THE AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2026

Cara Gainer

Evian Resort Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Cara, just joked it feels a little bit like déjà vu here at Evian. Another brilliant round from you. You opened with a round of 4-under par. Tell me about your day.

CARA GAINER: Yeah, obviously really enjoy coming back here. It's just such a great atmosphere and so great to see so many people out this morning and this afternoon.

Yeah, I played good. I mean, played just very solid. Nothing kind of crazy. Kept it in play which is obviously the most important thing at this golf course. You know, got up and down when I needed to and holed a couple birdie putts when I needed to as well.

Q. You came back here for the Jabra Ladies Open de France just about a month ago. How important was it coming back for that week ahead of this tournament?

CARA GAINER: Yeah, exactly. I think it's great kind of warmup for us girls on the LET. I had a bit of a wrist injury at the time so it was a bit of a struggle that tournament, but I've recently kind of got that sorted and feeling much more healthy now and sort of pain-free.

Feel like I can really commit to some of those slopes we have got on these fairways. Yeah, tricky.

Q. You had such a brilliant week here last year. Co-leader heading into the final day. When you look back on that year ahead of this week, what are kind of the memories and emotions?

CARA GAINER: Yeah, I mean, I would say I was pretty nervous teeing it up today. Probably the most nervous I've been since teeing up here last year.

I think I guess it was a tricky final round I had and I really wanted to, you know, start well and get rid of those kind of -- not bad emotions I had in the final round, but really kind of start positively and hit some quality shots.

Yeah, I did that.

Q. So to open with that 4-under bogey-free, how much confidence does that give you for the rest of the week?

CARA GAINER: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I really enjoy this golf course. I think it really suits my game. You know, you've got to be accurate. You got to hit your -- hit driver state and good approach. It's playing slightly -- I would say slightly easier than last year; it was playing quite soft, so maybe don't need to be quite as spot-on on the greens as maybe you usually do.

You know, that suits me as well so I'm just going to take it how it comes and, yeah, just try and enjoy it as best I can.

Q. Always a family affair for you here at Evian. You have your husband here, sister, dad. All the Gainers seem to come and watch you at Evian. How nice is that and who is out here this week?

CARA GAINER: Yeah, my mum and sister flew in this morning, so that was nice to see them. They caught up on like the second hole, so they sort of the managed to walk round 18 holes today in this heat.

Yeah, it's great to have everyone's support. It's such a beautiful place to come so they really love coming here just for the views and the food and obviously the golf as well.

But, yeah, it's great to have their support.

Q. Just finally, given how well you performed last year and given the strong start, what are the expectations for the week?

CARA GAINER: I tried not to put any expectations on myself really, especially coming out of an injury. I had four weeks off not playing at all. I played last week in Belgium and definitely was really rusty, so it's good to see that it's sort of coming back, especially my tee shots.

So, yeah, I really didn't have much expectation. You know, I know that I enjoy the golf course, and if I can get kind of my long game -- I feel really sharp with my short game, putting, and chipping, so if I can just get my tee shots away, and I did that today, so hopefully I can build on that the next few days and really take it day by day to be honest.