KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2026

Nataliya Guseva

Hazeltine National Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Nataliya Guseva is with us now at the 2026 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Nataliya, really solid start for you today. What can you tell us about your opening round?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: I would say just in general in majors I try to keep everything simple. I don't treat them as any type of crazy other type of week from the other weeks.

I know that course really suits my game because it's pretty long course. I would say big girl's golf course. A lot of carry numbers out there, so really suits my game, suits my driving.

I was just trying to really, you know, make it kind of simple out there. Lots of pars, hitting the greens and fairways.

Yeah, so kind of had a good round, so...

Q. What did you enjoy the most about the round today? And the golf course?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: I would say just in general before coming to Hazeltine I watched it quite a bit on YouTube and I knew it's going to really suit my game really well. I didn't really enjoy the weather at first because my starting time was 7:00 a.m. so it was kind of cooler, but in general like speed putting was really good out there; driving as well.

So just in general, yeah, the golf course really suits my game in general, I feel like all type of long hitters, so just excited to have a good week out here.

Q. Did you know that hitting 80% of the greens in regulation would help you a lot?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Probably, yes. (Laughter.) I did know actually about that.

Q. What was working especially well from your tee shots and your shots onto the green?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah, I would say I'm just in general like a pretty draw player so I always shape the ball only one way. To me was just important to know like where to miss the ball, because I knew like some of the misses out here would just kind of cause you at least like a bogey or a double. Just important to know that, and I feel like when you know that, I feel like it's easier in a way to play and put yourself in -- not try to make a lot of birdies, but try to make a lot of pars and I feel like birdies are going to come themselves.

So, yeah.

Q. Curious, the way you started your round, birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, was that indicative of the weather that once it got a little warmer, sunnier, you seemed to then play pretty steadily?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: I think it definitely helped. Like obviously the ball is going way, way longer, but I feel like there were couple of pin positions that were a little bit tricky out there, so that's why I just happened that I made few bogeys out there.

But I also know that bogeys are going to happen and sometimes it's just important, you know, to like admit that you're going to have some bad shots and just to move on from them.

So I feel like the back nine, I mean, front nine for me, I just played really, like really solid. Fairway, green, fairway, green, and just birdies kind of happened.

Q. Four par-5s out there. I think you birdied two of them. Do you feel it's important that someone like yourself, you play a good long game, you take advantage of those par-5s?

NATALIYA GUSEVA: For sure. For sure it's important. The only thing is I feel like all the par-5s are not reachable for us so it already makes it kind of I would say even difficult for the long hitters so we can really use our advantage in a way, so we have to like layup sometimes with hybrid, sometimes with like 8-irons or 7-irons.

But, yeah, like I would say just honestly, in every tournament I try to play par-5s as like 2-under par per round and just always kind of puts my game into a good shape.

Q. You did today.

NATALIYA GUSEVA: Yeah.