Q. Okay, here with Sarah Schmelzel after her first round at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands. Nice round today. Just tell me about what was working for you.
SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, it was good. I bogeyed I think the third hole, so not the hottest start in the world.
Just stayed patient. I was hitting really good shots and had some decent looks, and I got one to go in on -- I hit it close on 5 and birdied 6, and from there rode the momentum on the way in.
I drove it really, really well today, so I was never in trouble, so it made it really stress-free.
Q. Obviously first round of the season. Looked like a pretty good one. Are you particularly happy? Were you feeling worried coming into this week? What was your mentality going into the first round?
SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, wouldn't say I was worried, but worked on a lot of stuff over the offseason. Obviously always uncomfortable when you work on stuff and you have to put it under pressure and you want to see how it plays out.
So I'm just really happy. Obviously it's one round, but it's nice to see hard work pay off. It's nice to see it moving in the right direction.
Q. What kind of goals did you set for yourself for 2025 during the offseason? I know you're a big goal setter.
SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, definitely. I like to keep a lot close to the chest on those ones, but obviously getting into contention more, which I think will lead to a lot of winning and stuff like that, lead to a lot of other things.
But just working on stuff mentally. Trying to be the best version of myself when I show up at the course every day. Trying to stick to my process in terms of what you do Monday to Wednesday, what I do when I'm home, really take care of both my body and my golf game so I can feel really confident when I tee it up on Thursday that I've done everything I need to do.
So not a ton of super result-oriented goals. I feel like the goals I've set are going to lead to good results.
Q. For you, it was really big season last year. I know had a couple close calls in the winner's circle. Played in your first Solheim Cup. What did you learn most about yourself that you're going to apply to 2025?
SARAH SCHMELZEL: Yeah, definitely, before last year I didn't know how I would play under pressure and I didn't know how I would play when I needed to make putts or needed to hit good shots.
So last year proved a lot to me, that I was capable of doing that and to be able to take that kind of confidence into this year when I do get in contention again or in big moments, that I now have reps in that kind of situation to fall back on.
So that's just huge for everything going forward.
Q. How do you build on the strong start heading into the next three rounds?
SARAH SCHMELZEL: I think same thing. You know, everything that I came in wanting to do obviously went well. It's golf so you never know what's going to happen.
But I'm just really happy with how I handled everything mentally today. A lot of the mental things that I was working on kind of led to me being able to play really free, so as long as I do that the next three days and the rest of the season, I think it'll just allow me to stay really committed and comfortable.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports