AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 20, 2020

Alena Sharp

Press Conference

Q. Very early start for you, but I should imagine given the conditions, you'd be absolutely thrilled?

ALENA SHARP: I am, because I hit my first shot out-of-bounds and made a double on the first hole and it's not obviously the way I wanted to start the day but it actually woke me up a little bit and started playing some good golf shots after that and made a few putts and just grinded my way.

I seem to be one of those wind players later on in my career; I hated playing in the wind before, but now I really enjoy. It you just have to do your best to keep it in the short grass and make a lot of two-putts.

Q. When you're up at that hour of the morning and you knock the first tee shot out-of-bounds, what was going through your head at that point?

ALENA SHARP: I was just like, okay, you need to wake up, start playing golf shots. Don't be afraid of the wind. This is just like all the other rounds I've played in the wind. You know, just from there on, I was just in grind mode the rest of the day.

Q. How tough were the conditions?

ALENA SHARP: Well, honestly, thinking at 6.30 might get away with a little less wind but when we were warming up, it was blowing. Fences were blowing down. It was very tricky, the first eight or nine holes the wind is off the right and then you turn and it goes off the left and it's down, so I had to change my game plan on the back nine a lot with tee shots, but I kept it in the fairway, which is very helpful and I played pretty well going downwind on the back nine.

Q. Given all that's going on in the world at the moment, you're a Canadian, you're over here in Scotland. Give us an idea of the sense of achievement that this event is on and what it feels like to be playing in it.

ALENA SHARP: I was so ecstatic to see that we were going to get to play Royal Troon and it wasn't going to get canceled. We are lucky we get to play some of these amazing courses. I have like ancestry from here. My grandmother was born in Greenock Mand my uncle was born in Glasgow. I feel like they were watching over me today and giving me a little help out there.

Q. You played obviously with Dame Laura Davies, a great moment for her to get everything going. She had to battle away, didn't she?

ALENA SHARP: I was very honoured to play with the first tee shot at Royal Troon, her 40th British Open and to have her hit the first shot, it was amazing to be in that group. Yeah, it was a rough start, but she battled through like the champion she is.