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U.S. WOMEN'S MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 11, 2014Margaret ShirleyNOBLESVILLE, INDIANA Q. Congratulations, Margaret, the 20th U.S. women's Mid‑Amateur champion. How does it feel? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Oh, I honestly‑‑ it's surreal. It just doesn't feel real right now. It's obviously the pinnacle of our sport, a USGA championship, and to be able to say I'm a USGA champion now is incredible. It really is. Q. This is, we think, only the sixth or seventh time that we've had a rematch in a USGA championship. How did you feel coming into the week and as the week kept progressing and you could see it might‑‑ MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, when I saw the match play bracket come out, I was kind of like, yeah, we're on opposite sides, that's good. Yeah, I played well all week. Obviously after last year I was kind of hungry and was really ready to get back to this championship to give it another go. Match play is so funny; you just never know how it's going to go, so just to be in the finals again is a huge accomplishment, but to come away with the win today is unreal. Q. You had to come back and finish your semifinal round. What was that like? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, we kind of ended on 9, halfway through it, and I was 2‑up, which is always nice, but I kind of went into it like I was all square. Unfortunately obviously Meghan is a phenomenal player, and she didn't have her best stuff out there, but I played really well against her. I think I had all pars on the front. I think the only bogey I made was on 13. I guess we only played 14 holes, so one bogey in 14 holes on a championship golf course is really solid. I don't even think I had a birdie. But I was just really consistent in that match against Meghan, which I knew I had to do. And like I said, I know she didn't play her best, but I played really solid. Q. So you get that win under your belt, turn right around, go into the afternoon rematch with Julia and you right away went 1‑up. MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, actually all my matches going back, I think I had won either the first or second hole in all of them, so that was good. I made a really good shot into No.1. It was kind of playing long. There's a lot of wind up there. But I hit a really solid, I think a 5‑hybrid in there, maybe 4‑hybrid, and my putt was dead center, so that was good. For the rest of the round that putt kind of got me going. Definitely a good start. Q. Your putter seemed to be treating you very well today. MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yes, obviously that putt on No.1 was huge. Even the putt on No.2, Julia and I‑‑ I got kind of a lucky bounce there. I'm not going to say I didn't. But I hit it up there five feet. She hits it to three or four, and I made that putt, which was good just to halve. And I guess it was 7, I made a really good birdie there. That's actually the first time I've hit that green all week, in I guess seven rounds or eight rounds, whatever it is. Just always happy to be on that green. And that putt was dead center. My speed was really good on all of them, and obviously my lines were good. Yeah, so I was definitely putting well today. I lipped out the one on 8, but I'm happy with a par on that hole. So that's it. It's a short hole, but it's a very tough green, so I was happy just to come away with a par there. Q. Talk about your last‑‑ you played well today, but your last 34 holes, you only lost two holes to your opponent. MARGARET SHIRLEY: Oh, I didn't know that. Q. And made four bogeys in your last 32 holes, so talk about that stretch. MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, you know what, I kind of kept having bad stretches in my first few matches. Like I was having a three‑ or four‑hole bad stretch here and there. But yeah, against Meghan, that's probably the best I've hit it all week other than the second round of stroke play. I was hitting greens, and the greens are pretty‑‑ they're pretty small if you're hitting them, so you're normally going to have a pretty good putt for birdie. But my ball‑striking was just really, really solid my last two matches. Yeah, to go around and only make a handful of bogeys, throw in a few birdies is nice. Q. You had a big lead on the back nine, and you led late last year. Did anything creep into your head like, oh, this is sort of the scenario‑‑ MARGARET SHIRLEY: To be quite honest I couldn't even remember last year's match. You know, what we were at the turn or anything, I had no clue. I was trying to think actually out there. I was like, I wonder where I was this time last year. But no, I just kept trying to obviously win holes and really just keep hitting greens, because like I said, if you can hit the greens and you have a pretty good putt most of the time‑‑ but I tried to block last year out. We had a great match, and I ended up so poorly, that's the only thing I can remember from it quite honest, other than Julia's unbelievable bunker shot she had on 18 last year. I do remember that. Q. From a standpoint off the tee, you're often hitting longer clubs into greens than your opponents. MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah. Q. Does that change the way that you sort of practice hitting hybrids, hitting‑‑ MARGARET SHIRLEY: No, in my warmup I did hit‑‑ I don't hit all my clubs in my warmup, but I did hit all my hybrids and woods in my warmup. But I'm a shorter hitter, and that's fine with me. That's how I've always been. My hybrids are normally really good. Sometimes I get those closer than my wedges at points. But that is what it is. If someone is longer than me, I'm not going to let that affect me. Q. How much different did the course play once it was wet? MARGARET SHIRLEY: It definitely played longer. Today and yesterday were definitely longer than the qualifying rounds and the first couple rounds of stroke play. I know I think No.10 this morning I hit a little 5‑hybrid in from 150, which is normally a 6‑iron for me, so there was a really stiff wind there even off the tee. The ball is obviously not going as far, so they were just hitting and stopping in the fairways. If you didn't hit a solid drive, you were definitely going to be further back than normal. It definitely played longer the last couple days. Q. Actually your mom pointed this out to me that last year Julia was the medalist, you were third, and Julia won. It was an exact role reversal this year. What was the experience like doing this all again against such a familiar opponent, and both of you have said over and over again, not just an opponent but a friend? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, and that's what's really cool, and that's what's so great about golf is the friendships that you form. Julia is a great champion, obviously a phenomenal player but an even better person. We had so much fun out there. That is crazy that she was medalist last year and I was this year and kind of how it all worked out. But it was kind of relaxing this last match. It really was, to play someone that you know. She likes to talk out there, and just so laid back, so that kind of made me laid back and not so focused, and I won't say it was a casual round, but it kind of had that feel somewhat that we were just kind of out there playing as friends, which was nice. Q. What are you going to tell the kids back at Atlanta Junior Golf? MARGARET SHIRLEY: I don't know. Q. You work with different kids‑‑ MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, what I do is we manage a lot of competitions, so we run almost 120 events a year, most of them in the summer, and I oversee all of our tournament operations and everything, but I don't work with kids with swings or anything. But I'm out there, and I do have quite a few of them come up and ask for advice, especially knowing I was a college coach and college player. I don't know, maybe this makes me more credible that I know what I'm doing, I don't know. I don't know what I'd say to them. But I have gotten a ton of support actually from a lot of our members, gotten a lot of emails and text messages from them, so that's been nice. Q. You've been following Auburn? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yeah, I have. I've been following Auburn. They won yesterday, their first event this year, which was awesome. Auburn has had a couple really tough years, so that was really cool to see, so I was trying to bank off that energy from their win yesterday. That was great to see. Q. What's it like to have your mom and dad around? MARGARET SHIRLEY: You know, if you asked me at the beginning of the week when we spent nine hours in the car together, I would have a different opinion. Ask me tonight after we drive home that nine hours‑‑ no, I'm extremely close to my parents and my entire family, and there could not be two more supportive people in the world. The amount of golf holes they've walked and watched, and being there when I've won but more times being there when I've been disappointed and upset, they're there no matter what. To have them both here was incredible. To have my dad on the bag, I can't describe what that feels like. He's the one that started me in golf. He's really been my only caddie in my 18 years playing. For him to lug that bag around with a hurt shoulder, he's just‑‑ I just couldn't ask for better parents and their support, and just the support of all my family back home even is really incredible. Incredible. Q. Your mom spent much of the last week in the car. She had some blisters, but it was also a little bit hard for her to watch? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Yes, definitely the blisters but also definitely hard for her to watch. She didn't even look at her phone. When I won, I was like, go get back, go tell mom so she knows because I knew she was sitting there‑‑ Q. So she wasn't following it online? MARGARET SHIRLEY: She wasn't following it online. I think someone might have texted her so she knew something had happened, but yeah, she just is a nervous wreck. Even in college she would not watch GolfStat or any live scoring because she was just a nervous wreck, and then my dad is wearing out the refresh button if he wasn't at a tournament, so they're totally opposite. But yeah, my mom sat in the car for 12 hours yesterday we were out here and then however long we were today. She just couldn't take it. Q. As a caddie, does he suggest clubs? How much advice‑‑ MARGARET SHIRLEY: Honestly, I will talk things over sometimes with him. I'm very much a feel player, and I see shots and I feel shots, which is very difficult for someone to kind of give me advice on. Sometimes I'll just like, okay, I see this, this is a 7‑iron, I don't care that it's 150 yards. I'm feeling it. And so he‑‑ yeah, we do discuss things sometimes. On the greens he kind of stays away after last year when I brought him in on a putt. I go, what do you see here, he gets down, he goes, "I don't have a clue." After that, I was like, all right, fantastic. No, I'm very much a feel player, and that's hard to caddie for to be quite honest. But he keeps me calm out there. He's just good to talk to. Like I said, to have him on the bag is probably the most special thing this week. Q. You being a relatively young champion, what do you think this says to the next generation of young women who are coming out faced with that dilemma of do I turn pro? MARGARET SHIRLEY: Right. I was professional for about six months, and I'm a very frugal person, but I think I made $15,000 and I spent $14,000. $1,000 for six months of work, and I was like, you know what, I love golf, but knowing you still have championships like this to compete in, it was kind of an easy decision for me to go get a real job, so to speak, but still be able to compete. It's hard because a lot of players coming out of college that have played forever, some of them just might not know what else to do. But I just hope people see that you still have opportunities to play golf, you're just not having to base your living off of it or how much money you're going to have off how you play, which is really nice. If I won today, great; if I didn't, that's okay, too. I still have a job to get to on Monday. I hope kind of will start to see that a little bit. It's a tough decision, though, coming out because golf is something you've probably done your whole life if you're at that point of deciding whether to go pro or not. I don't know, it's tough. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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