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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 7, 2012Lydia KoKOHLER, WISCONSIN Q. Can you talk about, first of all, making it to the weekend in an Open? That's a pretty big accomplishment as an amateur. LYDIA KO: Yeah, it is. It's pretty exciting stuff, and I played pretty good the first two rounds, so I got to play on the weekend. Q. How was it today? Pretty tough, huh? LYDIA KO: Yeah, it was much tougher than the last two days. I think I made a few easy mistakes, but it comes. Yeah, and the Back 9 was kind of a struggle for me today. Overall it wasn't that bad. Q. How did you feel comparing your game with Stacy Lewis, who's No. 2 in the world? I mean you must have kind of watched her a little bit while you were playing; right? LYDIA KO: Yeah, definitely. Playing with the world No. 2 professional, that doesn't come that easy. Like even Yani, I could have played with her. So it was really exciting, and we didn't shoot ‑‑ or we didn't play too good today, but I did definitely look at some of her good shots. Q. And did you think that your game compared favorably to hers? LYDIA KO: There's definitely things I do need to work on, and like nobody is playing to perfection at the moment. Yeah, you know, if I get a few things tweaked, hopefully when I turn pro, I will be as good as her. Q. Is this the toughest field you've played in, because you play a lot of pro events. LYDIA KO: Yeah, this is the biggest one you've played. I played one LPGA tournament in Australia. It was tough then, but this is the best crowd I'll ever play in. Q. Did you feel intimidated out there at all playing with her? LYDIA KO: Yeah, a little bit. Q. Did you? LYDIA KO: There were a few more spectators than the last two days, definitely, and it was quite intimidating just being out here and behind Amy Yang and Se Ri Pak and in front is Yani. Q. Yeah, a lot of people. But still, it seems like with 28 amateurs in the field, we've seen a lot of amateurs the last few years in the Women's Open. Seems like amateurs hold their own pretty well in these big events. LYDIA KO: Yeah, I think so. Just because we're amateurs doesn't mean that we are worse than them. I guess we are all in the same position, except they are professionals, and sometimes it's just age that's stopping people. And yeah, I don't think people should rate amateurs just low. Q. Is this the first time you've played in the Midwest? I know you've been on the coast. LYDIA KO: I was in the Boston area, and I played around LA, so this kind of area it's the first time. Q. How does this compare to the New Zealand courses? LYDIA KO: When I was over here last time, I said the same, but like these kind of courses we don't have much of them, and like even the just middle ranking courses here, you know, it's better than some of our top ones. Yeah, I mean our top courses are pretty good courses, too, but we don't have that many, and I guess land wise, we are quite small country. Q. Did you find that there were any shots that you didn't have here today or this week, like on this course specifically, that you had never kind of encountered before? I mean you know how to hit out of the deep rough, the greens. LYDIA KO: I'd say the rough is a bit different. Like I played at my home course, Gulf Harbour, and they kind of look the same, but it's much stickier here, and it's quite hard to get the distance right. And sometimes the ground's hard, and you hit it pretty good and it goes long, and sometimes you hit it good and it goes like two feet past. Yeah, it's quite hard, and I think the rough is quite longer than most. Tricky putts and when you're hitting out, sometimes the club head flips around. Not many differences, I guess. Q. You said the course was playing tougher today than any of the previous couple days in the tournament. Can you tell me what factors were involved in that do you think? LYDIA KO: Well, weather wise it was much cooler, so I would say it was a positive, but the wind got up, like especially early in my round, and I think like you can see by the scores, it's either very low scores, like Amy Yang and like Na Yeon Choi, but most average high scores. Yeah, I think just weather ‑‑ I mean like wind, it's tricky, and I guess the fairway is not that narrow, but you know, there are tough pin positions. Q. Because a lot of the commentary this week is this course plays a lot harder in the wind. It still plays hard when it's hot, humid and not windy, but much harder when there's wind. Did you agree after you've seen this course play in hot, humid, no wind and windy conditions today? LYDIA KO: Yeah, I think so. There's quite a ‑‑ it's kind of a surrounded course with lots of trees. Sometimes the wind starts to swirl and one player could have left‑to‑right wind and it comes towards in the opposite could happen to the next player. So yeah, I guess the wind kind of swirls around, and I guess that's kind of one of the hard parts, and the greens are very slopey here and the pin positions are not in the same place, and we can't exactly go at the pin every single shot. Q. You came in as an amateur making the cut, did that add any pressure to you or did it take some pressure off knowing you had made that first hurdle? LYDIA KO: I think it could have taken a little bit of pressure off me, yeah. Mean though my score didn't project that, but I think like there wasn't as much pressure. I mean like I want to become the leading amateur for this tournament. But the pressure was a bit off, because I've never missed a cut in a tournament, and I would be kind of gutted if I did it at the U. S. Open. And it's better experience if you play on the weekend, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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