Q. Okay, here with Polly Mack after a 5-under round in the first round today. Talk about what went well for you. Bogey-free on the scorecard.
POLLY MACK: Yeah, I made some putts which really helps. The greens were still rolling pretty good in the morning.
And kept it pretty steady. Hit a good amount of fairways, good amount of greens. Driver was good. So I was just down the middle of the fairway, had wedges into the greens, and just turned some into birdies or even eagle.
Yeah, just steady, straightforward. It was nice.
Q. Can you talk about the eagle? I'm guessing it probably helps how far you hit it on some of these holes to have some of those opportunities?
POLLY MACK: Yeah, pretty much all par-5s, all three of them are reachable for me. That was hole No. 3. I had I would say about 189 into the pin. We hit a 6-iron.
It was just really nice, coming out really well. It was left-to-right wind coming back to the back right pin really nicely, and flew longer than expected.
We wanted it to land five on and just flew longer. Just missed the pin and almost went in, and then a really nice putt back.
Q. I feel like you've been everywhere; following your Instagram story. Happy to have you out here this week as well. Just talk about what your travel and schedule has been like this past year.
POLLY MACK: It's definitely been a rollercoaster regarding gathering miles and being all over the world. I've been really enjoying it. It's been quite a journey this year. I've been it to Australia which was a huge Bucket List point for me to go to Australia, so that was super exciting.
Been to Korea. I loved Korean. I love Korean barbecue, so it was great to be there. I have a lot of Korean friends, so it's just great to see a little bit of their culture, where they come from. There is good golf there. A lot of golf enthusiasts out there.
So yeah, just really good, cool spots that I've gone to. I think there is still a couple left this year that I'm excited for. So just step by step and just enjoying every week. As long as my body is holding up with the travel, then we're doing good.
Q. What was your mindset coming into this tournament based on the year that you've had so far?
POLLY MACK: I'm taking it step by step and trying to take day by day as well. I've been working really, really hard just besides the travel just trying to keep everything simple and steady.
I've been working really hard with my coach on things in my swing; working on my putting a lot because I wanted to get those stats down, which really worked out today.
I think that was the main part today, to keep it rolling right off the start to make putts. Yeah, so I'm really glad that's showing off here.
Yeah, just keeping a cool mindset before tournament rounds. Just play with what I have was basically the motto of the day today.
Q. When you play this course and it's a short course and you're a long hitter, is there temptation -- you'll have a lot wedges in your hand, is there a temptation to go right at the pin all the time and sometimes realize that you can't always do that out there?
POLLY MACK: So me and my caddie were working a lot on being smart but a little more aggressive than we have been in the past few events, so that really worked out today.
We have been smart about decision making, where we go not right at the pin but close to the pin. Yeah, just pull the driver if we have a nice, comfortable wedge distance in my hand, but not if it's too close to the pin.
So really just work out, okay, like my comfortable yardage into the green and maybe if we want to be a little bit further back in the fairway, not pull a driver.
Most of the time we hit driver today and it's comfortable.
Q. 54-hole tournament. This course gives up a lot of birdies, opportunities for birdies, so you know you have to have a low score to win.
POLLY MACK: Yeah.
Q. Is there a balancing act between knowing that you made birdies and not panicking if you make a couple pars in a row?
POLLY MACK: Yeah, the greens can be a little bumpy every now and then, so I've had one or two putts that jumped a little bit. You just got to accept that.
Just keeping a cool mindset, that's the main important point. You will make putts if you have a good roll on the putter. Just trust that, yeah.
Q. How important has the partnership with you and your caddie been? She's extremely positive from what I've seen. How important has this been for you on the bag?
POLLY MACK: We've been honestly great together. This past just more than a year that we've been working to go has been really exciting. We grow every day, every week, every month as a team.
It's just super exciting to go into a new event and just put that knowledge to work that we gathered in the last event and the last few events.
Just get smarter every day so just get better every day.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports