AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 1, 2025

Lindy Duncan

Mixed Zone

Q. Six birdies is pretty darn good, but then you offset it with a couple of issues. Your overall assessment of today?

LINDY DUNCAN: I kind of struggled off the tee, so that was where my doubles came from on the 1st hole. I actually thought I hit a good drive, and it went through the fairway, and I had a really awkward stance and barely advanced it from there. So that was kind of an unfortunate start.

But I did the same thing yesterday, making a double on the 1st hole. So I just knew there were going to be opportunities, and I tried to get the ball in play the best I could, and my short game was really good today.

Q. Were your birdies hitting it close to the hole, or did you make some putts of length?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, for the most part, they were all pretty close, maybe 10 feet on 2. I think the longest putt I made was on 3; it was probably 25 feet. Had a 15-footer on 7, a 3-footer on 8, tap-in on 9, tap-in on 18.

Q. Your position at 4-under after two rounds, can you go -- how much did you leave out there besides a couple double bogeys?

LINDY DUNCAN: I think I left some out there for sure. I think I need to work on my tee shots a little for the weekend. If I can do a better job with that, I think I'll have more chances.

Q. What's that look like? Are you trying to place it in certain spots on the fairway knowing there are those pot bunkers out there? What's your strategy out there?

LINDY DUNCAN: I think off the tee there's a lot of strategy because the fairways are sloped and a lot of the winds are crossed. So it's kind of hard to keep it in the fairway. There's different strategies. I kind of put driver away today and just basically hit 3-woods. That kept me in play for the last couple holes. That might be the case going into the weekend, the same.

Q. Is there any scenario where the 3-wood goes into the bag and you pull out a hybrid or some irons in these kind of downwind/cross-wind situations?

LINDY DUNCAN: Definitely. 17 is a really tricky tee shot because it's about 245 to the end of the fairway. You don't want to go more than that because then you're just pitching out. The fairways are firm, and it's downwind off the right, and I hit a draw. If I hit a good 7-wood, I'm really bringing in that bunker, but 4-iron leaves me pretty far back. That one's kind of tricky, but I played that hole pretty well.

Then 16 is kind of the same thing with those cross-bunkers, depends on the wind. I hit 3-wood there today a lot shorter than I hit it yesterday, so I had a 7-wood, and I wasn't sure if I was even going to reach the green with a 7-wood. It's tricky out there.

Q. Seems like you figured out how to handle any approach shots. How are you breaking these greens up? Is it quadrant kind of mindset, or what's the mentality there?

LINDY DUNCAN: I think you kind of figure out where you're trying to pitch it to leave yourself a decent putt. If that's a reasonable opportunity given the lie and the wind and everything, I say go for it. Otherwise, there are kind of safer misses.

I did that today kind of coming in when the pin was on the right, I would miss left, even left of the green. So I would have some room to kind of chip from there. I did that on 16, 17, and 18. So I left myself a good angle to at least chip it within 6 feet.

Q. We've seen your name in the top 10 quite a bit. I know April was your breakout moment at the Chevron. How comfortable are you feeling? I know not the most comfortable conditions, golf is never comfortable, but for you mentally, how are you feeling in these scenarios heading into the weekend of a major?

LINDY DUNCAN: Definitely totally different than how I used to feel. I'm giving myself so much space to make mistakes, hit poor shots, and know that I can recover from even some pretty bad places. Pars and bogeys out here are pretty good. If you can sprinkle in some birdies, that really helps. I think mentally I'm feeling great.

Q. For tomorrow, can you have a more aggressive mentality given that right now the current lead is 10-under?

LINDY DUNCAN: I thought 10-under would be about where it's going to be. So, yeah, a couple back from that. I think it depends on conditions and tee times and a whole bunch of factors, kind of how I'm hitting it. If I can figure out my driver a little bit, then I think I'll have some great chances, yeah.

Q. That's one of the benefits of a morning start, you can do a little work now, right?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, definitely.

Q. What are you doing with the driver in the wind?

LINDY DUNCAN: Driver in the wind, so a lot of the winds are crossed, and I was working with that last week in Scotland. I realised a couple things, that I was maybe aiming too far left on left-to-right winds because my miss has been a little bit low left. I was even out there kind of working on my setup and making sure my ball position wasn't getting too far forward because, when that happens, I tend to kind of miss it low left. I kept trying to move it back, and it still was going low left.

I was like, all right, I'm done with the driver today. I'm going to try to figure it out. I give up. There's only so much you can do when you're out there, the elements and it's windy. Right-to-left winds, I feel a little more comfortable because I can just aim right and let the ball kind of ride on it. Then into the wind, not a whole lot different.