SHOPRITE LPGA CLASSIC PRESENTED BY ACER

October 1, 2021

Cheyenne Knight

Seaview, A Dolce Hotel

Quick Quotes

Q. One of the few bogey-free rounds.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah.

Q. How good did it feel to throw that up on a course that can fight back?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah, it was good. The greens are pretty firm, so every shot just -- a lot of factors into it. It was cold this morning. Balls weren't going as far.

And then with the wind and playing the first bounce into the greens.

I had a lot of fun. That's what I been trying to do, is enjoy myself more and think why I play golf is because I love it. Not let the pressure of competition and like the lifestyle we live forget why I like the game so much.

I actually have Angela Stanford's caddie, Brian, with me this week, and he helped me read the greens and just plot our way around the golf course, so I had a really good time with him.

Q. Mom is here?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Mom is here. She's taking a break from caddying.

Q. Yeah?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: She's inside. Yeah, no, I think I'm going to ask her. I think she likes to spectate better than caddie. So, yeah.

Q. I don't blame her.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Seriously. It's a tough job. Having an experienced guy like him who has been here a few times and knows which way the greens break helped me a lot.

Q. You had birdie at 3, 9, 13, and 18.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yes, all the par-5s, which was nice. Yeah, birdied 13 today, too. Just a nice kind of uphill putt.

But I was relatively like stress-free for the most part. Made some good five-footers for par on some holes. Yeah, it was pretty good.

Q. Is it easy to make it not stress-free out here, or is it -- is it easy to go both ways, I guess?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah, it's just a constant mindset you have to have. After Portland I went and saw my mental coach because I was just not enjoying myself. Bad golf is never fun.

But like I been putting in some good work with my coach, because I struggled a lot this summer just like not -- I was missing it kind of both ways. So we've been working hard to just like get back to how I play golf, which is really straight, consistent.

But, yeah, just my mental coach because, I mean, it's easy to let the hard times kind of get you down. But just know that I'm putting in work, especially a lot on the mental side, visualizing my shot well, just playing the shot at hand, and not let my emotions affect me so much on the golf course.

And it is what it is attitude. So I did a good job of that today.

But it's a constant effort. I mean, everything is good. You're happy when you're playing well. It's all fine. But when you're not playing well it's hard because we do this all -- I mean, I was actually talking about this with someone yesterday.

You go from in college you don't play that many events a year, and out here it's hard when it's week after week after week and you're struggling a little bit.

But just look how far I've come and just try to enjoy it more, because I play the best when I'm having fun or not so hard on myself.

Q. Like today.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Like today. I had fun, yes.

Q. Does he ever (indiscernible) ever remind you that you are an LPGA champion, that you don't need to be so hard on yourself, that you've proven to yourself that you can play with the best out here? Do you ever go back on that?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah, because, I mean, he's reminded me like I had a good year last year. Like I've won on tour before. Just going back to -- like just reminding me I'm a very good player and I want to be a really good player for a long time.

You know, just having -- like I feel like the hard times are necessary, even though you don't want to go through them. My faith has helped me a lot, because like I don't know why I'm like going through all this stuff.

But it's to make me stronger and a better player and a better person. It's hard to tell yourself that, but it's the truth. Just to keep believing that, keep working hard, being honest with yourself, and just like checking in with yourself mentally to make sure you still play the game for a reason.

Q. It's not like you're fighting to not go to Q-School.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah.

Q. You just want to be as good as possible out here.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah.

Q. Does that say something about your character? Do you think it says something about your character and how good you want to be?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah.

Q. Like instead of fighting to just not have to go back, you're fighting to be in that upper tier.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah. And everyone wants to make it to CME or the Asia events, if it's like a normal year to have them. But it's not fun not playing very well.

I like to be in the mix. I like to see my name close to the top the leaderboard. Just, you know, competing with the girls out here, I just don't want to play with them, I want to compete with them.

So, yeah, I mean, I had a really good start of the year and like not-so-great middle of it. Yeah, it's just been hard. But just knowing -- like I know deep down, even when I was playing bad I still knew I was a good player and not to let the hard times affect my confidence.

So I'm glad they happened, because I feel a lot better than I did a few months ago on the golf course which is always nice.

Q. Did you watch much the Solheim Cup?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: I watched a little bit of it. That was some fuel to make it in two years. Yeah, but that was one of my goals. I didn't get it done this year, but hopefully my experiences this year will help me go forward and make the team and be in contention more, stuff like that.

Q. Last one specifically about this course. You missed the cut in 2019 and I think T43 last year.

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah.

Q. What is it about this course that you maybe learned since you first played here that you have taken with you into this week?

CHEYENNE KNIGHT: Yeah, I think like there are some gettable holes. There are holes that you have wedges in that are scorable. I feel like par is never a bad thing on other holes because there are a lot of hard holes; you also get a break with some.

I think just playing smart, and it's kind of -- like I feel like the scores are typically kind of low, but just knowing like you have the par-5s that you can get on in two, and those are like some good chances you have.

But just play smart on this course, because if you don't it can kind of get away from you pretty quickly. Missing in the wrong spots; fairways and greens are always good, but especially out here.