Q. Joining me here today after first round of the HSBC Women's World Championship is Mimi Rhodes. You had a great round today, 4-under. You're up there at the top of the leaderboard. How did it feel out there?
MIMI RHODES: Pretty hot. Pretty sweaty out there. But yeah, I can't lie, I didn't really play my best golf out there.
Yeah, I had some lucky breaks, like on 17, the par 3. But yeah, I just managed to make pars out of bad shots into the green and then hole the putts when I had chances for birdie.
Yeah, overall it was pretty solid but there's a lot to improve on.
Q. You're here as a sponsor invite this week but you are a rookie on the LPGA Tour this year. How much is this giving you confidence that you can go out and compete with the best in the world?
MIMI RHODES: Yeah, it's showing me that my bad game is probably good enough and that when I have my A Game, I can compete with the best here, and that's what I've dreamed about doing since I turned pro. Just play against the best and see I compare. So, yeah, it's nice to see.
Q. What do you think needs to be improved in your game?
MIMI RHODES: I had a lot of three-quarter wedges, and they weren't really going online. So I'm going to just work on them on the range and make sure that I'm hitting my targets.
Yeah, you don't get many long shots out of there, except for the par 3s. So I'm just going to work on long irons off the tees.
Q. Did anything surprise you out there on the course?
MIMI RHODES: Honestly in the practice rounds, it seemed longer. So it was playing shorter today. But once you get your adrenaline going, I usually hit my drivers further so that's probably why.
Q. Can you talk about your progress over the last two years?
MIMI RHODES: Yeah, I pretty much saw the big jump since like my last year at college when I started working on my putting a lot. Today, my lag putting was really good. I didn't really have that many long putts to save par. So yeah, I'm really happy with my putting overall. That's what gives you the low scores if you hold the putts.
So yeah I've been working really hard on that.
Q. As a debutante this is the first time you've been to this event. Everybody calls it Asia's Major. What's your feeling about it?
MIMI RHODES: I love it here. The hotel is in a great spot. You can pop over to loads of malls. I did some shopping yesterday. It's not cold. People complain about the heat but yeah, it's not a bad thing, honestly, and yeah, the people here are so nice. Speak English. It's nice.
Yeah, everything is just honestly really welcoming and the course is in really good conditions. The greens, yeah, really nice.
Q. And sort of as one of the stronger fields you're playing against and you're sitting at the top of the leaderboard, how do you feel about it?
MIMI RHODES: Yeah, there's still a lot of golf to be played but yeah, I'm feeling good about that spot. We'll see what the leading score will be at the end of the day but I'm happy with where I've started and hopefully the golf will get better.
Q. You made a par on each of the par 5s and still shot 68. Good putting stats. What went well in this opening round?
MIMI RHODES: My putting, definitely, and my lag putting, especially. I wasn't giving myself that many 15 feet inside birdies, but the birdies I had were pretty short putts, except a long green off the green, I putted it off the green the first par 3.
But overall, my long putts were really good, and I need to get on to the range and work on my wedges.
Q. You were a sponsor invite this week but this is an elite field. You shoot 68 and look comfortable at the top of the leaderboard. How important is it for you to play well early in the season against a field like this?
MIMI RHODES: Honestly I was coming in pretty hope-minded. I had a good week in Saudi, so I wasn't putting that much pressure on myself. Obviously I want to try my best out there and see how can compare against the best players in the world, and that's been my goal for so long.
It's great to see that even with my bad game, I'm still up there with them, and yeah, we'll see what the score is at the end of the day.
Q. It was a pretty good game from what we saw. We look forward to seeing how you play over the next two days.
MIMI RHODES: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports