Q. Here with Brooke Henderson after her first round here at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. 6&5 win over Leona Maguire. What was working so well for you today?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Got off to a really good start which was nice. First hole Leona stuffed it to two feet so I had to make maybe over 20 feet birdie putt to halve the hole. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is going to be so hard.
So I was able to play pretty well which was really nice and give myself a lot of birdie looks which in these conditions I was really grateful for because it was so cold and so windy today.
But I just feel like all parts of my game were working really well today, so I'm grateful for that. Just hoping over the next few days I can do something similar.
Q. What was the game plan to handle the tough course and the conditions?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. This course is a beast by itself without the wind and the cold. So when we woke up this morning my sister texted me the weather and I was like oh, boy. So it was going to be a challenging day.
But, yeah, just layered up. I have so many layers on. I'm super hot right now actually. Yeah, just tried to do the best we could and tried to play as smart as we could and adjust to all the conditions.
Q. How much confidence does it give you to have this kind of dominant performance, especially against one of our better if not the best match play players in Leona Maguire?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, for sure. Playing with Leona I knew it was going to be really, really tough because she has such a great track record with match play and she is such a great player.
So I knew this round would be challenging, so happy I was able to come out on top today. I'm looking forward to teeing it up tomorrow.
Q. In these conditions, how important is it to get an early lead, because it's probably pretty tough to come back?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Right. Absolutely. Any time I think it's nice to got off to an early lead and get some shots ahead. Gives you a little bit more confidence and maybe makes it a little bit easier, especially in these conditions. Like you're saying, it's tough to gain the momentum back because it's challenging. Every single hole is playing a little bit different than how we practiced the last few days.
You just really had to think your way around. If you can get momentum I think that's really key, and I was able to do that pretty early.
Q. Did you sense that Leona was really pushing, struggling a little? I saw she was 7-over on her card.
BROOKE HENDERSON: Oh. I don't know if she would be that many over. She was playing well. It was just a really tough day out there. It was -- I mean, it's so easy to make bogeys on this course any day, especially today.
But, I mean, she's always a tough competitor and I thought she was playing pretty well.
Q. You talked yesterday about a mix of good strategy and good play. You feel like you had both of those today?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, I feel like ball striking was really good today which gives me a lot of confidence and something I've been struggling with a little bit over the last few months.
So to have such a good day with the ball striking does give me that little push of excited. Looking forward the next two days.
Q. Having been here four times before, have you ever seen conditions like this?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Last year was similar one of the round when it was stroke play actually. It was extremely difficult and it was cold and windy as well. This is definitely unusual. Feel like it's a rare day.
Q. How does it change Shadow?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Just makes everything trickier. The greens are already running firm and fast, and then when you have to play ten yards of wind left to right or right to left or more into or down, then it just makes the release and trying to calculate all of that extra important and more challenging.
It was nice to have a great caddie like my sister, and she really helped me today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports