Q. Amy Olson, 2-under 69. Talk us through your day a bit.
AMY OLSON: Hole 1 seems like a long time ago. You know, I hit a lot of greens for the most part. I think my -- I don't know, for the first time I had this chip was on hole 13 or something.
It was really pretty consistent. I had a lot of tap-in pars, which always saves a lot of stress at a U.S. Open.
Had a couple -- one crucial save on 17 and then a hole-out on 13 on the par-3, which was really fun for birdie. A couple things to kind of keep the momentum going.
Q. You've had two top-15 finishes in the last two U.S. Opens. What is it about this week that you seem to shine?
AMY OLSON: Honestly I feel like the USGA does a great job setting up their golf courses. It's really fair, places a priority on being in the fairway, hitting greens. Honestly, I feel like in U.S. Opens there's a lot of times you're trying to hit it to 30 feet and two-putt, so if you're putting solid and lag putting well, you don't have to go lights out to post a good number.
Q. You're a former USGA champion; was there one point that you realized, hey, I'm pretty good at this?
AMY OLSON: It definitely was at a USGA event. It was probably the one before I became a champion at the Girls' Junior in 2008, and it was just an opportunity to kind of compare myself to the other juniors around the world. People come from all over to play the USGA events.
I think that was really the first glimmer of hope that I thought my dream might come true to be able to make this a career.
Q. At what point do you think in your career you said, you know what, I'm not hitting at that flag, I'm going to hit it way over here?
AMY OLSON: I could tell you a story about when I was eight and I did that and I didn't have enough balls in my bag so I hit around a pond. So maybe eight years old.
But no, I think that's just something that's learned.
In college you do fire at a lot of targets just because the greens are receptive, soft, you have wedges in. But coming out on the LPGA I definitely had to adjust the strategy, particularly for different courses.
Q. For those that don't know Pine Needles as well, what is it going to take to be successful this week?
AMY OLSON: Honestly it's really how you manage the greens. You're going to miss some greens, and when you're short-sided you have so many different options.
I've played around with a lot of like do you fly it up on top with a wedge, do you use a hybrid and kind of bump it, do you putt it, and I think it's going to be just being comfortable with whatever shot you pick.
The more options you have I think the better, and then just pick the shot you're most comfortable with. But making some of those saves will be huge.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports