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RICOH WOMENâ€™S BRITISH OPEN

August 2, 2018

Jessica Korda

Fife, Scotland

Q. In the opening round of the Ricoh Women's British Open, how happy are you to be under par on Thursday?
JESSICA KORDA: It's great. Any score under par I would have taken this morning. I think I was like 2-over through three and it wasn't looking so great. And so yeah, very happy to come in under par.

Q. Just how difficult is the course playing, the conditions that you experienced early this morning?
JESSICA KORDA: It was tough. You know, it started to get really windy and then the rain came in, which it wasn't supposed to, so not a lot of us were completely prepared, but still prepared enough. And on and off coming in. So just glad I'm done and can kind of sit over and watch the girls come in.

Q. You can relax a little bit this afternoon. Of course, you're already a winner on tour this season in Thailand. How much confidence does that give you coming into another major championship trying to break through here for the first time?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, no. Links golf is so different than anything else that we play. A lot of it is luck in terms of bounces and stuff like that. And so you just need to stay calm and can't get too excited but you also can't get too far down. So anything can happen out here, but definitely coming in with some confidence.

Q. Good going today. Great start.
JESSICA KORDA: Thank you.

Q. You had some good up and downs today. Huh? No. 4 also?
JESSICA KORDA: Would you call that up and down or would you just call it up, up and thank God it went in the hole? (Laughs).

Q. Yeah. That was pretty good.
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah. No. It's tough out there. Especially like the first couple of holes, we were all left. And you can't fill it in there, and then I guess somewhere between when we walked from the range to when we got to the putting green to when we teed off, you know, the wind got stronger, and so none of us hit the green. I don't think I hit the green the first like four holes.

Q. Yeah. You guys were going out blind.
JESSICA KORDA: We were blind. And it was hard. You didn't know what was going to happen.

Q. What you said the other day, did you just kind of tell yourself that out there after getting in a couple of bunkers and being 2-over? Did you just tell yourself what you said the other day?
JESSICA KORDA: It's the British Open. You know, you're going to have great holes, you're going to have some bad holes. It's all about the bounces. You can look at my shot on 18, yeah, it wasn't a great drive, but again, it hit something and went left and into a bunker whereas it could have taken a kick and gone somewhere else, but it is what it is. You'll get some good ones and you get some bad ones and that's how you have to take it. We play this once a year, and so just take it.

Q. How far was your up-and-down there at 18?
JESSICA KORDA: I think I had like 15 yards, honestly. Like on 18 I was in the middle of the fairway. I had 138 to the pin. I just chipped out sideways and then the greens are really firm hitting certain shots into them. Like we got a couple -- like I hit it over the green on a lot of par-5s today. It wasn't the same as the practice round. It was really firm and I wasn't expecting it, so I took less club here thinking it was going to take a big kick and it didn't. Certain holes I feel like are really firm and certain holes are not.

Q. And the rain, not preparing for it, but did you still have your rain gear?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just didn't have like extra towels and just the normal stuff that you would for like a proper downpour. It still wasn't like pouring down rain. It was pretty light. But it was long enough and annoying enough that, you know.

Q. You had a T5. Was British was that?
JESSICA KORDA: The one that Mo Martin won.

Q. And I know at Carnoustie you said you fell in love with it right away, but you didn't necessarily start playing well in it right away.
JESSICA KORDA: It's hard to understand the different types of shots that you have to hit. You know, my track record at these things is not great just because I am a naturally high ball hitter. And having wedges into these greens is not that good. They're hard to control. You don't know if it's going to spin back or if it's going to hop forward. It's definitely a little bit more of an advantage having those 8-irons, 9-irons, 7-irons into the greens. So yeah, it's a lot of learning, and like I said, the lucky bounces here and there.

Q. And that was Royal Birkdale. But did that give you a boost about -- because that was a windy British, too.
JESSICA KORDA: I'm learning how to play in the cold. Cold and windy has not been great for my body. And so, you know, I think learning to play in that, I'm pretty sure I wore a skirt and T-shirt there one day and I was like, this is not real life. So that definitely helps. It's all a learning experience. It's only like my eighth time playing this. Actually, I don't even get any time so seventh time because I don't count last year as counting. And I was playing with Inbee, too. And I was like, don't worry, Brad, I won't leave you for Amaro.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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