NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 27, 2024

Carlota Ciganda

Pinnacle Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Ashleigh Buhai after the first round. Just a 7-under round today. Talk about how you played. A lot of birdies on the scorecard.

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, played really steady. Hit a lot of good iron shots. Only missed two greens. One bogey. So just overall 4-under. Hit some good shots the first few holes. Just got a little frustrated and then told myself to stay patient. You're hitting good putts. Finished with four in a row which was really nice.

Q. I was going to ask about these four in a row. Just a big push at the end?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, I hit a few close before that within 12 feet; burnt the edges. Hit in the hazard and made bogey.

After that I said to myself, all right, let's reset. We've got four holes. My goal was to get to 6. I was at 3 at that point. So managed to get one bonus one.

Q. And this event has been around for 18 years, it's long-standing. We were just talking about the food. What do you enjoy most coming back here?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: My first year was 2008 I played here, so one of the oldies. But obviously it's a great event, how the community gets around it.

As players a lot of the stay in host housing on the golf course so we're coming back to the same families. It's my tenth year with the same family. We're so comfortable here and obviously the crowd is always good and cheering us on, which is a lot of fun.

Q. We're towards the end of the season now. Been a busy summer with the Olympics. How nice is it to see a round like this at the end here?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, good. In the middle of the year was tough for me injury-wise. Struggled with my back, then broke my toe. But started to turn the corner. Felt at the Olympics played four good solid weeks. (Sic) last week, same steady golf.

It's nice to just see that work that I've put in, that I've been able to finally put in, because I wasn't able to for a while, is finally starting to pay off a little bit.