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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENAugust 1, 2013Stacy LewisST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND COLIN CALLANDER: Good morning, early first round leader, 67, 5‑under par. You must be delighted with the start. STACY LEWIS: I am. I kind of got to actually a frustrating start. I birdied the first, but then played 1‑over the rest of the front nine, which is the front nine‑‑ which is the nine you need to score on. So with the hole locations today, the front was definitely playing the easiest. I just didn't take advantage of it, so I was a little bit frustrated going into the back nine. But it all kind of turned on 11. I hit a great slot in there to five or six feet and made that for birdie and then from there, I played solid. I got more comfortable with my putter, made a couple of good putts for par, and you know, to come away, shooting 5‑under on the back nine on this golf course, I don't care if it's calm or if it's windy, it's a good score, so I'm very happy with the day. COLIN CALLANDER: You teed up before 7.00 this morning, what time did you actually surface. STACY LEWIS: I was up at about 4.30 this morning. I probably could have slept in a little bit more, but I wanted to make sure I was awake for that tee time. This course and the way the weather is supposed to be today, the early tee time is definitely what you wanted, so I wasn't going to complain about waking up a little bit earlier. Q. Is that the earliest you've ever surfaced for a golf round? STACY LEWIS: I think that's probably the earliest actual tee time I've had. Sometimes when we have restarts for rain delays, we go out pretty early, but I don't have recall a tee time being in the 6s. Q. Were you surprised to be an early tee time? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I don't remember how they have done tee times in the past with kind of those marquee groups going off first like that. Obviously they want you first off in the afternoon, is kind of the goal of it, but I don't remember ever going off that early. Q. Wonder what your expectations were coming in here. STACY LEWIS: I think everybody expects to win, expects to be in contention, but you know, more than anything I was looking forward to playing this course. I love this course. I loved it when I played Curtis Cup here. I don't know, I feel so comfortable here that it's a much different feeling to any other British Open I've ever played just because I know the golf course. Usually you go to an Open and you have no clue where all the bunkers are and things like that, so I felt more comfortable. But my goal every week is to give myself a chance to win on Sunday, and this is certainly a good start to getting there. Q. What is it about this place that makes you feel so comfortable and brings out the best in you? STACY LEWIS: I honestly don't know what it is. You know, you can miss it left here but usually my miss is right, so that doesn't really make much sense. I think you really just have to think your way around, I think that's what it is. You can play it off of mounds, you can run some shots up there, and just adapting with the golf course and the weather and things like that. I think having good memories certainly makes you like a place more, but this tournament's been on my radar since they announced it. COLIN CALLANDER: Because of the 5‑0 in the Curtis Cup? STACY LEWIS: I played really good that week, and it was so much fun. Our team rooms were right behind the first tee box right in the clubhouse. Our team rooms were in there and they let us kind of roam the place. They showed us all around. It was so cool. I had a local caddie that week that I told him, I said, I want to know all the stories. So he just told me all the stories all week. I love the history of this place. Q. Obviously after nine holes, Inbee was playing and as you say, you had not got off to the best of starts, were you conscious that she had got off to a good start and you had to pick things up a bit? STACY LEWIS: I knew with the hole locations on the front nine that people were going to make birdies. It was funny, Karrie and I were on the 10th green and we saw a leaderboard for the first time and I think Inbee was 5‑under through eight and we just kind of both looked at the leaderboard for the same time and both looked at each other and shook our heads. We knew she was going to be there, but it's like she keeps doing it over and over and over again. The front nine is usually where you score, but for me it was the opposite, and I feel lucky to get way with one today. Q. What was the key and what's the key for you playing links golf versus the rest of the golf that you're used to playing the other 51 weeks of the year? STACY LEWIS: The key today was probably my putter on the back nine. I got more comfortable with the putter and was seeing the lines a little bit better, making better strokes. So that was probably the key and then links golf, I love it. It takes a couple years of learning it and understanding it and knowing you're going to get some bad bounces, knowing you're going to get some good bounces and just a lot of it is just adapting with the weather, adapting with the way the golf course is playing. Today it's playing pretty similar to the way it played on Monday because we got the rain, but then yesterday it had dried out and the balls were starting to roll out a little bit more, so not as many drivers off tees and then you get out there today and it's wet and you've got to hit a few more drivers. You just have to adapt with the changing of the course and the changing of the weather. Q. Number of times you took driver yesterday compared to today? STACY LEWIS: I hit driver pretty much every hole on the back nine, and yesterday maybe I hit it, gosh, maybe once on the par5. Yesterday I was hitting a lot of 3‑woods off the tee on the back nine and today it was all drivers. Q. What was the pick of your birdies on the back nine, the best birdie? STACY LEWIS: The best birdie? It was probably the chip‑in. I hit probably my worst iron shot of the day on 15. Hit it in the fairway and just fatted my iron shot and was about 15 yards short of the front of the green and chipped it in for birdie. So I thought it was going to ‑‑ that was one of the good breaks, because I thought it was actually going to stop and for some reason it kept breaking and went right in the side door. It was kind of a cool way to keep that run going. Q. What did you hit on the first hole? STACY LEWIS: Hit a good drive. Was right in the middle of a divot and kind of fatted it on to the front of the green. I made‑‑ I was only about five paces on the front, so I was probably a good 50, 60 feet and made that for birdie. That was definitely the longest putt of the day. Q. When you made the turn, were you frustrated, upset? Did you think you had given away an opportunity? How did you really look at it when you made the turn? STACY LEWIS: I was very frustrated with the front nine. Especially the way I played the ninth hole, which is a pretty easy hole. I decided to hook it into the rough off the tee and then hit it to the far right of the green and 3‑putt it. I was very frustrated with the way I was playing, but at the same time, I knew I was hitting it good, and that's the key on this golf course. If you've got control of your golf ball; if you can cut it back into the wind or ride the wind, or if you can hit the shots, you're going to be fine, and I knew I was doing that. I just had to stay patient with the putter. Q. I know anything can happen over 72 holes, but today, if you didn't take advantage of today, did you kind of basically leave something out there? STACY LEWIS: Oh, for sure, making the turn, I needed something‑‑ I knew I needed at least 3‑under on the back nine, because I needed to keep myself in this golf tournament. I think you shoot over par when it's like it is right now, you're going to shoot your way out of it. So I knew I needed a good one, but at the same time, the weather could get horrible tomorrow and it could bring everybody back together. So you just never know. But if there's good weather, you've got to take advantage of it. COLIN CALLANDER: Seems to me any 2 on 11 is a good score, what did you do there? STACY LEWIS: I hit a little 7‑iron in there to about five, six feet and made a little slider for birdie. 11 is usually a hole where you take your 3 and run to the next, and I got a 2, so that was pretty nice. The 3 on 18, I hit driver and I had 110 to the pin and just hit pitching wedge. It went up to the hole and spun back. I had about an 8‑footer up the hill and made that. The one thing I like about this course is that you have some hard holes. 16 and 17 are hard holes, playing pretty hard, but then you've always got 18 in the back of your mind where you can make a birdie. That's what I like about here, and any time you birdie the last, it's always nice. Q. What was the club on 11? STACY LEWIS:  7‑iron. 12, I hit a little pitching wedge in there to about 15 feet and made that. Then 14, I had about 240 to the front edge and just hit 3‑wood up. I was short right of the green and chipped it to about two feet and made that. Then 15 I chipped it in there. Bogeyed 9. I hit it left off the tee and kind of‑‑ I hit a decent shot. I just couldn't go at the pin at all from where I was, and I had‑‑ I don't even know how wide the ninth green is, but I was about as far as you could be from that pin and I 3‑putted that. COLIN CALLANDER: You were up at 4.30 this morning; what's the plan for the rest of the day? STACY LEWIS: Rest of the day‑‑ what is it, noon? I guess I can have lunch finally. I'll get a workout in. I have some friends and family here and just go relax and enjoy the town and enjoy being here. I mean, whether the weather is good or bad, you're in St. Andrews, so you can't complain. Q. Is that your earliest tee time? STACY LEWIS: I don't have remember having a tee time in the 6s. COLIN CALLANDER: Thank you very much, good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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