I’ve been to Olympic Club before and played the other course but I’ve got a feeling I’m going to love it. I would love to play well. Obviously it’s the US Open but if I can keep doing what I’ve been doing this year and stick to my game-plans and not put too much pressure on myself or the situation, I’d love to have a good week and I think it’s possible.

I played 18 holes on Monday morning, Tuesday and Wednesday I’m playing nine holes each day and then I’ll take Wednesday afternoon off. Sarah 10 years ago would have gone 18-18-18 which is silly. It’s about practising smarter. You don’t have to be at the golf course all day; you can get a lot done in three hours. I’m hitting the ball well so when you go to a new tournament like this it’s getting a feel for the place. Lines off the tee and do a lot of pace putting and get the speed of the greens, especially on Wednesday. I’m sure the rough’s going to be super-long but I won’t be doing anything too complicated to get ready.

I was talking to my coach John Serhan on Sunday night and while it would have been nice to make it out of the group stages at the Bank of Hope Match-Play last week, he was happy that I got a couple of days rest before such a big week. I feel like the older I get the more I appreciate recovery. When I was in my 20s I would just play week-in and week-out and now you realise that’s a bit silly. There are definitely off weeks where you can recharge and get back to the events a bit fresher. I’m trying to stick to no more than four in a row during this busy part of the season.

I got to come home to Australia and did hotel quarantine over Christmas and New Year and then had five weeks to see John. I’d been hitting the ball well for a couple of years now and we just worked really hard on my putting and in particular the pace of my putts and that has paid off.

I also worked with a sports psychologist by the name of John Crampton. I met him while I was home and we put in a couple of things that I was lacking in the mental department and added them into a routine I do on the course now. The combination of those two has been the key to the good start to the year.

I turned pro when I was 20. I’d won pretty much everything you needed to win in Australia and did some travelling overseas. I was labelled a little bit as the ‘next Karrie Webb’. I don’t remember the pressure but I’m sure there was some. I would have liked to have played this kind of golf 10 years ago but golf’s a sport that you can play for a really long time as long as you’re fit and healthy. It would have been nice to have this earlier on but it’s happening now and I’m still enjoying it.

I grew up when Karrie was No.1 in the world; that’s really hard to do. Even if you had a quarter of Karrie’s career that’s a really good career. Being Australian and coming out being talked about as the next Karrie Webb… That’s a once in a lifetime career. If I was to win a LPGA tournament, that would be a really good career. It would have been nice to win already but I feel like I’ve still got a long way to go with my career. I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon. I’m still motivated.

Winning is a really hard thing to do. There have been a lot of girls who have come out and done it first up but there are a lot of great stories of players who have been out here for 10-plus years and have had their wins after that. I’m just going to be one of those.

The last few years I’ve gotten into a really good place mentally. Off the golf course my life’s great. Not that it wasn’t before but I have taken pressure off the bigger picture. Earlier on golf was everything and I wanted it really quickly and it didn’t happen. I haven’t really done anything too differently this year and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why I’m now getting the results. It’s just kind of come together. It’s been such a great start to the year and physically and mentally I feel great.

I’ve only been in contention a handful of times and it was fun to have the lead through 36 holes at the Pure Silk Championship a few weeks ago. I loved it and I would love to be in that position more often. That’s the plan. I was nervous going into the Saturday but if I wasn’t nervous there’d probably be something wrong with me. Just tried to embrace that. That’s what I play for. I don’t want to go out there and just have a top-30 finish. It definitely got the juices flowing and I realised that’s what I want to do. I want more of that.

We had an Aussie barbecue a couple of weeks ago in Orlando so just trying to be mates with the new girls on tour like Hannah Green and Minjee Lee. I don’t know that I can give them too much good advice but first and foremost being able to hear another Aussie accent out here is pretty nice.

I’m playing one practice round with Aussie amateur Emily Mahar. We both qualified at the Virginia site together and I know she’s doing great at Virginia Tech. I got the second spot and I saw her name in the playoff and it said ‘Australia’ next to it so I went up and gave her a fist bump and said, ‘Go and get that last spot’. She messaged me on Instagram a couple of weeks later and she said she’d put her name down next to mine on one of the practice days and said, ‘I’ll see you at Olympic.’

US Women’s Open
Round 1 tee times AEST
12.11am*            Sarah Jane Smith, Kim Metraux, Gurleen Kaur (a)
12.48am              Amelia Garvey, Mi Hyang Lee, Da Yeon Lee
12.55am*            Minjee Lee, Ariya Jutanugarn, Amy Olson
1.17am*              Hannah Green, Danielle Kang, Jin Young Ko
5.30am*              Emily Mahar (a), Ssu Chia Cheng, Elizabeth Szokol
6.03am*              Sarah Kemp, Alison Lee, Aneka Seumanutafa (a)