Q&A: Dewi Weber Is Playing the Best Golf of Her Career

Dewi Weber left Hazeltine with not just her best finish in a KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to date, but the best finish of her career.

It was a week that reflected steady progress rather than a single breakthrough moment. It was a testament to the mental fortitude needed to sustain four rounds of major championship golf on a course as complex as Hazeltine, and Weber showed a level of control and consistency that’s been building throughout her entire journey with golf.

Her top-5 performance came with her biggest payday—and maybe more importantly, a clearer sense of where her game is trending. Skratch caught up with her to talk through that progress, what clicked at Hazeltine, and what comes next as she tries to build on a week that felt like an arrival point in its own way.

RELATED: The 5 Biggest Takeaways From the KPMG Women's PGA Championship

ADDIE PARKER: I mean let's start with that near 4-hour rain delay. How did you manage?

DEWI WEBER: I was staying about 25 minutes away with some friends. While I was driving, we got a notification from the PGA about a weather alert. I texted my group chat asking what it meant and whether we were delayed, because I was about ten minutes into my drive and would’ve turned around if we were. My friends who were already at the course said everyone was still on the range, they weren’t sure what it meant, but it looked like we were just playing through it.

By the time I got there and sat down for breakfast, they had blown the horn and officially suspended play. The next update was set for 8 A.M. They called it around 7, which already told you it was a pretty significant delay—otherwise it would’ve been in 30-minute increments.

AP: What was going on? Was it kind of just, business as usual for you, or were you kinda like, 'I'm just ready to get this over with'?

DW: Eight rolled around, the update was pushed to 9 A.M., and it was clear it was going to be a while. Everyone was looking at the radar, doing the math, and we pretty quickly realized we probably wouldn’t be going out until noon. I’d already been there since just before seven, so it was a long wait.

But we just made the best of it. A few of us were sitting around at breakfast, not really doing anything—definitely not talking about golf—just talking about everything else. The anticipation wasn’t really getting to me. I’ve felt that before, but this time it was pretty relaxed. We just kind of hung out and killed time.

AP: I know you've made some recent changes with a new mental coach. How much of that played a factor into last week or you feel like this has kind of been building for a while?

DW: No, I think that definitely played a major factor into last week. I made that change a little bit the week before, and I think it really helped me push through this week.

What also really helped—and it was the same the week before [at Meijer], even though I missed the cut—was surrounding myself with people I like and love. We had a good time both on and off the golf course, so before I even stepped foot on the course, I was already in a good mood because we were just having fun.

It was the same getting off the golf course. I looked forward to going home—not more than I was looking forward to playing, necessarily—but I knew I got to be with my people, hang out, relax and truly chill.

It's something I really enjoy, and it makes this life so much more fun than doing everything by yourself.

AP: You had a moment on 18 green after that long putt you left yourself where you looked up at the sky, very briefly. Can you kind of divulge what you were thinking? Do you even remember doing that? I said to myself, I don't think she's like praying, but like it was a little moment.

DW: No, I was not praying—it's going to sound so silly. I felt drops of water and I just was wondering if it was gonna pour again.

But no, I was also like, I think especially the last final holes, people just take a long time on the green. And so I was just kinda killing time. I was just like trying to do everything but overanalyze the putt that I left myself after my I don't know 80-footer that I had. I was just soaking up the moment, I guess, but also definitely wondering if it was gonna pour right as I was going to putt.

AP: Important question—has the check hit yet?

DW: No, no, it's on Friday. I can't wait for that dopamine hit.

AP: It's always pretty cool to get the first big paycheck, but I'm assuming we're saving for the baby. But I mean, what is that like one big purchase that you would kind of make?

DW: Yeah, it it's kind of a running joke, right? I live in LA and everything's really expensive and everything that I do—my dog is sitting right there—we have this big ass German Shepherd and he deserves a backyard. So that's kind of been the joke—one step closer to it.

AP: You're 30 now though, so we're a little bit older, a little bit wiser, so is that what we're waiting for? The house?

DW: My wife is very fiscally responsible, and she's kinda rubbed off on me, which is a good thing, because I didn't used to be that way. The thing we're thinking of right now is because we're having a kid in December and because we have a big dog and our car is I mean, it's perfectly fine sized, but I think I would like maybe something slightly bigger.

And I think that's that's kind of what we're looking at. But there's absolutely no rush in that.

AP: I do want to switch gears and discuss the elephant in the room that is Solheim Cup, in your home country. Have you allowed yourself to think about it a little bit more now?

DW: I've been able to think about it, but I also found out that as of now as much as I want to play, and I'm obviously not in charge of like getting a [captain's] pick or whatever, but like I wouldn't even able to because I don't have LET status—and I did not know that.

I did not know that you had to have that. So that's something that I've been made aware of.

AP: Wow, okay. So what now?

DW: I need to win in the next three events. 'Cause that would do that, that would solve it. I mean the goal is very clear, it's not easy, obviously. I've never done that before [win], there's plenty of people that have never done that before and that's okay. But the goal is very clear: I would love to play Solheim Cup and the fact that it's in my home country.

I would love nothing more, but I need to play well. I need to play so well that I need to win either a major or the Scottish. So that's the goal.

AP: I mean, after a week like last week at a course like Hazeltine, does that [winning] feel more possible now?

DW: Yeah, this week more than anything else, has given me confidence and it's like allowing me to see how well I can play when I do certain things well and certain things that are like well in my control as well.

AP: Where is your is your confidence level now, especially between like you and Reynolds [your caddie]? How is that dynamic now that you did come so close?

DW: The focus stays the same. I have good technique, I have good skill set, but what I'm gonna come back to more than anything is what's in my control, and that is my mindset. Not letting myself get too high or too low and just focusing on the thing that is right in front of you as cliche as that might sound.

That, I think, is truly the thing that propelled me forward last week. And that's something that is super actionable, at least for me it is. I can take with me, not just the next three weeks, but from this moment forward.

PGA of America/Getty Images

AP: Going back to the host venue of the Solheim Cup, is there anything that you can kind of allude to for fans who may not know a ton about golf culture in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands, period?

DW: It's a pretty atypical design because it's Kyle Phillips, so you get a more American-style golf course in Europe. I think also just for Dutch terms, the property is just quite impressive. Most of our really good golf courses are quite old, and what I mean by that, is that the practice facilities aren't necessarily like the most expansive.

You get your driving range, you get a small pot bunker and green, but the courses are impressive and they're old and they're very, very cool, but you make the most out of the like small space that you have. Whereas this golf course is very much like, okay, they bought a bunch of land and then they start a building.

A general view of the course during Day One of the Dutch Open at Bernardus Golf on September 16, 2021 in Cromvoirt, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

AP: What makes Bernardus standout?

DW: The short game facility is amazing. You've got two massive putting greens. You've got a massive driving range with good targets. The surface is excellent. There's a there's a Michelin-star restaurant right on property.

So it's just this like kind of luxury experience that you have in the Netherlands that is very atypical of what you normally get, which I think is just kind of fun. It's also open to the public, it's not this super duper private golf course, everyone can go. Yes, it's pricey, but like in the same way that everyone can go to Pebble.

AP: Are there any special features to the course layout itself that will resonate come Solheim week?

DW: The golf course is...it's cool. The layout's great, I think. You get get these bigger greens that are quite undulated and they can get super firm in the summer, I remember. So undulation and firmness means now we have to hit the ball high with spin in order to stop it to certain pins.

It's a fun golf course to play but also to watch some cool shots and watch what the best in the world can do.

AP: I can't wait for Amsterdam, it's gonna be so sick. But to tie this back to KPMG, what have been some of the immediate reactions from your friends and family? Has it settled in a bit more?

DW: This is kind of funny, one of the first things that one of my friends said to me as I got off the golf course and gave her a hug, she was like, 'I'm so proud of you, I'm so happy for you'...and she goes, 'but the fist bump game, girl, we gotta work on that'. [Laughs.]

On hole 7, for example [with the eagle] I wanted to very aggressively let out like this, like Tiger-esque reaction. I wanted to do it so badly. However, I know when I do that, I get so amped up. And then I get to the next shot and I have such a hard time calming myself down. Then it becomes this game of like, yes, I want to show emotion and I want show passion, but like now my anxiety level is high.

AP: I mean for us mortal people who will never know that feeling of what it's like to contend in a major, walk us through like the self regulation you were doing.

DW: It's this constant game for myself at least to be like, 'yep, you did what you needed to do'. I can't get too animated because I know it won't help me. So my fist pump on 17 is probably the only fist pump I did all day.

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It was a very mediocre one, I knew it was lame, but I was very happy with the putt that went in and the last drop.

And like listen, we can't have it all. One day I will get there where I can just be as hyped up as I am right now about how I played. But that wasn't this week, it wasn't the time to try that. There were plenty of other things going on.

AP: I will say, you redeemed yourself on 18. That was like a 296-yard drive, it was absolutely crushed. So you you bounced back.

DW: It was smoked. It was a bit of a daunting tee shot for me because I was hitting cuts very comfortably and that tee shot, in my opinion requires more of a draw. The last thing I wanted to do there was make a hesitant, guided swing. So the thought was 'we're just gonna try, we see this target and we're literally gonna go all out', and I did that. I hit that so hard.

And it went straight. And then on my approach, I was like, 'I think I have a lot of adrenaline'. It was not enough adrenaline to hit my sand wedge 120 yards, but that's okay. We make mistakes, we move on.