COGNIZANT FOUNDERS CUP

May 11, 2024

Nataliya Guseva

Upper Montclair Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Nataliya Guseva after her thirds round at the Cognizant Founders Cup. Bogey-free, two birdies, and an eagle. What was working so well for you today?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah, honestly, it's a kind of -- it's a nice day. It was very sunny outside. Was a little bit windy.

You know, after making cut I was just like, I'm going to try and get up on top and just stay in the moment and give myself a chances every time.

Hit a lot of good drives, good shots at the right moment; at the right moment I had some misses. It's a game of golf. It's so many ups and downs and you just got to stay in the moment and just trust yourself, trust your instinct and kind of play a game. For us for sure it's work, but we still have to treat it kind of as a game. So, yeah.

Q. You've been able to take advantage a lot of your scoring opportunities. What do you like about this golf course? Everyone said it's a pretty challenging course. What did you find challenging about it?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: I would say it's pretty tight off the tee and the rough is pretty thick. It's just kind of hard hitting out of there so you just really want to try to find a lot fairways and greens out here.

So it's definitely harder course compared to like the others that we played so far on the LPGA I think. You know, here you just need to be very like consistent and very kind of controlling yourself. So, yeah.

Q. This is your fourth start of your 2024 rookie season. How do you feel? Are you starting to feel more comfortable out here? What's been the change since you started at DriveOn to now?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: It's been amazing. It's always been my dream coming here. Since being a small girl, ten years old, I was always dreaming of coming out here. Not just coming, but being one of the best ones.

It's still my goal and I will do anything to be out here. I think Epson Tour gave me so much confidence coming just out here with the traveling and the helping.

I think one of the biggest steps was the Epson Tour to me, so I'm just happy that I got the opportunity to play there and come out here and kind of show what I got.

Q. You touched on it a little bit, but just how much has the Epson Tour really helped you kind of acclimate yourself to this type of lifestyle?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: I mean, Epson Tour gave me so many friends, so many opportunities, like traveling around and seeing the whole country and seeing different like states and golf courses.

I really matured a lot coming out of college. It's just really hard straightaway turning professional and playing on LPGA Tour. I think it was a great idea for me not coming straight to the LPGA but playing on the Epson Tour and maturing myself slowly.

I'm just super excited that a lot of girls like going out there and really earning their cards, and so many girls have to be out here and see how it is.

Q. T6 at JM Eagle. Obviously well up there in contention this week. What's been working so well for you the last couple weeks?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: It's kind of -- for me it's about the mindset and about kind of my psychological state of mind. I'm just really trying to take -- to give it step by step and kind of learning out here. You know, learning about the new players, about new golf courses, because it's a very big learning curve I would say.

I'm just feeling more and more confident incoming out here, seeing like familiar faces and just kind of, you know, get to know each other. Yeah, so it's working pretty good.

Q. I read that you were a volunteer assistant coach at University of Central Florida. What was that experience like getting to go from player to coach and back to being a player or still being a player? What's that interaction and experience been like for you?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: It's been great. I mean, Emily Marron really gave me an amazing opportunity to be there and assistant volunteer coach using their facilities and also helping girls, kind of playing with them and showing them what kind of professional life looks like.

It's been definitely also learning curve as well kind of in a teaching way, but I'm just excited kind of to move on and, yeah.

Q. Last one: What's the mindset heading into tomorrow and what will you take away from these previous three rounds heading into Sunday?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: The mindset is always, you know, I mean, it's -- I'm not I would say that far away from like the Top 3, so I'm going to try and do my best to just kind of go out and show my best out there.

But it's always, as I say, just hole by hole, shot by shot. Not kind of running around and like, you know, just staying like here right now in the present.

That's what I'm just going to try to do.