Q. Very pleased to be joined by Polly Mack after her first round at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. 6-under day today. Just talk us through your day. Eagle, double bogey, a little bit of a roller coaster today. Overall how is the game feeling?
POLLY MACK: Yeah, obviously feels really good right now. It was a smooth start. That was kind of my goal. Just a lot of birdie chances in the beginning already and just didn't get those quite right. But, yeah, just stayed patient. I think that was good. And then just started making some putts eventually. Good eagle on the back nine to come back.
And, yeah, overall just very consistent play and kind of the things I've been working on plus a new putter in the bag, new Scotty Cameron so excited about that. Just rolling smoothly, so, yeah.
Q. And talk about that back nine. Only two pars out there. Talk about maybe just the range of emotions or how you keep your head in the game through all that.
POLLY MACK: I mean, sometimes you have unfortunate double bogeys and that was kind of one of those. I don't think I made a major mistake really. I just had one bad swing really, so it was easy to bounce back from it.
It was really just one of those moments where it's like, okay, just move on. The birdies will keep coming and that's what we did.
Made a really good up and down on the next hole after and from there just had smooth rolling and gave myself really good opportunities to make birdies; used most of them.
Yeah.
Q. And then you mentioned new putter in the bag. Was that something that just came about or are you been fidgeting with putters over the past couple weeks?
POLLY MACK: No, I did like my old putter, too. I just went down to Carlsbad to see Titleist and you cannot not try a new putter. I just felt like it would be fun to try and really found something that felt good right in that moment and I thought, why not. Just give it a try.
Usually that like new phase with a putter is really nice and that's kind of what I felt out there.
Q. Playing with rookie Riley Smyth out there today. You yourself as a long hitter; Riley is a long hitter. Was it kind of fun out there just both of you hitting some big drives and seeing where you stack up?
POLLY MACK: It's amazing. I remember us playing college together and we already had that a little bit of who is going to hit it further than the next. She's definitely got me by now. Like she just rips it out there and it's amazing to watch.
For me I'm also just putting my ego behind me I would say and I just learned like -- I think this is my fourth year on Tour so I just learned to maybe do a little bit more safe play and not rip every drive, which was lately really important for me to just kind of find fairways again.
But I do love that JT has a couple new settings on this one, too. Again, just kind of trying to find my fairways again, leaving myself good opportunities for birdies, and, yeah, I just think I did good today on that.
Q. Because you're playing so much golf do you have any aches and pains because of your golf swing? If yes, in which body part, shoulder, back, et cetera, from the golf swing?
POLLY MACK: Right, I mean, yeah, over time it is a one-sided usage I would say in the body. Over time you will see and feel some aches here and there.
I do feel my lower back a little bit every now and then. It's really good the recovery and about what you do off the golf course to maintain your body and your fitness, your muscles.
Just got to keep like continuing to go to the gym and stretch and just make sure that you're good. I have a really good team that takes care of me plus the physios on Tour that take care of us. I think I'm surrounded by really smart people that know how to help me. As long as I do my part off the course I think that's not going to be an issue.
Q. I see a lot of physios on the driving range this week.
POLLY MACK: Uh-huh.
Q. Do you have your own personal physio or someone in your team that helps you with your aches and pains from golf?
POLLY MACK: I currently do not work with a private physio. I have my workout coach at home who is really taking good care of me, and she will come out once or twice this year as well to see everything in person.
She's doing really good with the plans that she gives me for the gym, and then we just kind of walk through like, okay, what can we do, right, to just make it a little easier on the body. What do I do after a long travel day, especially east to west coast. It's sometimes quite a flight.
Yeah, I think we're doing a really good job. Just the communication is key, right, keeping her in the loop with things and then adjust as we go.
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