don't know how they get down and get back up and spike it.

Q. It's a nice setting.

JULI INKSTER: Yeah. There's a lot of great -- I watched a little bit of field hockey. You've got to have a passion for your sport to -- I'm sure they don't get paid much and they love what they do, and I just think it's great.

Q. Going back to golf, you're halfway home. What do you have to do to win this championship?

JULI INKSTER: I've got to make more putts, just keep hitting it the way I'm hitting it. I'm just going to keep trying to grind away to see if I can put a really good round together because I think it's out here. But you've got to hit the right shots.