AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

July 31, 2025

Sarah Schmelzel

Mixed Zone

Q. Made a couple birdies to finish the front nine and birdied 18 to finish up. Assess your day.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: It was all right. I would say my practice round was a little rocky this week, just because my hitting wasn't that great, wasn't amazing, so I came in today just trying to really stick to my process, trying to remain super committed.

Just hit it in the bunker off of 1 and kind of took my medicine, I guess. I was fairly good from there on out. I had a sloppy three-putt on 6 and made a mid-size on 7 and got it on the green in two on 9. It was nice to make the turn with some momentum.

My closing stretch was pretty hard. It was nice to get around that.

Q. How much was the wind a factor today? Were you ready for what it was?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, all of our practice rounds, Monday to Wednesday, were so breezy. You had at least had practice in it. I would say today was probably more calm a lot of the times than the days I played in before. It definitely plays a factor.

It's getting super dark out there. I feel like that pops up out of nowhere. Once that gets going, the wind picks up, gets a little colder. The weather is definitely a huge factor.

Q. As far as links courses go, what's the uniqueness of this one that makes it maybe more difficult? Then you add the competition level of major events.

SARAH SCHMELZEL: I don't think it has any bail-outs really. Last year was really, really demanding, but you could take an aggressive line on a lot of holes or you could bail out and hit a different fairway and be fine kind of thing. There's really none of that here. It's super, super demanding off the tee. If you don't hit fairways, you're basically trying to get up-and-down for par. It's such a good test.

You still have the links style where you can hit it high, hit it low, all of that kind of stuff, but it's really, really demanding.

Q. Given what you said about your rocky prep, what did you do with driver? Did you keep it in the bag, or did you use it?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: No, I just kept it in the bag. It's probably the best club in my bag for the most part. I always have confidence in that knowing that I am good with it and was just looking to find a feel. Fortunately, it hit -- I didn't hit that many fairways. I think I hit half of them today, but I didn't miss them by far. That was the key to it.

Q. You finished at even. Did you leave any out there, do you think?

SARAH SCHMELZEL: I had a few three-putts today. Obviously clean those up. Other than that, I made par in some places that easily could have been bogeys too. Sometimes if you hit a shot from 60, 70 feet, that's obviously a good shot from where you were, but it's hard to two-putt. Just happy with the round. It's a great start.