Posted on October 22, 2020 in News.
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard: "I chained -6 and -7 and that doesn't happen to me often"
With -14 in three rounds and 7 strokes ahead of the second in a tournament in Mississippi, the 20-year-old Frenchwoman yesterday broke the record for the best score ever in the American college championship. Interview.
@Darren Reese.
Good evening Pauline. Yesterday you won the Ally, a tournament in Mississippi counting towards the college championship, your second victory in the United States. You win with 7 strokes in advance and a final score of -14, do you remember having already played so well in competition?
Recently no, because I chained -6 and -7 and that does not happen to me often. I just remember scoring -13 at St Andrews in 2016, during an international championship.
You also posted the highest score ever in the US College Championship over three rounds. During your game, were you aware that you were breaking a record?
Absolutely not. Even now, I don't even know what the old record was. I had the live scoring on my phone. On the last holes, with my lead, I tried above all to keep making birdies for my team (University of South Carolina), because you play both individually and for your university in these tournaments. As a team, we won by three points I think.
In golf, we can all play -40 with si's. But do you think you could have scored even better?
It's weird to say that but I could have done better ... but also worse (laughs). On the way back, on the 12 I miss a putt of 3 meters for birdie, then 2 meters for birdie and 1 meter for birdie on the 14. But after, I enter 3 meters on the 15 and 16 to save the par, 2 meters on the 17 for the par and I survey 8 meters on the 18 for birdie ...
With your victory, will you regain the place of world n ° 1 amateur that you had at the beginning of the year?
Honestly, I have no idea, I gave up a bit for the ranking. This ranking is more of a catch than anything else. Point counting is so complex, it's a bit of rubbish (laughs).
What is your schedule for the next few weeks?
We leave next week for the East Lake Cup in Atlanta (Georgia). The tournament will be broadcast on the Golf Channel elsewhere. Then I will play the US Open at the beginning of December (from December 10 to 13 in Houston, Texas).
When you have a really big putt to play on the 18th on the last day, what do you think of? What are the keys that you use mentally?
I just try to do simple things, without taking the cabbage more than that. I learned to control my heart rate, it is important in these times.
From what distance do you prefer to secure both putts rather than hitting it?
It's a matter of feeling, sometimes I might want to “stuff” a 10-yard putt to get it in and other times I'll take a shorter putt. It also obviously depends on the context. If I have two strokes in advance at the end of the tournament, I will tend to ensure a putt of 4 meters, while I will do everything to put it in if I am behind. But generally speaking, speed is the key to putting. You have to try to put in the putts without putting yourself in danger behind, otherwise mental fatigue accumulates. The three putts are the enemy of the golfer in a tournament, it loses points. The best players on the circuit do very little.
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