AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 22, 2024

Rose Zhang

Mixed Zone

ROSE ZHANG: That was tough. My head is pounding.

Q. Have you ever experienced anything like that?

ROSE ZHANG: This was a first, honestly because usually the greens are faster so the ball is actually rolling off the greens. But I've never had to back off so many putts. I'm standing and losing balance. It's definitely memorable.

Q. What's the craziest thing?

ROSE ZHANG: I went to go move my ball on 7 and moved this much. You get anxiety thinking, did I just do something but reality is Mother Nature decided to move your ball a bit. That was the craziest thing. Also I watched Georgia hit that incredible tee shot on 9. That was cool to watch.

Q. What was your --

ROSE ZHANG: 1 I hit 3-wood. 1 is technically a shorter hole. I had 180 and I had to hit 3-wood and punch it out there. I went driver, 3-wood on 1.

I actually played the Junior British Open in 2018. I played the New Course and stayed at St Andrews the Dorms. I have really fond memories of meeting a lot of international friends here and I think it's 15 and under. So everyone is young and just trying to have fun. I've never played the Old Course.

Q. What was it like playing --

ROSE ZHANG: Yeah, it was -- I don't know, I feel like there's so much history behind here and you always watch on TV all these professionals. You don't think about it too much because you're like, wow, this is wide but also it would be a shame if you didn't hit it in the fairway. I mean, on 1, it was just so wide open. I was more focused, I would say.

I wasn't thinking about score too much, especially since every single shot you have to be so present and you have to be grinding, staying committed to every single thing you're doing out there. Honestly I was not thinking about my score one bit. I was trying to get the ball to stop moving can get the ball in the hole.

I think I got in at least five putts over 25 yards. So I definitely had to lag swing and half-swing a bunch of putts and even a half-swing wasn't enough, especially into the wind and you have a 27-yard put to try to make up-and-down. You have to keep the ball low. Greens are lower, so it definitely changes but I'm glad the greens are slower because out there the ball is moving just that little bit even though it's not rolling out, it's still jiggling.

Q. How important was it to have patience with the conditions?

ROSE ZHANG: Definitely. I feel like it's so easy to really just get out of focus, especially when you hit some errant shots or when you've got to really long putts for birdie or par. I just really try to stay, as you said, patient out there. And the patience requires to you really hold still and be committed to every single shot you're hitting and that's the commitment that the patience that I had out there and I'm pretty proud of how did I especially down the stretch.

Q. Is there anyone in particular you reached out to for this week?

ROSE ZHANG: Not necessarily but my coach, Todd Anderson, works with Billy Horschel and Billy was out here playing. He was just telling me to keep that ball low and try to hit as solid of a shot as you can because in this wind all you can do is try to hit a solid shot.