Q. Joined by Lydia Ko after her second round at the Mizuho Americas Open. Take us through the round today. A lot of birdies in the first round; eagle today. What's been working so well for you?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, you know, I been hitting the ball a lot better, which has been nice. I drove it decent at Chevron but my irons were really poor.
So I think that was going to be the key thing that I was trying to work on leading up to this week and just going forward.
It's been -- I think the most convenient thing is my coach has been out here at Chevron and we did virtual lesson last week. Seeing him here, it's nice when things aren't as I guess solid. It's good to have a pair of eyes to just check. It's been simple stuff, but I feel like we progressed.
It was so rainy today honestly I thought at one point I might miss the cut. I felt like there was still a lot of improvement from these past couple days compared to Chevron, so I was just happy with it and making the eagle was definitely a good momentum shifter.
Nice to be around on the weekend.
Q. How hard is it in the moment? Like you said, it's pouring rain. You are thinking about missing the cut. Just to keep the faith and your standards in your practice going forward?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, I had a lot of birdie opportunities today. Even on my front nine I had so many putts that just kind of slipped by.
It's frustrating at times because you know you're hitting it really well when the conditions are tough. That's probably the toughest part of just playing in the rain.
But, yeah, I just kind of tried to trust that I was hitting it good so I knew there would be opportunities coming up ahead.
I haven't necessarily played that great around here before, so it's just nice to be playing a lot more solid at a golf course I haven't had a very good record previously.
Q. For you, having an under-par round on a day like today with that kind of weather, what does that tell you about the things you worked on and how good is that score I guess is a better question?
LYDIA KO: It's really good. First nine holes everything was soaked. Paul, my caddie, had to take his hat off. His yardage book weighs almost like a dumbbell. So it was a lot of moisture that we got today, and obviously the last six, seven holes it's been nice for that to die down.
I'm not sure what the forecast is for the rest of the day, but we definitely got is difficult side of the draw if it does stay like this.
It's golf, right? Half the field gets one way and half the field gets another. You just have to play the best in the conditions you have in front. Yeah, I think just a lot of solids outside of what score I posted.
Q. Obviously this week is always a special one with the AJGA component. How excited are you to play with some of those girls over the weekend?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, I honestly don't know a lot of the girls. Nikki Oh is my former coach's daughter who committed to Stanford. I played a practice round with her on Tuesday. Be nice if we played the actual tournament together.
I played with Asterisk Talley at HGV Tournament of Champions this year and she was really good.
It's funny, I play with them and I feel like they should be playing off the same tees as me because they're just that good. I think one -- the girl that was leading had 40 points yesterday, which is really impressive around this kind of golf course.
In ways I guess age is just a number. It's a very cool part of this event bringing all the generations together, and I'm sure at one point they're going to be in our place and there will be another 15, 16 year old they're going to play with.
Yeah, excited to see them play this weekend and hopefully we can all do really well.
Q. Just game plan heading into the weekend with hopefully some milder conditions on the way?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, nice to be around on the weekend. Last year I missed, so it's nice to say that I get this nice view these next couple days.
Yeah, just sticking to what's been going really well, and even for my putting, it hasn't been ultra sharp, but I feel like my stroke is good and I think that's where I want to be at; not trying to find anything.
So, yeah, continuing the same feels and see a few more drop over the next couple days.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports