Q. Here with Gabi Ruffels after her first round at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Very nice 4&3 victory over Carlota. Just take us through the day.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, it was good out there. It was super solid. Actually winning most of the holes with birdie. We played pretty good the first nine holes; then started getting cooler and a bit tougher and started winning with pars.
But this course is really fun. It's a really good match play course. It's my first year playing match play on this golf course. Last year we played two rounds -- three rounds of stroke play and that was some of the toughest conditions in golf I've ever had to play.
It's really cool to be out here playing match play.
Q. To kind of have the lead, give it back a little bit to Carlota, and really kind of step on the gas and claim the win against a veteran in match play, Carlota, just what does that do for your confidence?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, for sure. Definitely gives me a bit of confidence. It's kind of funny. I remember watching her for so many years in the Solheim Cup. You know, I mean, kind of looked up to her and knew she was a get match play player and super experienced. Knew that I had to play really good golf.
I was able to do that today, and so pretty happy.
Q. You mentioned you won a lot of your holes with birdie. With Shadow Creek being a notoriously difficult course, what is it about the course, maybe the match play setting or what, that allowed you to take advantage of these scoring opportunities?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, I like match play. I kind of grew up with it in amateur golf. Played a lot of match play. Even when I grew up in Australia I played a lot of match play. Yeah, I like it. Obviously what I said, this course is a great course for match play, and I feel like if you can just remain steady, you'll be doing pretty well out here.
Q. Anything you were doing maybe differently from stroke play last year compared to this year, like taking advantage of the course maybe?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, I mean, I feel like in match play, too, you're just feeding off your opponent, too. If they're playing first and kind of in trouble, you play a bit more conservative. In stroke play on a par-5 you might go for it a little bit more.
But, yeah, kind of other than that, yeah, I guess stroke play you're within yourself a bit more, and then match play you're feeding of your opponent and that dictates your play.
Yeah, I mean, depending if they're in trouble then you can play a bit more conservative, and if not, play more aggressive. I like playing aggressive anyway.
Q. You touched on it a little bit, but we've seen a lot of Aussie success today. What is it about Australia and match play that maybe just works so well together?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I mean, I'm not sure. I mean, kind of as I said, we do do a lot of match play in Australia. The Australian Amateur is match play. We have these inner club competitions called pennant, and you play that every Saturday.
And we also have interstate teams matches. Now that I am kind of going through it, we do play a lot of match play in Australia.
So, yeah, I feel like that's kind of prepped us for match play, and I think we all really strive on it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports