U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

July 7, 2023

Aine Donegan

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. Talk me through the round a little bit today. You started with a couple birdies on the front.

ÁINE DONEGAN: Yeah, I started with a bogey on the 2nd, the par-5. I went for it in two and it didn't work out. I had to take an unplayable drop, but luckily I bounced back straight away with a birdie.

Then birdied 6, made a nice four-footer, four- or five-footer for that, and then I had two sloppy bogeys on 8 and 9 from the middle of the fairway on both. I hit a really, really bad shot on 8 into the right front bunker and just missed an eight-footer for par. And then 9 I three-putted. It was a long putt. My second shot was probably the problem on 9 but, then I three-putted, which was disappointing.

Then the back nine was playing so tough. My playing partners struggled there, as well, and I'm sure everybody else is struggling a little bit on the back nine. It's getting cold now. The wind is picking up and the greens are really firm, way firmer than the front nine and even yesterday. I'm not sure, I haven't looked at the leaderboard, but I'd say if you were to look at a leaderboard the better scores would be from this morning.

I'm pleased with how I finished. I finished with three pars and that was my goal, just try and get in with the same score, and luckily I did.

Q. Talk to me about some of the support and response from family and friends yesterday and today.

ÁINE DONEGAN: Well, me and my family, we all can't really believe it to be honest. We made the main news channel in Ireland, which is like a big deal, which was cool, and then actually one of my best friends here, I've known here since I was about four years old, and she was just over in the States at her aunt's house in San Francisco with her dad and a few of her siblings, and they extended their flights to stay for this, so she's been here the first two days, and I actually think they extended their flights again until the end of this.

Then two of my best friends are up in Vancouver for the summer, and they booked flights to come down, as well, for the weekend, so it's going to be really nice to see some familiar faces. Even the faces that aren't so familiar, there's a lot of Irish people out here supporting and stuff, which is really nice. I'm having a great time.