Q. All right, we are joined by Melanie Green after her first round to the Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba. First things first, we'll get to your round in a minute, but hole-in-one on hole 15. Kind of walk us through it. We kind of saw the video earlier. You had no idea it went in.
MELANIE GREEN: No.
Q. Looked like Shane was messing with you, or you thought he was. Can you just walk us though that process?
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, so I was walking up and before I started walking I was like, okay, great shot. Phenomenal. Grab the putter. Normally hit the green, grab the putter.
It's cool effect. Then we're walking up, walking up and I'm looking at the green, I'm like, there is no ball.
I'm like, Shane, take the putter. This is embarrassing. I'm going to have chip. And so I'm like, all right, take the putter, whatever. He's walking up, I fix my divot, and he's like, I see two balls over there. Like what? And he walks up to the hole and he's like, you made it.
I'm like, Shane, that's not nice. It's not in the hole. That's not nice. I walk up there and all I could see was the cross. I was so excited. Yeah, thought I just went way left. But whatever. Good bounce.
Q. Saw on the broadcast I think you said it was your third or fourth in competition, but first on the LPGA. Talk about that first hole-in-one on the LPGA and what that was like.
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, I can't say that that was a goal of mine this year, but always fun to have. It's more fun when you can see it go in. But that's okay. I'll take the one on the scorecard. Yeah, I'm excited. It's good.
Q. And then you are our fifth hole-in-one this year. We have our CME Group Cares Challenge. $20,000 for every hole-in-one goes to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, making it a cool 100,000 now. Talk about what that means to give that little contribution after getting a hole-in-one?
MELANIE GREEN: That's amazing, I mean, if anything that I do out here can somehow benefit. I know there is a lot of really cool people willing to help and setting little goals for us, and to help them help other organizations and stuff like that, that's very kind of whoever is making the generous offer.
Yeah, no, if I can be a part of it, that's awesome.
Q. We'll get to some golf now. A 30 on your opening nine. Can you talk about that opening nine? Obviously the hole-in-one and a lot of birdies out there.
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, it was one of those days, right? Like everything is making their way in the hole. Yeah, no, just everything is making its way into the hole. Yeah, no, it's just one of those days is what it comes down to.
Yeah, obviously there is birdies out there. There is going to be a lot more birdies out there from all the other girls. But, yeah.
Q. Now you have a handful of events on the LPGA; feeling more comfortable out here. Can you talk about how much that matters when you're trying to compete?
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, totally. You know, definitely like as a rookie, right, obviously rookies kind of chat with each other. That's definitely a thing, right? The veterans know that, too.
So it's definitely adjusting. I've always said even amateur -- high school golf to even amateur golf, right, and then amateur golf into college and college to Epson and Epson to LPGA there is always a little bit of a jump and a little bit of an adjustment period.
Epson was a great learning part for me, but everything out here is much bigger and obviously you're just looking at more tents, more people, more fans, longer yardages. So it's all an adjustment period.
I'm happy to be making it a little bit faster than maybe I thought I was going to.
Q. In a unique location this week. Anything different you'll do to just relax, hang out, maybe get your mind off golf a little bit after the round?
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, I'm staying with Hailee Cooper and we have a beach view. She opted for the beach instead of lagoon view, so we got a really cool pool, a lot of palm trees outside our window. I don't know, probably make it out there a little bit. But it is pretty hot, so might have to relax a bit.
Q. You talked about your rookie year. Couple months in what have you learned so far? What are a couple things you're taking away after a couple events here?
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah, I was just asked this question and I really don't know how to answer it. I mean, everything is learning. I think if you're not learning you're not growing.
So for me to point out one thing it would take away from everything else. It's not like, oh, I figured this out so everything is complete now.
Yeah, no, I think just getting more comfortable and obviously it's not like I changed the rule book on how to do things on Epson. I just tried to bring it here and get better every day.
Yeah, no, always learning.
Q. You also mentioned staying with Hailee. There is a good group rookies I feel like all sticking together this year.
MELANIE GREEN: Yeah.
Q. How important do you think that is out here and do you think that came from being on Epson?
MELANIE GREEN: Oh, yeah, 100%. There is a lot of girls I came up with on Epson and a lot of girls I was close with. Riley, LJ, Brianna, Yana even, Camille. I don't want miss anybody. Cooper, right. Yeah, no, it's a community. Out here it's family. We see ya'll's faces day in and day out, so if you're not kind of building some type of almost a little bit of home away from home, family way from real family it's going to become long and exhausting out here.
Yeah, no, people are definitely lift-me-ups and I'm just happy that I've got a good group around me.
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