Following is the online diary of Susie Mathews as she competes in the NCAA Championships this week at Auburn’s Grand National Resort in Opelika, AL.

Day 1
Monday, May 17

Our flight (on May 14) was fantastic because we got moved up to Business Class. We were really excited about being in Business Class. We had more room, and we really enjoyed our ride over here.

We got here late on Friday and went over to a different course and played there and hit balls. It was good to get out and move around after our long trip. The next morning (Saturday) we got to play again. The most important thing is that we are climatized and used to the time difference. A lot of teams got here late Saturday night, and had early tee times on Sunday, so they weren’t quite as prepared as us. Our Sunday practice round went very well.

The weather here is very humid. We’ve been drinking lots of fluids. Today we had some thunder clouds, but we didn’t play when they were around. We’re prepared to play in this type of weather because we’ve played in it before.

After two practice rounds on the course, we feel very confident and we’re looking forward to tomorrow (first round). Everyone is playing well and hitting good shots. You can see that we’re really playing with a lot of confidence.

[Experience] helps being there before. You know how to play in certain situations. You know what’s expected. Winning our last tournament gave us some momentum and confidence.

Nerves are a good thing. You can use them to your advantage. We’ve played in enough tournaments to know how to play under this situation.

We’ve had a lot of fun. We did interviews today with CBS and they were great. Hannah [Jun] had a lot of fun sitting behind the microphone with the NCAA logo behind her. She wants [the background] banner to wallpaper her room. Dinner last night was at the [Auburn] president’s mansion. It was nice to visit his house and meet all the different people. Tonight Nancy Lopez spoke at our rules meeting. She was exciting to hear. On the team Hannah (Jun) has been keeping us laughing with her singing. Krystal made us [personalized] bag tags. Everyone has contributed to the spirit of the event. It makes it special to be over here.