FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 3rd, 2018

NOTABLE QUOTES: RICOH WOMEN’S BRITISH OPEN, THURSDAY’S OPENING ROUND

Golf Channel Notable Quotes

Ricoh Women’s British Open

Round One (6 a.m.-1 p.m. ET)

Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club

Lytham St Annes, England

Thursday, Aug. 2

 

** Live coverage of Friday’s second round of Ricoh Women’s British Open airs on Golf Channel from 6 a.m.-1 p.m. ET.

**Media can also access notable quotes via @GolfChannelPR on Twitter or by visiting www.nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com**

 

Leaderboard: Ricoh Women’s British Open Round 1 Leaderboard

**Round 1 play is continuing until around 8:30 p.m. BST / 3:30 p.m. ET.

 

Minjee Lee, current leader at 7-under par, speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Minjee Lee – “I had a pretty solid day today. I made a whole lot of putts today and hit some solid shots so I’m pretty happy with today.”

Lee – “The last couple of days the wind started to blow at the Scottish so I think I had a pretty good prep. Obviously it was a great tournament in itself as well but the British is something like no other.”

Lee – “I think just managing your way around the bunkers and what is smart play and what is good to take an aggressive line on. Plotting my way around. My course management has been good.”

Lee – “I think we got pretty lucky with the weather this afternoon and hopefully we get lucky tomorrow.

 

On Mamiko Higa, currently in 2nd at 6-under par

Rich Lerner – “Green Bay Packers colors today, and hitting the ball on the fairways with Aaron Rodgers accuracy.”

 

On Georgia Hall, currently T3 at 5-under par

Judy Rankin – “She is a ball striker and is aggressive.”

Karen Stupples – “Her short game has been pretty hot today.”

Lerner – “Demonstrating a sophisticated arsenal of shot making today.”

Rankin – “Georgia with a definite spring in her step today. Her dad is on the bag, the same as when she so successfully played at Kingsbarns a year ago.”

Lerner – “She’s a player. And she’s a factor. Five birdies, no bogeys.”

 

Georgia Hall speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Georgia Hall – “I’m very happy, started the round really well with a birdie on the first hole with a birdie on the first hole. That got me going. To have a bogey free round I’m extremely happy.”

Hall – “I went for a dinner for here last night and I saw a picture of him the year he won the Open, which was the year I was born. He just said to stay out of the bunkers, which I you know, I did today. I was very good off the tee and luckily I hit some putts. 5-under is a good score.

Hall – “I think there is nothing like this and there is nothing like a good day on a links golf course. It is so beautiful to play and I really enjoy links. I think you can play so many different shots out here and it is great fun. I love playing links.”

Hall – “It is always great, my mom and dad don’t get to watch a lot because I play on the LPGA a lot in America, so they don’t always get to come. It is so nice to have my boyfriend here as well. I got so many cheers on the first tee it is so nice to have that support.”

 

On Sung Hyun Park, currently T3 at 5-under par 67

Rankin – “Early on the caddies and players nicknamed her Tiger because she was very long off the tee. She is a very fine player with a beautiful golf swing. It didn’t take long when she arrived to the LPGA Tour to have everyone talking.”

Lerner – “She reminds me of Rory McIlroy on the men’s tour. When she is firing on all cylinders, she is fun to watch.”

Lerner – “She is not leading, but she might be the player to beat.”

 

On Lydia Ko, currently 8th at 4-under par

Lerner – “Though she has not been dominant the last couple of years, you have to keep in mind that overall record. She has been a superstar in the women’s game.”

 

Lydia Ko speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Lydia Ko – “I played really solid. I felt like I gave myself a lot of good opportunities, especially where there are a lot of bunkers around. I tried to avoid them too. Overall, I played really solid. I felt like I could have had a few more putts to drop. But, starting with a 4-under at the first round at the British, I’ll take it. I think it is a solid start to this week.”

Ko – “I felt like I played alright, but I just couldn’t hole a putt. I was laughing about it. I only made two birdies there last year and missed the cut. I thought, ha ha, that is so funny, I played so bad. And then I did the exact same thing this year. So, maybe I shouldn’t laugh about it. But I really enjoyed playing Gullane. It is a fun golf course and a good lead-in to this one. Not much golf on the weekend, but it was good to get some rest before this week.”

Ko – “I think I just need to focus on my game, be confident and commit to every single shot that I am going to hit. To make sure not to pull the trigger if I have doubts in my head. I think that is a really big key for me. I know there are a lot of things going on, so I just have to believe in my game and believe in myself, and go out there and have fun.”

 

On Sandra Gal, currently T8 at 4-under par

Tom Abbott – “Royal Lytham shouldn’t be this easy, but Sandra is making it easy today. I think quite a few players will be looking up at the leaderboard and be quite shocked to see how well Sandra is playing purely because of the difficulty of the golf course.”

 

Sandra Gal speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Sandra Gal – “After the first round I led here with a 69 in 2009. That was my second year on Tour, so I was a little surprised by that but very excited. I know the second day the winds were completely different, quite challenging. It is nice to be back here in the same position on this beautiful golf course.

Gal – I think now what I do is a little bit more conscious. I kind of know my game better. I’m hitting certain shots more on purposes. I think before I was very young and just reacting to everything. So I feel a little more adult and a little more grown up maybe.

Gal – I actually I didn’t know I had six birdies in seven holes until just now signing the scorecard. I was just really in the flow. It was raining quite a bit so it really kept me in the moment. Just trying to hit one good shot after the other. I kind of missed a couple of birdies in the beginning. I said OK let’s just not read them as much and trust my feel a little bit more and that worked.

Gal – “Big difference. Very thankful I met him and started working with him. We just tightened up my swing. No big changes but I think he gave me a lot of confidence with left hand low putting. Just a couple of minor adjustments with that, and hitting consistent fades with my irons, tee shots. That also has given me a lot of confidence.

 

Hall of Fame broadcaster Peter Alliss, joining Lerner and Rankin in the broadcast booth, on the current state of the game

Peter Alliss – “I can’t play anymore but I observe and I have a point of view and I don’t mind expressing it in my usual arrogant way. People seem to enjoy the nonsense. It’s fun in a way.”

Alliss – “You can continue playing with the use of a buggy, or a golf cart and provided you’ve got some money, as long as you can walkabout, you can play until you are 80, 90, 100 years old. You can’t really play very good basketball at 95 and the legs are gone. Or football, your football, where you try to kill each other. Golf is a wonderful, wonderful game. A mirror of life. People behave out there as they do in life. Well, some of them cheat a bit and are a little unstable. Some of them, well most of them, are lovely.”

 

On Thursday’s opening round at Royal Lytham & St Annes

Rankin – “I think the scoring was very good. For the most part, the field had a beautiful day to play and the golf course, was probably, I never know if this is a word – getable – as it is going to be.”

Rankin – “Anything under par is good today. Some were better than others. It is a fantastic golf course. When you find a course that is this hard, and a player never says a bad word about it. Pretty spectacular.”

Rankin – “I’ve often said that professional golf is like taking an SAT test every day, only they print your score in the paper.”

Rankin – “The golf course itself, I think it suits almost any type of player. I don’t think you have to be a certain type of player to play well here. You do have to be a player who is accurate off the tee because it is very challenging to get the ball in the spot where can play to the green.”

Maureen Madill – “A number of players we’re saying that they really enjoy coming over to play links golf, but they wouldn’t like to do it every week. They find it very draining. I think when you are brought up on more dart board kind of golf, where you pitch and the ball stops, you learn to control that. There are a lot of vagaries in links game. You’ve got to learn to read the ground and read the roll.”

Karen Stupples – “Every time I go back to a course I played at a Ricoh Women’s British Open, I normally get some happy nostalgic feelings of yes, great to be back. This one, not so much. When I got here, I remembered standing on the tee thinking, ‘How in the world am I going to hit these fairways?’ They are so well bunkered.”

Jerry Foltz – “Even though it is a very flat course, when you finish a round here you are very tired, mentally especially.”

Stupples – “Much has been said about how hard Carnoustie is. For the women, Lytham is very comparable in terms of toughness, just because of where they have positioned the bunkers. When the men play here they can carry over a lot of the bunkers and clear the trouble. The women really have to place their shots around the bunkers.”

Stupples – “At no point can you stand over these tee shots on this golf course and just breathe easy here. Every one requires a great deal of thought.”

 

Brooke Henderson, currently 12th at 3-under par, speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Brooke Henderson – “The first holes were a little shaky. I got in some of those put bunkers and found they are very difficult to get out of, but after that I settled down a little bit. The back nine was great. Gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities and was able to make a lot of them.

Henderson – “You really need to avoid them (the pot bunkers). Early like I said I got in to them and that was trouble, but after that I missed them and that is when I was able to hit fairways and greens pretty regularly.”

Henderson – “Every time you are over here you learn more. Just the experience is all you really need. It is very different than what I grew up playing on. I think today the wind conditions were very low and we didn’t see a lot of the weather. A little bit of rain but nothing too much. Hopefully I can adjust over the weekend.”

 

Yu Liu, currently 12th at 3-under par, speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Yu Liu – Just my second major championship and definitely very happy, not the way I wanted to finish but I’ll take a 3-under at a major championship.

Liu – “I think it is all about judgement. You have to pick your pitching distance, you have to know where to aim your lines off the tee and approach shots. It is a lot of thinking for sure but it is a lot of fun.”

Liu – “That was my first time playing on a links golf course. I always loved hitting in the wind. I’ve been practicing hard because it used to be one of my weaknesses but now I’ve turned it into one of my strengths, so it definitely.”

Liu – “So apparently it went pretty well the first 17 holes. I learned the last hole about the importance of keeping your ball in the fairway. I will take that into tomorrow.”

 

On So Yeon Ryu, currently 12th at 3-under par

Rankin – “She is a beautiful player. She went through a little bit of time after the ANA victory, where she was pressing herself to prove that she was that good of a player. She seems to have some renewed confidence.”

Peter Alliss – “Once you can hit the ball and play, confidence is everything. Once you can control your thoughts – which is the most difficult thing – If you have a swing and know how to chip and putt, you then bind it together with what is behind your ears. That is the most difficult thing to secure in your bag.”

Rankin – “She is a really lovely person who demands a lot of herself.”

 

Jessica Korda, currently T29 at 1-under par, speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Jessica Korda – “It is great, any score under par I would have taken this morning. I was 2-over through three and it wasn’t looking so great. Very happy to come in under par.”

Korda – “It was tough. It started to get really windy and the rain came in, which it wasn’t supposed to so not a lot of us were completely prepared, but still prepared enough. Just glad I’m done and sit on my butt a little bit and watch the girls come in.”

Korda – “Links golf is so different that anything else we play. A lot of it is luck in terms of bounces and stuff like that. So you just need to stay calm and can’t get too excited but you also can’t get too far down so anything can happen out here. Definitely coming in here with some confidence.”

 

On Shanshan Feng on the 18th and her chip in for par

Stupples – “I think that was a bad break to where she was in the bunker, good break to end up in between the two and then she capitalized on it by making the chip.

Abbott – “So many ways to make pars around here, and this is a prime example.”

 

Shanshan Feng speaking with Golf Channel’s Cara Banks following her round

Shanshan Feng – “I didn’t know I hit that second shot that far and it got in the bunker with a downhill lie. What I was trying to do was to try to get the ball landing on the green and whatever was left to try to make a putt. But I topped it, so the ball hit the pin and ran just between two bunkers. I told myself that I know this is a tough shot but I went through my routine and I thought, ‘I think I’ve got this.’ and then I made a good chip, good contact and it went in. It was a good finish. Made the round feel better because I finished with a red score.”

Feng – “I didn’t do much in the past three weeks, I enjoyed my life back in China. Hang out with my friends and family. I came here on Sunday, so I arrived Sunday afternoon, Played nine holes on Monday and the pro-am on Tuesday so I’m well rested.”

Feng – “My parents are both here because they want to celebrate my birthday with me, and then I’m taking my dad to St Andrews next week because that is one of his dreams to play on the Old Course. I think I’m looking forward to the weekend and also next week.”

 

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