Thailand’s star Ariya Jutanugarn, who won the Women’s British Open 2016, is looking towards defending her title at the British Open 2017, which is being held in Scotland. It was the fourth of Jutanugarn’s five victories in 2016, and made her first player from Thailand, male or female, to win a major championship.

 

The Thai golfer shares her thoughts on her numero uno position in Golf, her game and more. Excerpts:

 

  

You've obviously had a chance to see the course in very bad conditions. What're your first thoughts about the golf course? Do you like it?

 

I really like the course. Really challenge, and I think it's going to be really tough one and depending on like how the wind also if the wind picks up, I think it's going to be very hard.

 

Have you thought about how many drivers you're going to use this weekend at all?

 

No, I didn't use that last year and not this week.

 

Not even in the bag?

 

No. In my locker.

 

How is your health? First of all, how's your shoulder, and are you sick on top of that?

 

Yeah, I'm sick. My shoulder getting better but last week I start to hurt a little bit. I hit a few bad shots, lots of bad shots. So my shoulder started to hurt but it's getting better.

 

How are you treating it? Have you gotten a cortisone shot? What's your treatment for your shoulder?

 

It's been the same thing. I have like surgery before, so when I sometimes hit bad shots, I hurt my shoulder and I have my personal physio so that he can do the same thing, so we're going with the same stuff.

 

What part of your game do you think will help you stand out from the rest of the week and ultimately prevail in this tournament and win?

 

I think it's going to be really tough one, especially if it's windy and some greens, we really need to be like aggressive. Like some holes is pretty hard. I think if I just make sure to keep the ball in the fairway and hit all the greens and make sure I 2-putt, so it should be good.

 

You have a lot going on in the last couple of months, from thinking you're No. 1, finding out you weren't No. 1, to winning to getting to No. 1, to getting hurt a little bit to maybe not being at your best form. Can you just talk about you're dealing with all of these challenges the last couple months?

 

I mean, a lot of things happened to me the last few months. But you know, I think when I won the tournament and become No. 1, I didn't expect that like I'm going to win the tournament and become No. 1. But after that, I didn't have a good week after that, and I start to hurt a little bit and you know, like we can -- we know we can get sometimes we're not going to have a good week and it's happened to me last month but I just never give up. Keep working on the same stuff. I know what I've been working on.

 

Can you tell us why you smile before you hit a shot and sometimes how over a putt you smile, can you talk us through why you do that?

 

I just really want to stay positive and I just have to say something to myself and make me smile before the shot. It's pretty tough last week that it's windy, so not much patience.

 

How big a story was it in Thailand nationally when you won here last year?

 

It's really big. They are very happy about that and I'm very proud to represent Thailand and make them proud of me.

 

For people from Thailand and Korea and some Asian countries where golf is a relatively new phenomenon, becoming No. 1 is something that it seems to be you're doing for your whole country; versus in America if an American is No. 1, it seems like all of America is on their back it seems like. How challenging is that to be No. 1 knowing that your entire country takes special pride in that and is intensity interested in that?

 

It's a challenge for me. Like what I did, I just feel like when I play golf, of course, I want to have fun. I want to be happy. I want to do it for myself. But besides that, I really want to do it for Thailand.

 

It's a challenge not to be No. 1, but it's even harder when a lot of people expect me to play well. It's going to be harder for me to have fun and go enjoy my golf game. I know all the Thai people are going to give my full support no matter what, even my World Ranking right now is not No. 1 or two or anything, but they still give me full support. They are not worried about the outcome. They are worried about like, they want me to be healthy and that is all they ask for.