THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 26, 2025

Sarah Schmelzel

The Club at Carlton Woods

Quick Quotes

Q. I'm here with Sarah Schmelzel after her third round here at the Chevron Championship. A solid round, two birdies and a bogey. Just tell me a little bit about the day and how you stayed patient throughout the round.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, I think like I've been saying all week, it just really is a tough golf course. You're going to hit it in some funky spots and you just have to figure out how to make par to the best of your ability, and I feel like I did a good job of that today. Made a lot of good momentum putts just like those four-, five-, six-footers getting up-and-down or whether I had tough lag putts and stuff like that. I was just really pleased that it was a pretty calm and steady day.

Q. In your previous experience at this course, what have been the main challenges and are those the challenges again this year and how ready for you for them?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, it's different because it's a little bit softer in the fairway and into the green. They're still firm but not anywhere near what they were last year when the greens were pretty brand new. But I think that same test of patience and trying to be as consistent as you can with hitting fairways and greens kind of keeping the pressure off of yourself, I think that's probably the biggest thing I've taken away from the last two years, and thankfully doing that a little bit better this year.

Q. What will be your mantra for tomorrow?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Same thing. Just enjoy the moment. Obviously really grateful to be in the mix at a major, really grateful to be in the mix ever really. So just really try and enjoy it, stay in my own bubble with Shota and myself and just do everything I can to hit great shot after great shot.

Q. If you can kind of sum up the first three rounds, what do you feel like you did best to put yourself in this position?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: I think mentally I've just hung really tough. I can't say I've had my best stuff tee to green. It's been good enough, but it definitely hasn't been the easiest ball-striking week I don't think. I think I've really stayed in it. I never feel like I've gotten too down on myself or too frustrated where it's bled into the next shot. I think I've really stayed as patient as possible.

Q. When you look at where you've come from from this tournament last year - I know it was challenging - to now, just how proud are you of yourself, the fight, the resolve, all of the things you've accomplished from last year's Chevron to this year's Chevron?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, obviously last year just having kind of the health situation early Wednesday morning and having it affect my golf for a couple months and then fighting through that and then to be able to kind of full circle come back here a year later and just be in the mix, it's just given me so much perspective. I've kind of talked about it before, how when you're in the valley you don't really feel like you're going to get out of it. But if you look back on it, you always do. It just makes me really grateful to be at this point where I'm consistent, having fun and enjoying it and just trying to ride it out as long as I can.

Q. I know it's been a challenge all week, but what does it tell you about the state of your game and really how far you've come with how you're playing to not have your best stuff and still be contending?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, I think it's been a huge mental battle, I think. I've had to, I would say, two years ago with my coach, my mental coach Bill, we've really just dug into a lot of stuff that just kind of made me a little bit more of a complete player, and then when I started working with Chris Mason, he put that technical piece in there that really gelled well with what Bill and I have always worked on. To really be a different player mentally to where I might not have my best stuff, but I feel like I can go put a round together and I never really beat myself, that's a completely different person than I was when I started out on Tour seven years ago.

Q. What's Bill's last name?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Nelson.

Q. Had you ever used him as a coach before him?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: No, I've known him since college, so we go back quite a ways.

Q. KPMG 2024 was big for you. What did you learn specifically about that experience that you might take into tomorrow?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, obviously that was my first time in like a penultimate pairing or a final pairing in a major, and I think I made the moment pretty big. I know I was pretty nervous. But I was just living or dying on every golf shot.

I think I've learned so much from that that it's just another round of golf. Obviously the moment is big, but I don't want to make it bigger than what it is, and having that experience under my belt has definitely made this week a little bit easier.