|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 8, 2011Ryann O'TooleCOLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO Q. Not a bad start for your first U.S. Open. What was that like getting on your first tee box today here in the U.S. Open. RYANN O'TOOLE: A little nerve wracking. I mean, I go to my caddie like after the first hole, I'm like, are the nerves gonna go away yet? Because they weren't. My first couple iron shots into greens were a little long, so I started having to play a little shorter shots. I think just being amped up I was flying everything. So I got lucky on hole 2 and hole 3. I chipped in one for par and one for birdie, so that kind of, you know, got me pumped up a bit. Crowd is cheering, and I think that helped kind of propel me into the whole round. I think after my birdie on 4, I think was my first real putt. I had four feet. Until then, my longest putt was six inches before that. So it was kind of interesting getting my feel back for the greens, and I think just getting settled into the round. Q. What was it like to have a day like today as opposed to yesterday where you had the delays? Was it a confidence builder? RYANN O'TOOLE: It is a confidence builder. I mean, yesterday I was walking to the practice green and the horn blew so I never really got to practice. I was out putting in the morning, but that was about it. I think days like that you have no control, so you kind of look at it as, all right, a day off, and go to the movies, go do something else to take your mind off everything. Q. What you do? Did you go to a movie? RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah. Q. What did you see? RYANN O'TOOLE: Larry Crowne. It was a good movie. I liked it. Thumbs up. It was good. Q. Where were your chip-ins again? RYANN O'TOOLE: On 2 I had flown the green. I had a gap wedge in, flew the green, and had like a downhill lie and I left it short. Then I chipped in for par just from behind the hole. Then on 3, I went for it in 2 and pulled it left. I was over on the other side of the cart path on 1. Hit over the trees. I was on the opposite side, so the right side if you're looking up at the hole and coming down, and I chipped it in from there. Q. Stacy was just talking about that this is hilly. RYANN O'TOOLE: Very hilly. Q. Knowing you have to do 18 more, what sort of challenge is that? RYANN O'TOOLE: Well, the qualifier is 36 holes to get into this, and that's how I got into this event. I think it's a big advantage of being fit and being in shape, because this hill is tough to walk. At the end of the day, you're tired. So I think if you don't -- if you just focus on the shot and not focus on your body and keep fueling and intaking Gatorade and whatever else, electrolytes, it'll keep you up. You don't want to drop at all. Q. What are you eating? Anything in particular? RYANN O'TOOLE: Bananas, power bars, nuts. Anything that you can basically stomach at this point, and trying to drink water with a little Powerade that they have out there. So keep your sugars up a bit and just levels even. Because if you wait and then you drop, there's no coming back. Q. Do you try to do more in this 40 minutes or whatever you get now? RYANN O'TOOLE: For this 40 minutes, yeah, I'm going to go have some lunch and regroup for a moment, cool off, and then maybe hit a couple shots up at the 10th tee and go again. Q. You're a long ball hitter. How has the elevation affected you? RYANN O'TOOLE: I think the elevation helps a lot. I mean, playing against the two girls in my group who -- you know, I guess short hitters, like if you don't hit it high and you don't hit it far, I mean, you don't go anywhere out here. Trajectory is huge out here. The higher you put it, the further it goes. The longest club I had in today was a 7-iron. Well, I had a 6-iron on No. 17, but par-5, I mean I put myself in the rough. But fairway-wise, 7-iron was the longest. I have a lot pitching wedges, 9-irons. I think the bunkers are placed perfectly where I can fly a lot of them, so that helps. Q. How does this course compare to other courses you play? RYANN O'TOOLE: Perfect example, the LPGA Championship two weeks ago, that was very tight and very narrow. To me this is wide open. It's crucial to hit the fairways because the rough is killer. I mean, you're hitting the rough and you're looking at, Okay, where can I say par kind of thing. So if you can hit fairways, it's not - I don't want to say easy - because it's not over once you get to the greens - but you just gotta kind of play each shot at a time. You can't get too aggressive. You gotta really think about where you want the ball to end up rather than firing at every pin. Half the time you're going to have a better putt either below it or even past it just depending on the breaks. Q. Your bio talks with a show you were on the for the Golf Channel. RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, The Big Break. Q. What was that experience like? RYANN O'TOOLE: It was a good experience. I mean, it taught me a lot of kind of in-the-moment kind of shots. It's putting yourself in funky positions and try to get out of 'em. And on that show, there's no hitting the two shots that lead up to that bad shot. It's, Here you go; deal with it. I think it taught me to really stay focused and handle the nerves and really focus on what shot you're trying to hit and not worry about the outcome of it. Q. How many Opens have you played? RYANN O'TOOLE: This is my first. Q. Your impressions of just the event? RYANN O'TOOLE: Unbelievable. I mean, I feel like we're at a PGA Tour event with all the people that come out and watch and are supporting us. Makes you feel really special. This is exactly what you dream of when you're growing up saying, I want to be professional golfer. You have a huge crowd and they're following every group, so it really makes you feel really good. Q. You bring a lot people from Southern California with you? RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, I got a good little entourage going on. I have relatives that live just outside of Boulder, so it works well. Yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|