NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 19, 2025

Carlota Ciganda

Pinnacle Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Carlota after the first round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G. 7-under round. Talk about your day a little bit. This course is extremely gettable and you made plenty of birdies out there.

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, very happy with the round. Seven birdies, no bogeys. I think when you have a bogey-free round it's always very positive day.

Yeah, played very solid overall. Hit lots of greens lots of birdie chances. Hit it pretty close. Made a couple good putts.

Yeah, excited for tomorrow.

Q. Everyone talks about making birdies out here. How important is it to avoid bogeys? Obviously it's important to avoid bogeys every week, but especially out here where one bogey can drop you so far down the leaderboard.

CARLOTA CIGANDA: Yeah, you know just know it's a week that you have to go low. The course is pretty soft so you can be pretty aggressive to all the pins. Have to manage the spin a little bit with my wedges, but, yeah, I think it's a fun course that you can, yeah, go low.

The weather was perfect and the course is, yeah, pretty soft after the rain yesterday. I'm sure the scores are very low.

Q. And then you and other players mentioned the softness of the course. Does that change how you played it at all or let you be a little bit more aggressive?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: I mean, it's always pretty soft for me. When you have short clubs I have to hit it like pretty much past the pin or hit more like three quarter shots to take some of the spin off.

But I just know I have to do that, and yeah, just it's pretty much aim and shoot.

Q. And then you've already won this year out in Meijer in Michigan. Now a 54-hole event. Does that change your thought process at all is it just same thing as usual?

CARLOTA CIGANDA: No, I think I'm just trying to focus on myself, on my game, trying to stick to my strategy and try to do that for three days this week, four days when it's a four-day event.

Yeah, I feel good. Been playing good the last couple weeks and, yeah, I'm excited for the weekend.