AMAZINGCRE PORTLAND CLASSIC

September 16, 2022

Daniela Darquea

Columbia Edgewater Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Daniela Darquea after round two. Can you just take me a little bit through some of the highlights of your round? We were just talking about that long birdie putt. Maybe start with that and some of the other key moments from today.

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah, I think I hit the ball pretty good. I started, you know, a little bit shaky with a few bogeys on the front nine. Then I finished strong on the back nine. That put me like at 4-under for the day.

And on the back nine I got in trouble on a couple holes and tried to save par. I made I think one bogey on the back nine. So it is what it is. I'm happy. I think I played pretty good today.

Q. Yeah, I did see a couple bogeys on the scorecard, but a lot of birdies. How are you finding the birdie chances out there? What is it about the course that's making those birdies fall?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Yeah, I think I like the speed of the greens. They're playing really fast. I feel very confident this week with the putter, even though I started with a four-putt on the first hole yesterday. (Laughter.)

But other than that, I feel like I've been gaining confidence, so I'm just staying with that.

Q. I know you haven't played a lot of events this year. How does it feel to see yourself at the top of the leaderboard when maybe you haven't been playing as much on the LPGA?

DANIELA DARQUEA: Feels good. I feel like it's been challenging obviously just not having full status this year.

I've been playing on the other tour, the Epson Tour, so obviously doing well here proves that I hopefully made the right decision on coming here.

I kind of had to decide whether to stay on Epson. I was doing okay over there. Obviously I want to play here on the LPGA. I think this is where I have to be, so obviously playing and having a good week here is always helpful.

Q. Yeah, I see you have two top 20s finishes on LPGA this year, right? So just tell me, in those instances what is working really well for you out here on the LPGA?

DANIELA DARQUEA: I think it's my mindset. I struggled a lot last year. I got in a lot of the trouble mentally. I was not emotionally there to be able to play golf.

I feel like this year I've done a lot better work just staying in the moment and accepting things how they are, and that's really helping me out here.

Obviously here it's very challenging. There is the best players in the world on the field, so I'm excited to hopefully finish strong this week and have a chance to hopefully get my card.

Q. Yeah. Those challenges you talked about, how do you plan to manage those tomorrow when you're playing assumably in one of the higher groups, top groups?

DANIELA DARQUEA: I mean, obviously it's going to be fun. I'm going to have a lot of fun. It's going to be challenging.

However I feel like right now mentally I'm in a better place to like be able to be there. I felt the same thing in Ireland; I had a good tournament over there and I had a lot of pressure to perform. However, just enjoy and be in the moment.