Q. Here with Georgia Hall, 4-under 68. That's a really nice scorecard, eagle and two birdies. Feel like you played solid today? Tell us how you feel.
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, very, very steady round. Didn't really do anything wrong. The wind got up on the back nine and happy to shoot 3-under on my back nine.
Obviously the eagle was great as well on a reachable par-5, so very happy with today.
Q. Could you walk us through that eagle, what you did on that hole?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah. Just hit drive down the middle, and then in between a 3-wood and rescue I decided to kind of grip down and hit a little 3-wood on the front -- middle front of the green.
I think it's maybe like a 70-foot putt and it was absolutely perfect, straight in the middle, perfect pace, so it was a great putt there.
Q. Absolutely. Last time you tee'd it up, got the win in Saudi. Are you feeling comfortable with the state of your game?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, I'm pretty confident with the way I'm playing. Obviously played really well in Saudi couple weeks ago, and just keep trying to work on things I need to improve.
Mentally I feel in a good place, so, yeah, hopefully do the same tomorrow.
Q. What have you been working on, tinkering with your game to try to get it up to par?
GEORGIA HALL: Just a little bit more on my putting. Left to right putts sometimes I struggle with, so really just trying to hit -- practice loads of them on the putting green.
My long game is in a good place. Just kind of my normal drills, making sure I don't get too quick in transition.
Other than that, just kind of playing every round and staying patient.
Q. This is just your fifth event so far of 2022. Were you thinking about taking it easy this year ahead of the grind, or was there thoughts behind taking it a little quieter early?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, not really. A lot of players don't play Diamond and I always love to. It's the first event quite early, mid-January, so I wanted to play that.
And it's just the events that were kind of around this area which I wanted to miss for various reasons. Not going Asia and that kind of paid off in my performance in Saudi.
Now I'm kind of playing the next rung, and quite a packed schedule for me going forward. I think this is the best decision I've made schedule-wise in my kind of five years on this tour.
Q. Do you think some of that comes with the experience of now being in your fifth year, knowing what works and what doesn't?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, definitely, and especially still living in the U.K. it might take a little bit longer for us players than if we lived here in the U.S.
Definitely takes a few years, and I know what suits me, what courses suit me now, so trying to make the right decisions there.
Q. Are you a goal setter? Have you set goals? And if you have, are you willing to share them?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, more just focusing on my golf and hitting the right shots and mentally approaching every shot with full commitment. That's my goal.
But I would love to try and get in the world top 10 this year. That's my goal. The top 10 players in the world are really consistent and it's tough to get there, so I have to play good golf.
But just taking one event as it comes for now.
Q. Georgia, birdie to finish on the final hole of the day. That's a really good way to round off what was a really good round out there; 4-under par.
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, very steady and I couldn't really hit a shot wrong the whole round. So it was mentally very kind of -- it wasn't mentally hard for me out there.
So I'm very happy with my game. And holed good putts out there, so, yeah, hopefully I can continue that tomorrow.
Q. What do you mean by it wasn't mentally hard?
GEORGIA HALL: I don't put myself under too much stress actually. I think I only missed maybe one or two greens, so a lot of times I had birdie chances.
And staying quite patient even when I had a lot of run of pars I was thinking, well, there are some tough holes out there, so just having a good time.
Q. This confidence, you look incredibly relaxed, incredibly confident. Where is it coming from?
GEORGIA HALL: I'm just playing good golf and I feel I'm in a good place all round. Just really enjoying competing as I normally do.
Made some good decisions tournament-wise at the start of the year, and really excited for my next run of events.
Q. You look really, really relaxed, refocused. Just that stroke of bad luck on 8, tell us what happened there.
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, finished my round and the camera guy came to me and said it went in the hole and came back out, so hopefully tomorrow the hole can give me one back.
But, no, I hit great shots, and nice to finish with the birdie on the last.
Q. Absolutely. 4-under par, couple shots off the lead.
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah.
Q. Is that roughly where you want to be going into Friday?
GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, I mean, bogey-free was massive for me as well. Just really steady, and obviously I played in the afternoon so the wind got up in the back nine, so hopefully tomorrow morning I've got early and there won't be any wind and try and take advantage of that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports