AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

April 3, 2025

Meja Ortengren

Quick Quotes

Q. Well played.

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Thank you.

Q. Can you talk about the conditions out there today and how you feel about your position on the leaderboard heading into the final round?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: The course was playing a little bit firmer today on the greens, so a little bit more thought behind every shot to see and kind of measure the distance from the pitch mark to where it stopped.

But yeah, another good, steady round, and I'm happy with where I'm at and get to play Augusta on Saturday.

Q. There are a lot of Stanford players playing well, and you're all going to make the cut; everyone that's on the team obviously in contention. Does it feel almost like a qualifying round when you look around?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yeah, well, maybe, a little bit.

No, it's so fun to have all six of us playing too on Saturday. I'm so happy for all of them. I'm happy to see all of them and say congrats and let's go on Saturday.

Q. It's obviously your first year at Stanford. I'm wondering if there's anything about the experience or about the program that you were a bit surprised by coming into this year?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I think the standard of everything that the girls are doing on the team. I think I was not really prepared for everything that was at Stanford and also how hard everyone is working.

I know that they are hard workers, all of them, but just to get to see it every day is so impressive. I'm so happy to be surrounded by them.

Q. To what extent do the upperclassmen mentor some of the younger kids?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Great, very much, yeah. They're great, answer all of our stupid questions and keep track of what we're doing and also motivate us to become better.

Q. What have been some of your stupid questions that you've thrown at them?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Oh, there was a lot like the first weeks of class. Just like where is this classroom? How do I get there? What clothes do I need to bring to practice and to workouts?

All of that in the beginning, but they were great.

Q. You guys are a very close-knit team, right?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yeah.

Q. Why do you think you guys get along so well?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I think just sharing some of the same goals and also the same kind of journey to get to Stanford. We all worked hard to get there and put a lot of time into school and golf. I think sharing that with each other kind of brings us together.

Q. Are there any players at Stanford that came before you that you really looked up to that helped you choose Stanford as a program?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Of course. Rose Zhang is one of them. I think I saw one of the documentaries that Stanford did just a couple of years ago and just seeing how good and great everyone supported each other and also having one of the best girls on the team kind of like made me want to go there. So yeah.

Q. What's been your favorite class so far?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: My favorite class? I took CS106a this quarter. It's a programming class. I really enjoyed it. It was hard but a lot of fun.

Q. I think that was the class Rose said was the toughest.

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: It may be true, yeah (laughter).

Q. Megha said you took the sleep class.

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I did, yeah.

Q. How was that?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: It was fun. It was fun to take it with Megha, Carol, and Paula.

Q. Are you a good sleeper? Did you learn anything from it?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: No, I'm not a good sleeper. I think that was the reason why I took it because I had some trouble sleeping. I think we all do kind of being a little bit stressed about everything. That led to some good things.

Q. What's the main kind of tactic or thing you learned in that class that you use now that's helped the most?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I think the biggest lesson was to create a very -- like create many habits and to create a good sleep cycle and prepare yourself to go to sleep.

I think one of my biggest problems has been falling asleep, so just like create good habits in my evening routine to get to bed and be ready for sleep.

Q. Like brushing your teeth and stuff and floss?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yeah, we did some breathing exercises and some meditation as well.

Q. Do you do that on the course, breathing techniques?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I do, a little bit. Over like hard or tough putts, I can take an extra breath just to like calm myself down a little bit.

Q. The Swedish National Team obviously produces so many great players on the men's and women's side. I just wanted to pick your brain on what you think are a few reasons why you guys have been so successful or what the program does.

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yeah, a couple of years ago, a few years ago we started what's called us against the world, which is kind of a few things that we try to do together to become better as a team instead of like individually trying to beat everyone else on the team.

So we are trying to like really benefit from having a lot of good Swedes together in the same -- in the same tournaments and in the same group to kind of become better as a team and not as individual players.

Q. What's the main guy's name? He was wearing a yellow polo today.

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Fredrik Wetterstrand.

Q. And he's like a mastermind?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yes, he is.

Q. Who's your main coach?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: (Indiscernible). He's from my home club. I had him as a swing coach since I was 9 or 10 years old.

Q. What about your golf game gives you confidence going into Saturday? When you look at the leader board and see Megha and Lottie and Kiara, what about your game leads you to believe you could actually get it done in two days?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I think one of my strengths has always been ball striking and being very consistent with yardages, that I know my distances. I think that is going to be handy on Augusta. Also, my speed control on the greens, hopefully that will transfer to some good scores on Augusta.

Q. You made the cut last year?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I did not, no.

Q. So you haven't played a tournament round at Augusta yet?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yes, three years ago.

Q. So you made the cut before?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yeah.

Q. You were really young then, right?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Yes.

Q. What do you remember from that experience?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Not much to be honest. I think the whole round at Augusta is kind of a bit of a blackout for me right now because I was so stressed and so nervous.

But getting to play the practice round last year and not having a tournament round the day after was really like helpful to get to enjoy everything and take everything in.

I remember the last couple of holes, just walking up the fairways and feeling the pressure of the crowd. The crowd was amazing. I think the crowd is only getting better each year. So I'm happy to play in front of them.

Q. What's the best part of Andrea's game?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: She's so consistent with everything that she does. I don't think I've ever seen her miss a fairway, and I don't think I've ever seen her not make an up-and-down.

Q. Is that a Spanish thing, do you think?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: I think so, yeah. A little bit of Spanish hands. She's very good around the greens.

Q. How well do you think you'll sleep Friday night?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: Not great. It's always, yeah, pretty tough to sleep before a big tournament, and especially playing Augusta National.

Q. You guys played that tournament last week, the Silicon Valley Showcase. That was intentional because you guys played at Alister MacKenzie. Was that a big topic of discussion from Anne, get used to playing this type of golf?

MEJA ÖRTENGREN: It wasn't something that she mentioned, but I think we all said after the tournament that this was a really good test before coming here to Champions and to Augusta. It was a good test of golf, and I think we all benefited from having a tough course the days before coming here.