I knew I was going to have to go low today.

Jessica Korda

I did a lot of growing up in 2011. Going out on tour was like being thrown into the deep end of the pool, and I was not prepared for what pro life is like. I was still in high school and had a hard time finding balance. But I got some advice from Jack Nicklaus at the end of the year, and he put a lot of things in perspective. He told me that balance is the most important thing in life - and when I start mastering that is when I'm going to be the happiest.

hard-times growing-up school

The rumor is that when I was younger, I didn't like to sweat and I didn't like to run, and both of those things are kind of important in tennis. I was introduced to a lot of sports as a child: I did gymnastics, figure skating, tennis and golf, and I dabbled a little bit in ballet. I just never fell in love with tennis the way I did with golf.

running sports children

I love what I do and I think I have one of the best jobs out there; I get paid to do what I love. So I can't complain about it. But it's nice to see younger girls - and boys - pick up the game of golf. It's one of the sports that you can play with literally anybody. They don't have to be good, or you can be great - it just depends. You can play with your whole family.

nice girl sports

I know what tournaments I'm going to be in, and I know that I don't have to qualify for pretty much anything. That's a huge relief. But I don't really set that many goals, I just want to have fun out there and enjoy what I do. When a win comes, a win comes.

goal winning fun

I played pretty conservatively, i was trying to be more aggressive on the par fives, where I could take advantage.

Once I made eagle on 17, I looked at my score card (and) I was like ‘Ooo - OK,’ days like today don’t come often, so you really cherish them when they do. Everything has to come together to have a day like today.

Honestly I need to look back at it, it was incredible, I hit some really good shots, I didn’t have too many long putts, so definitely ball striking obviously helped.