Q. Sophia, first of all, can you talk about the ace and describe how you played the hole.
SOPHIA POPOV: Yeah, honestly, it's kind of a little bit in between, like between 4-hybrid and 5-wood for me. It's 209 I think, and you want to stay short, and then Max said to me, well, in order to get it there you're going to have to hit 5-wood.
Hit a perfect 5-wood and it was tracking the whole way. Amelia Garvey, she said, drinks when it was still in the air and I was like, no, she jinxed it. It ended up going in. Pretty wild. Cool hole.
Q. How exciting was it since you didn't get to play last year for a good reason?
SOPHIA POPOV: Very, very exciting. Obviously sometimes when this happens you're like, you know, it's already a cool week regardless of what happens. I love the U.S. Open week no matter how I play.
If you make a hole-in-one it's just something memorable. Obviously we're going to keep the ball and something to tell me daughter who was there. Didn't like the noise but she was there.
Q. And your daughter's name again?
SOPHIA POPOV: Maya.
Q. And you birdied the hole before, so how about that whole run?
SOPHIA POPOV: Yeah, I think I just hit a good wedge and finally made a putt. Been playing well all day. Just haven't been making any putts.
I think it's really tough. Greens are so quick and you have so many hard breaking putts. Just tough to make them. A lot of good putts just didn't make them so finally made one and then I just had a lot of good momentum.
Obviously to follow with a 1 is really nice. Wish I could have finished with a par but 9 is tough, and yeah, nice little run for the end of the round.
Q. What's it like to be back in this atmosphere now since you missed it last year?
SOPHIA POPOV: Yeah, it's fun. You know, especially here. I have to say, the amount of spectators that have been coming out every day since Monday has been amazing.
The U.S. Open is always such a thrill because of it. It's always more people and good golf courses obviously. So it's just kind of nice to be back. It's nice to be playing in front of people and get some cheers and so I think that was kind of exciting to get that roar on No. 8.
Q. Last one: First group out today. What will we expect all day from this course?
SOPHIA POPOV: Yeah, I know, honestly, we were playing a couple holes and I had to like -- I had to remind myself we're the first group off. These greens are just going to get faster and they're going to dry out more and they're going to get tougher.
Some of the pin positions are very finicky. I would say 12 is one that comes to mind. Obviously I saw Nelly's score unfortunately but it's just -- it is so sloped and you have to be so careful. You can barely touch your downhill putts.
I think it's just going to get tougher as the day goes on. I think that's what we're going to get tomorrow.
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