BETHAN CUTLER: Becky, fantastic opening round, 5 under par, 67 today. How pleased are you with that start?


BECKY BREWERTON: Very pleased to play very well and just continue my good form from last week. Again, my short game was excellent, so I was very happy.

BETHAN CUTLER: What was the key to the round?


BECKY BREWERTON: A lot of things, really. You have to hit a lot of fairways, which I did on the front nine. When you’re on the fairway, especially on the front nine, there are a few shorter holes you can take advantage of. So I hit quite a lot of shots in very close on the front nine, so didn’t have too much work to do left for birdie. I could reach both par 5s as well, so I managed to take advantage of those.
And again on the back nine, despite a couple bogeys which didn’t really come from too bad of shots, you just have to stay patient out there because it’s quite a demanding course and you know you’re going to have bogeys. When you do, you just have to get on with it.
And then I said to my caddie going up to 16, Let’s get back to 5. So finished with a couple of birdies, which we did. It was good.

BETHAN CUTLER: This is your fifth appearance at the Evian Masters. What have you learned over the last four?


BECKY BREWERTON: I think it does take a while actually to learn how it play this course properly. It’s just so different, I guess especially for us Europeans. It plays a little bit different to the courses we play most weeks. You really have got to position your ball.
Probably this year I’ve hit my 3 wood off the tee on a few more holes actually just trying to hit the fairway, because the rough is really tough this year, tougher than I remember. I had a couple shots in the practice rounds which I could barely get out, never mind try and go for the green or anything.
I had a couple today which I got a little bit lucky with on a couple of holes that sat up quite nicely. It’s really tough to hit the fairway, and course management here is very important.

BETHAN CUTLER: What’s the ultimate goal then this week?


BECKY BREWERTON: It would be nice to get back to back wins, which Diana Luna did it a couple of weeks ago, Martin Kaymer has done it on the men’s tour recently, so fingers crossed it will be my turn this time.

BETHAN CUTLER: You made a very gutsy statement at the beginning of the Spanish Open last week. You said you wanted to win to get into Evian. You backed up your statement. How badly did you want to get into this tournament?


BECKY BREWERTON: Very badly. I think my statement might have been slightly misinterpreted. I did want to win to get in, but I wasn’t saying, I’m gonna go out and win. That was my have to win to get in, and also to get some Solheim points as well.
It’s amazing to think that without that last week I wouldn’t even be here. Feeling sort of quite fortunate at the moment, and just thought, well, take advantage of the opportunity. Hopefully it’s meant to be.

BETHAN CUTLER: There’s a football match tonight with some celebrities and stuff. Will you taking part today?


BECKY BREWERTON: I’ll be attending. Taking part, I’m not sure. I did play quite a lot of football when I was younger. But, again, like the golf, it tends to get all a bit competitive and I would probably swing myself around a bit.
And I’m pretty sure not having played that much for quite a long time I would be stiff as a board tomorrow.
So might just let some of stars do that and sit in the background and watch.

BETHAN CUTLER: What can you tell us about the golf ball with the football pattern on it.


BECKY BREWERTON: Yeah, it’s actually through Jamie Spence, who I know quite well who is now got a job on the European Tour. I think he might even be player liaison opposite the men’s tour.
He’s involved with a company who basically started this out. Actually the pattern is supposed to make the ball look a touch bigger. I think it originated from a guy who could see only through one eye. He had sometimes some trouble getting the perspective of where the ground was in bunkers and things like that.
So I met Jamie, and he asked me if I would have a go with it and see what I thought originally. I really liked it. It’s something different. It does make the ball look probably a touch bigger. You do get used to it, and you can notice a difference when you go back to a ball that hasn’t got the markings on it.
But it was a chance meeting through Jamie, and I’ve been using it now two years and I was only supposed to be trying it.

BETHAN CUTLER: Nothing to do with the love of football?


BECKY BREWERTON: No, no, it’s not quite my team’s colors. It’s a lighter shade than the Everton kit. Lots of people do think it is because of that. But, no, it takes a while it explain the story.

BETHAN CUTLER: Were you aware of the European Solheim Cup captain, Alison Nicholas, behind the ropes?


BECKY BREWERTON: I was actually coming up 18. It’s been nice to see. Alison has been at an awful lot of tournaments this year. She’s been out on the course watching hundreds of different players. It’s just amazing this year, I think.
The standard on the European Tour is so good now. There are so many girls who are playing well and so many people who have winning this year who haven’t won for a couple years or first time winners, so she’s got her hands full trying to follow everyone around who could have a chance to get in.
So much could happen these two weeks as well, because there are so many points to play for.

Q. What do you think is your strength after winning Spain? What was the key to winning in Spain, and then what’s going to be an asset for you should you make the European Solheim Cup team?


BECKY BREWERTON: You know, things have changed so much over the last few months. I’ve started working with a coach, Stewart Craig, for about the last eight or nine months.
When I originally started to go and see him, I thought he could make my short game better, but I didn’t think he would be able to make my long game that much better because I always thought it was quite good.
He’s out there again, more distance, more accuracy, I’m hitting it great and my short game is really coming together. We’ve worked really hard this week. We spent quite a lot of time yesterday playing lots of different shots as well.
I think probably a key moments a couple weeks ago, I went to see a sports psychologist before Spain. Because I’ve been playing consistently well, and I was a little bit frustrated in the few weeks leading up I hadn’t managed to get a win. Just thought there might be something there. We had a chat, and amazingly the next week I’ve gone out and won and I shot a great score today.
I finally feel like for the first time ever, maybe every single aspect of my game and mentality is sort of coming together. I feel incredibly calm on the course at the moment. I’m pretty laid back anyway, but even calmer than usual.
Hopefully if I can perform well in these two weeks and get more points and qualify for the team, I’ll just be really looking forward to it.
The experience last time, the only thing I said to people that asked me what it was like was, You just have to get in and see for yourself, because you can’t explain it.
And the feeling playing with Laura on the first day on the first tee, I’ve never felt anything like it. Although was really nervous, my adrenaline was pumping, it was really in a good sort of way and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m absolutely desperate to make the team again.

Q. The wind is going to be a factor this afternoon and tomorrow. How does that play into your game?


BECKY BREWERTON: Yeah, I’m quite comfortable with the wind. I’ve grew up in North Wales on a few of those links courses, so it’s not much of a problem. It does make the course play even tougher. Wouldn’t be surprised if maybe the scoring isn’t quite as good when the wind gets up. It’s tricky enough anyway.
I’m just glad that I managed to play as many holes as I did in morning in calm conditions. Yeah, we’ll see what happens this afternoon.