THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Aza, you finished under par, which I think only 10-under other in the field managed. Seemed a rather tough day out.
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, it's been another solid day. Today I think I literally hit every fairway, lots of greens. Maybe I couldn't make a few more putts today but still made some nice ones, some nice par saves. The pins were so tricky, a couple holes into the wind were playing really long and overall I kept managing myself well like the last couple days.
THE MODERATOR: You were playing in a group where the three of you are at the top of the leaderboard. Was that fun, spurring each other on.
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, it was really nice, very friendly out there. We all played pretty good. So it was really nice. I think it always helps when your playing partner plays well, too.
THE MODERATOR: If you can talk about, you had two birdies and two bogeys on the front nine, if you can talk about that?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, I got really unlucky on No. 5. I hit a perfect drive but I was in a divot. So I chunk it from there and then it plugged in the bunker. So I actually made an amazing bogey. I wanted to go for the pin but my caddie was just saying, let's just not get greedy because it was plugged against the lip and the lip was pretty high. So I hit the shot from the bunker backwards and then made a really, really nice up-and-down.
Then on 9, I actually hit in the bunker and hit an amazing bunker shot and then I missed a short putt. I misread it. I knew I wasn't playing enough break, and then I just couldn't trust it, so I hit a bad putt.
Then the two birdies, the par 5 on No. 3, I hit three really good shots and made probably a 10-footer, a really good one. And then what's my other one?
THE MODERATOR: 7.
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Oh, yeah, No. 7, the other par 5. I hit really good shots and probably made another 10-footer right down the middle, so that was a really good putt.
THE MODERATOR: And then it must be particularly satisfying to birdie 18 after yesterday.
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, it's funny because yesterday I got upset for like a second and then I'm like, you know what, just learn from it. Today I just it and just went a little left of the pin and obviously felt really nice to finish with a birdie. It was a 20-footer, so it felt really good to make that one.
THE MODERATOR: Seems likes you're really enjoying it and you're not getting at all frustrated.
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, I'm enjoying being out there so much. I don't know, I think this break was really good for me. I just came back and I just want to play golf. I just want to enjoy myself. I'm going to do my best, so at the end of the day, wherever that puts me, it puts me. But in the past, I think I always get a little upset if things don't work out or whatever, but I always give my hundred per cent. As long as I do that, that's all I can do.
Q. It's easy to talk about all the putts you've made. Is it fair to say that your driver has been the best club in the bag this week? Looks that way?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: Yeah, I think the main key in these type of courses is to not get in trouble and I haven't at all. The worst I've been is in the first cut of rough, which is not even that bad. So probably because everybody always says putting is the main bunker, but you have to start being on the fairway first and go after that.
So even though I've made really nice putts, which I have; my putting has been working really nicely, but my driver, again, I've never been into trouble, only once yesterday in thicker rough, but I still managed to be okay, so you're probably right.
Q. You talked about your putting there, and almost became a match-play situation over the last few holes with Stacy. Did it feel like that? Obviously that could be the case tomorrow?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: I guess it is but not really. I was just focusing on my game. I'm sure Stacy was doing the same. It's just nice -- actually I really like when I play with people that make putts because it also makes you believe that you can make them. It was nice that we all were holding putts every now and then.
But no, I didn't take it as her against me. There are a lot of other players out there, and it's not that it's the two of us against everybody else. I was just focusing on my game and that was it.
Q. You talked about playing the bunker backwards. Is that something you've had to do in your career before, and how difficult is that for a professional golfer to accept that you have to do that sometimes on a links golf course?
AZAHARA MUNOZ: It was actually really hard. My caddie had to try for me to do it. Because I was thinking, well, if I go backwards, I still have a 45-yard shot for my fourth, and I just didn't want to do that.
But he said -- because he had a good point; the ball was probably not going to come out. You never know, but I don't think it would have come out and it probably would have come out again and be plugged again, and then I had to do that for my fourth shot.
You know, I'm very proud of myself for doing that. I took my medicine and made a really nice bogey, which the only thing you don't want to do is a really big number. So a bogey, you can always make a birdie, but when you make a double or something, then that really hurts.
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