LOTTE CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY HOAKALEI

October 1, 2025

Gabriela Ruffels

Hoakalei Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, joining me today after the first round of the LOTTE Championship is Gabi Ruffels. Great round today. Talk us through how you stayed so consistent out there.

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, it was good. I was 4-under through the front nine and things just seemed pretty easy out there. I was hitting my driver really good and had a lot of short irons in and was hitting those pretty good, too.

So had a lot of putts inside eight feet for birdie on the front, and then made some good ones on the back to finish 7-under.

Yeah, it was really cool out there kind of feeding off our group. Patty and Lucy also play played well today, so it was a fun day.

Q. This is your second year on Tour. Can you talk about a little bit what your season has looked like, how you're feeling, and if there is anything that comes with being in your second year that other people might not know?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, so second year, I started off pretty good my first year, my rookie year, and then expectations I feel like went up a little bit. I didn't have a great start to this year, but I feel like things are kind of getting there a little bit more.

I'm definitely seeing the improvement and the hard word with my coach. Yeah, I feel like I'm starting to play a bit better and still have a few tournaments left for the rest of the year.

Q. As you're working through that, what are some certain things that you might be working on that you feel like are helping your game right now?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, definitely some swing stuff that I've been working on with my coach that I'm kind of understanding my swing a little bit more I guess. When it goes off, just have that understanding when it is going off throughout how to fix it.

And then some putting stuff as well. I've been working hard on my putting with my coach as well, so, yeah, feel like that stuff is just kind of getting easier to do in competition mode.

Q. Looking ahead to the rest of this week, obviously the weather here is a little interesting. It's gusty; you're on an island. What do you think will be important as you continue to play out here?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, looking at tomorrow, we played at 7:30 this morning and the wind wasn't up. I feel like the defense of this golf course is the wind, so having an afternoon tee time tomorrow, I feel like it's going to be a bit trickier and scores, it might be tougher to shoot a lower number.

So just staying patient with the wind and enjoy being in Hawai'i as well.

Q. While here in Hawai'i, what are you looking forward to doing off the course? Are you sticking around any longer? Done anything fun yet?

GABRIELA RUFFELS: My mom is here with me this week and we Drew to Kailua couple days ago to Lanikai Beach. I hope I'm saying that right. It was beautiful. One my best friends, Malia Nam, my roommate in college, she's from Hawai'i, from Kailua. So, yeah, I guess I was kind of recommended to go there and it was beautiful. It exceeded expectations.

But, yeah, trying the local food. I'm a bit of a foodie, so trying the local food here and just going to the beach and enjoying Hawai'i. It's not a bad place to be playing a golf tournament.