Q. When you woke up this morning and you walked to the first tee, was a 62 in the plans or in sight?
ASHLEIGH BUHAI: No, definitely not. More so because I was forced to take five weeks off. Had an old back injury flare up. But I think it was almost a blessing in disguise after a very busy summer.
So I've had one week of practice coming into here. And my goal for this week was to play with no expectations, and that's often when you try to play well in a game.
My coach came into Florida last week, we worked on three things, and I've just tried to stick to doing those three things.
Q. When you were forced to be sidelined, I mean, obviously there's a lot of emotions, you want to be out there playing. You're one to play a lot out here during the year. What was it like kind of shifting the mindset to recover but also keep the juices flowing?
ASHLEIGH BUHAI: Yeah, you never want to be sidelined. But my original schedule was to rather play Arkansas and Dallas and then take a break and not fly all the way to Asia.
But, you know, as I said, I'm hoping this was a blessing in disguise. I think I really needed the rest away from golf. I didn't touch a club for four weeks. I moved into a new house.
So, you know, it was just nice to live my life away from the golf course for a bit, put that stuff in perspective, and then you're excited to come back when you've had such a long break.
Q. Now, a lot of birdies out there. I believe it's one of your career lows out here on Tour. When did you kind of feel everything click out there? Did it click from the beginning? I mean, Danielle came out saying it was kind of like boring golf, everything was -- it felt like it looked like it was super close. How did you feel, especially about your ball-striking?
ASHLEIGH BUHAI: Yeah, I think with the overnight rain we knew the course was going to be soft. So you could be aggressive. The fairways are pretty wide.
But, yeah, that's what we try to play. Boring golf is good golf, you know. So got off to a good start. I felt I played really nicely in the Pro-Am yesterday. And I was happy with that because it's my first 18 holes since Cincinnati. So if you told me shoot 10-under coming into this week, I would have said no chance. But I'm going to take it.
Q. What were some of the most memorable birdies out there? If there were any, I mean, if you're -- you're feeling your iron play.
ASHLEIGH BUHAI: My wedge play was really solid today. I mean, I hit every time and just about had a wedge in my hand, I hit it to a couple feet. So I didn't have to think too hard on those putts. But then I rolled the ball really well too. When I didn't hit it too close, the ones that didn't go in burnt the edges. So I felt all round of my game is in a good place at the moment.
Q. As you look ahead for tomorrow, do you go and practice? Or do you just -- do you -- what do you do to continue this momentum from day one?
ASHLEIGH BUHAI: No, I'm definitely not going to practice. Especially with still coming back from the injury, you know, I've got to pace myself. I'm not as young as I used to be, as I say.
But I just got to try to keep doing my one thing that I'm trying to do in my swing, and that's my new focus. And like I said, no expectations. This week was the goal, and that's what I got to try and remember.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports