Q. Okay, here with Grace Kim after her first round at the Meijer LPGA Classic. Really solid round today. Can you just talk about your round a little bit?
GRACE KIM: The highlights, I could tell you I had two back-to-back chip-ins, one for eagle and one for birdie. That was a good start to the back nine.
Yeah, just kind of saved pars early and then loosened up as we went on. That was quite nice.
Had one little bogey. I would say a setback, but that didn't really set me back anyway because I knew the next hole was a par-5. Had 23 putts I think today, so that always helps.
Q. That's awesome. What were you working on in your putting heading into this week, and anything about the greens you like?
GRACE KIM: I think now that it's my third time here I know what it should do. All I need to do is try to just putt, not overthink it as much.
Obviously I don't have my -- I don't have my caddie this week so I'm really having to trust my own reads.
I guess it worked out well, and it's nice to know that I can putt very well by myself, too.
Q. And then can you touch a little bit on the fairways? The fairway numbers this week for some of the players that are playing well have been lower, but you're still scoring very well. Can you just talk about that a little bit?
GRACE KIM: I think a lot of players have less fairway hits this week only because we're only just like trickling into the fairways. It's quite tight. Certain wind directions can make the fairways tighter.
Yeah, I think I missed the fairway -- there was at least three that only trickled in, and obviously that decreases the number.
Yeah, I don't think fairways as much matters. It's definitely just putting yourself in the right spot in the rough if you do push or pull it.
Yeah, just trying to make birdie.
Q. Lastly from me, you have John Pond on your bag this week. Can you talk about what led to that partnership this week?
GRACE KIM: Yeah, so my original caddie, Drew, just had a baby on Saturday last week. He's so silly. He goes, I can come Wednesday night if you really want me. I'm like, are you joking? No way. Your wife would kill me.
No, he'll be back next week. Yeah, been lucky to have John Pond available last minute. It's been good. We've having good chats.
Q. I was going to ask how is it having him on the bag. He's been on a couple player's bags. Seem like a good personality, fun.
GRACE KIM: Yeah, I think we match pretty well. He's pretty chill. I'm pretty self-sufficient at this point. I know the course and what I have to do. When I do need him he's definitely there, so that's always nice.
Q. I just wanted to ask with the wind probably not stopping all weekend, making the fairways a lot narrower, how are you and other golfers going to have to adjust through that?
GRACE KIM: I think the wind is fine because we all know how to play in wind. It's the opposite wind. It's actually not the prevailing wind. We practiced left-to-right winds all week and then all of is a sudden it's the other way.
So just managing your start lines well and speaking to your caddie very precisely on the start lines and then commit to that line. It might not be even on the fairway. Yeah, just depends on the strength of the wind at this point.
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