Q. Here with Maja Stark after her round one match at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Battle out there looked like today. Can you just walk us through the match you had with Nanna?
MAJA STARK: Yeah, I mean, you never know what's going to happen on a course like this. It was so windy; pretty ridiculous. So just felt like, yeah, just hang in there.
I mean, we made some birdies, and just felt like when she made a birdie I just had to think about staying calm, and that it's not all luck making a birdie out here, but it's like you get a good bounce here and there. And I mean, she played well as well.
I'm super happy with the way I hung in there today, so I think it was decent golf in these conditions.
Q. Can you talk to maybe people that can't be out there, just not the strategy, but what is going through your head about some of the mental challenges of match play, how something can't always be in your control, right?
MAJA STARK: Yeah, I mean, I think with match play in general you just have to focus on your own thing.
It's kind of funny that we're here in Vegas. You just have to think the other player is going to win. It's kind of like betting against the machine. You have to think you're going to lose and then you do something good anyway.
So it's kind of just having some patience and knowing that anything can happen, and if you're five down with five holes left you still got a chance.
So, yeah, I think just not taking yourself out of it. It is so different. I was shaking on every shot. Like my hands were shaking, and that's not normal for a stroke play round so everything is different.
Q. Can you talk about when you picked up later in your round some of those holes, the momentum and how you started to feel as you started to run out of holes too?
MAJA STARK: Yeah, I mean, that's where I feel like I need to be better at just not thinking, okay, I have three holes left. I'm leading by two. I'm going to win this. You can't really think like that.
So at the end there I'm trying to think -- I got kind of lucky that that she messed up a little bit; she didn't hit bad shots at all. She kind of got unlucky where she ended up.
But I just tried to -- we played for bogey on one hole because she was having troubles and that's just kind of the nice thing with match play. Sometimes you can just bail out because your opponent has put themselves in even more trouble than you have.
So I think at the end there I was just trying to stay in and not make huge mistakes.
Q. Can you talk about Shadow Creek in general? This is a tough enough course in the best of conditions. How tough is it when it's like this out there? Is it more a mental challenge or just piled on top of what's already tough?
MAJA STARK: I mean, I think it's more mental because sometimes you're going to have to send a 4-iron out like 15 yards into water just to bring it back in. That's all just the wind.
So I think it's a lot about just daring to hit those shots that you actually need to hit. There is not many places here where you can feel like, oh, this is a bad spot. This part of the green is good. Like that doesn't exist here.
The ball is going to bounce off these greens. With all the slopes around the greens, you're going to have so many different short game shots.
So it's definitely mental. You know, there has been a lot of long irons in today, and I think trusting those as well in this wind and just committing to the shot is huge.
Q. Does it add to the fact that to win you know you have to play seven times?
MAJA STARK: I haven't even thought about that. I'm excited. That's saving me like seven grand on green fees. Would be nice.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports