BLACK DESERT CHAMPIONSHIP

May 1, 2025

Sarah Schmelzel

Black Desert Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, Sarah after her first round here at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion. A lot of birdies out there in the round. Take us through some of the highlights.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, putter was working really well today. Got off to a good start with a couple birdies early and gave them away with a couple loose shots. Fortunate enough to get some momentum with I guess some mid-range putts going in, and kept that throughout the day. Made it really easy on myself from probably 6 onwards.

Q. Only missed two fairways. How key is that on such a narrow course?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, we're playing it pretty conservatively. I think I only hit like three drivers on this course. I think just being in the middle of the fairway takes so much pressure off everything else around this golf course, and then you're giving yourself a bunch of opportunities with irons in your hands to be aggressive.

I think it's an absolute premium this week.

Q. Obviously a brand new course we're all playing. What are some of the different strategies in the practice rounds, pro-am, navigating a course we've never played before?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, especially this one. I think it is so visually daunting. The optics of it are really kind of intimidating, so just getting your bearings of where your left most line is, right most line is.

That's where we spent a lot of time on in the practice round so I could get comfortable off the tee. Once you're in the fairway everything is really wide open from there.

Q. Won't pretend Arizona desert golf is the same as Utah desert golf, but do you think having that kind of background helped you prepare for some of the visually daunting tee shots?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, definitely. Like seeing desert or rock for sure is not something unfamiliar to me. So for sure. I mean, it's different than what we play week in and week out, so in that way you're not super familiar. I would say anything desert kind of feels a little bit like home.

Q. For you, having to shift your mentality from last week where it was playing so long, so wet, just had to hit driver on you every hole to more strategic kind of golf shots, especially the par-5s, what's been the mental shift for you? And obviously adapted well today.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, I think, I mean, out here obviously as you can see there are so many birdies out there. Last week you were kind of hanging on for dear life in some situations, and this week you just had to stay super aggressive. Even though you couldn't hit a driver off the tee, you still had really short 9-irons, wedges into greens.

Being in the fairway you had to stay super aggressive and really take advantage of when you had wedges, which was a lot of the time, but you needed to convert birdies when you had it.

Q. Going forward how do you build on this?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, just I think that everyone is out here trying to make birdies. You can't really slow down out here, especially if it stays really calm with the wind.

So I think just continue to stay in our bubble, just hit middle of the fairway, and try to be aggressive from there.