Women’s British Open: The reaction from Sunday

Stacy Lewis (-8 after Rd 3)
I was up at 4.30am so it was still dark when I woke up which is hard to do over here. I had a bunch of opportunities and if you can just get a couple of putts to fall here and there you’re right where you need to be.
So this is I think the third time we have done 36 holes in the last five Majors so we are kind of used to it and you’ve just got to grind it out.

Suzann Pettersen (-7 after Rd 3)
I hit one bad shot on 11 that cost me a 3-putt but overall very solid. I felt like it was just a little bit harder to get that much closer to certain pins but overall very happy. 
It was just nice testing, playing 15, 16, 17 I really stepped up to the plate. Sometimes the putts are going to drop, sometimes they are not.

Na Yeon Choi (-7 after Rd 3)
Last two days I didn’t hit any bunkers but I got a lot of bunkers out there. It was kind of nightmare, every bunker was not a good lie so I had to just lay up.
I’m pretty sure my coach will say you’re in a good position, trust yourself. So I just get a little pep talk from him and then enjoy the weather.

Morgan Pressel (-9 after Rd 3)
I gave myself a pretty close look at Wegman’s and it felt great to be back in contention and it feels the same way here. Especially at such a special place St Andrews.
It’s tough, especially that back nine plays really difficult. You just have to think so much over every shot.

Inbee Park (+6)
I four-putted the 1st hole so it’s really tough to get going after that. I am just glad that this tournament is over, it’s something that I’ve never experienced before and I just had a great experience. It it tough to be in the centre of everything for everything and I feel exhausted a little bit. I’ve done something amazing this season, I don’t even know if I can do that again.
I’m trying to get my game back on a level when I was playing the US Open. It’s been mostly putting this week that I had a lot of trouble with three putts and even a four putt.
 

Champion Stacy Lewis (-8)

I was honestly trying to make par on 17. I was trying to hit it down there to the front of the green and 2-putt and move on. That was kind of the goal. And then I hit a perfect golf shot. I mean, that was the shot is saw in my head, but to actually pull it off, when it counts, a shot like that doesn’t happen very often. So I knew after I hit it close, I was like, I have to make this putt.

It’s one of those shots you see in your head but you don’t really ever pull it off, and off the clubface, it was perfect. I was just yelling at it to get down, because if you land it up top, it was going to go over. So I was fortunate laying it into the slope and it killed it a little bit.

The Curtis Cup week, I played the course 11 times that week, so I saw it in a right-to-left wind, a left-to-right wind, in rain, in sun. I saw it in all the conditions and during the practice round, I said to my caddie, this hole is into the wind, but if it’s downwind, what are we going to do. We talked about all the scenarios. When stuff changed out there, we rolled with it and it didn’t seem like a big deal.

I remember one of my matches in the Curtis Cup, the pin was in a similar place on 18. I remember having a putt back up the hill and leaving it short. So that’s kind of the mistake there is to not get the putt to the hole, because you say the swale on the other side, you think it’s downhill but it’s actually back up the hill. So I had a littler bit of knowledge there, and that whole right half of the green doesn’t break as much as you think.

Na Yeon Choi (-6)

I know that was a great opportunity to finish great, but my focus wasn’t bad. I think sometimes when I play 36 holes, I felt like after 30 holes, I felt very tired. But I was okay, and I think I missed a lot of putts out there.

If I compare the first and second day and today, the first two days I didn’t miss many fairways, I didn’t miss any greens. But today, I got maybe five or six bunkers out there. If you hit a fairway bunker, you have to lay up. So it was kind of driving me crazy. 

I didn’t know where Stacy had birdie. She got birdie on 17 and 18? That’s huge. Especially on this golf course.