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NCAA WOMENâ€™S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2016

Eugene, Oregon

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on a great season. With us, head coach for the Stanford Cardinal Anne Walker, Shannon Aubert, Lauren Kim, Mariah Stackhouse, Casey Danielson, and Sierra Kersten. Coach Walker?

ANNE WALKER: Sure. Gosh, hats off to University of Washington. Played incredible golf, and I already shared with my team that we certainly didn't give this to Washington today. They came and got it. Very impressed with the golf and not totally convinced there was not a bigger force at play because some of those shots they pulled off yesterday and today, this was supposed to be Washington's week.

Q. Lauren, obviously a lot of back and forth and great shots on both sides. Take us through as you went down the stretch of your match, obviously it was a big match. Take us through the mindset as you came to the extra holes.
LAUREN KIM: Yeah, so I started kind of on 15 where I was hitting my approach in and I happened to get a glimpse of the scoreboard and kind of saw the status of the matches then. So that kind of motivated me. At that point, I don't know, I think we were down in three matches. That kind of motivated me to turn on some heat, so I made a good putt on 15 for birdie and she matched that with a really good birdie, also.

And then going into 16, I was just like, I've got to take dead aim at this pin. So I did, and almost holed out from 149 yards. And then going into 17, we were actually in the fairway, and then we heard this humongous cheer, so in my mind I'm hoping it's for Stanford, but I had no idea. And then all of a sudden, Julianne started screaming, and they were saying that the match was over and this and that and Washington won, and then in my head I was kind of confused at that point because I didn't really know what was going on, but our rules official said that the match wasn't over. So I kind of refocused and tried to play my shot to a point where I could have a good look for birdie.

I did that, and I made my -- I think I had like eight feet on 17 and made that putt, which kind of gave me momentum going into 18, and then the rest is history.

Q. Mariah, take us through your match, another match similar to last year, a lot of do-or-die shots. Take us through that, as well.
MARIAH STACKHOUSE: Yeah, my match was pretty steady most of the way through up until 15. I had control for the majority of the day, and then on 15 she birdied and I kind of let my emotions get to me a little bit there for a second, just because I was disappointed with the result I got on my second shot because I really wanted to go for the green. But I knew that I probably wouldn't have gotten approval for that, and so then I laid up and then hit it into a -- out of a divot, a sanded divot, and didn't have the number I liked the most in. But after that she birdied, and you can't get mad at losing a hole when somebody birdies, so I just tried to turn it around, but her putter got hot. She just started making everything. But I was able to hold her off once we went into 18, and we halved that hole and continued.

After that it was just a fight. Lauren was coming down the stretch. I knew Lauren was hot. That was motivation for me. I knew that she'd won her last two holes, which is really impressive with birdies, so at that point, I'm like, you know what, Lauren's match is coming down to the end, too, so the most that I can do for the team is keep my match going and try to get one point and then just let it come down to the final match. And then it shook out how it did.

Q. Casey, obviously a lot of sub-plots in today's match. Yours ended dramatically with the chip-in. Take us through the mindset of you were sitting in pretty good shape on the green, chipped it in. Just take us through your mindset.
CASEY DANIELSON: Yeah, she also made birdie on 17. She made a really clutch putt, and you know, you can't really do much about that. It was just her time, and we both had a really great match. We were neck and neck the whole time, and she just hit a couple of putts, and I wasn't able to do that, and she really just -- she clinched it on that last shot. What a way to go out. She's a senior. It's her last round as a college golfer. Hats off to Ying.

Q. What do you think these last two years have done for the perception of women's college golf?
LAUREN KIM: I think just in general, the change in format of this championship has done wonders for women's golf. It's made it really much more exciting, and my opinion is coming down the stretch, you know, you have to get three out of five. Each team is two and two and it comes down to that last match and people are making incredible shots under pressure, it just puts women's golf in such a positive light that women can make it exciting, as exciting as the men, and we can make those shots under pressure. I think in that sense, the change in format has definitely kind of boosted that for women's golf.

MARIAH STACKHOUSE: And I think just to add on to that, I think it's special that it's college golf. People love college sports, so I think for everything to be that exciting coming down the stretch and for it to be team versus individual that people can really get into, and I think it'll be really nice for players that start going out after college on Tour, and you have college golfers to follow, and then you can follow them out onto the professional circuit, and if you're watching college, then you want to watch them on into the pros, and I think it's really good.

Q. Coach Walker, if you would take that, as well, same question.
ANNE WALKER: I echo what the girls say, that I believe that it's definitely created a large audience for women's college golf. I know from our firsthand experience, people have been shocked that watched, and I've heard it over and over, I can't believe how good these female golfers are in college, and I think that's a positive for the sport, meaning that I think it'll draw young women in to be a part of it because women are driven socially, and when you see that you can be a part of a team and not just see it as an individual sport, I think it'll keep young girls in the sport, and then like Mariah said, it's only good and positive as they head into the LPGA. They put a face with a name and remember what they did. I think it's been a positive. It's certainly been a positive experience for us.

Q. You've played in a lot of these championships, and then obviously last year you won a championship. What has it been like for you out on the road the last year recruiting, and maybe with boosters and being at home, people that have approached you differently because of what they saw last year? Can you just talk about any of those experiences?
ANNE WALKER: First of all, I was blown away when we won last year and I've told the story that my email inbox and my text inbox, it was unbelievable. It was like something I could have never imagined, how many people, how many homes that reached. So that intimately surprised me, and then as we've gone through the year, it's not unusual for us to go somewhere and people to say we watched you on TV. As crazy as that is, that is not unusual. And I think that's a neat experience, especially for the participants to experience that. And then our donors or boosters around the program, a lot of hype. They all got to watch it first hand. I know everyone watched it today. I think just in general, it creates a really neat experience for the participants, and to me college sports needs to stay focused on what is the student-athlete experience.

Q. Were you one of the coaches prior to all this that was against it or for it?
ANNE WALKER: No one ever asked my opinion. So growing up in Scotland, I played a ton of European team championships, so I know a lot of foreign players in college golf and I've played a lot of European team championships. It was with some of my best friends, they still are. We didn't live in the same part of the country. We barely saw each other. But man, when we were representing our country and we were working hard together and we were out there cheering each other on and a putt was more than whether I won or lost but whether Scotland won or lost, it just created this intense desire to work hard, play hard, take great shots, and I think that's now what these students are experiencing and what we saw out there today, and you know, I understand that there's the concern with the stroke play, team doesn't win, but someone wrote it this week, and it's true, when we used to show up, and I did that, too, when I was on a team and we'd show up, we weren't really playing for first. We were like, yea, we made it to national championships, so that was like a participant medal. There was usually we had 24 teams showing up and one, maybe two, and on a great year maybe three that were thinking about winning and the rest were just taking a week off school to go play a great golf course. Now this week I think we had 24 students show up, and I guarantee there wasn't a coach or a kid in the field that wasn't thinking, gosh, we could be the ones in there with that trophy, and I think that's pretty cool. Do the math on that, 24 times five. That's a lot of kids.

Q. You got to play 18 twice. What do you see on that second shot there?
LAUREN KIM: Yeah, I didn't really see anything in particular. I took dead aim at the pin and tried to hit my best shot. I don't know, I think something about that left shot, I had that come out a couple times today early in the round. I've been working on a couple things in my swing, so maybe it's just that. But yeah, nothing really to it. I just tried to put a good swing on it, and that was the result.

Q. Could you comment on the strong play of the Washington freshmen?
ANNE WALKER: Yeah, I think that was phenomenal play for this being their first show at the national championship, and to be feeling this kind of pressure, and there's no way they didn't feel it, so I think just to put it out there on the line, it shows they went out there and they played with heart, and it takes belief to win a championship like this, and so obviously they went out there and believed, and they played their hearts out. You look at the chips and the shots, the up-and-downs that Sarah was getting, 18, and then 10, and then 18 again, you know, and then you look at Julianne, that up-and-down she had on 18 to win, that's just phenomenal showmanship under pressure. You've got to take your hats off to them. It's just great golf.

LAUREN KIM: Yeah, I'd say in my match with Julianne, even early in the match she was sticking the ball really close to the pin. It was really impressive how disciplined they were, and I'm sure their freshmen say the same thing. But I know the pitch shot Julianne hit to a couple feet on 10, our first playoff hole, was pretty incredible. You know, I thought that, okay, she pulled her drive into the bunker, she had this weird lie, didn't get it out very far, and in my mind I'm thinking, okay, just put it on the green and two-putt and you've got it, and then she comes out with this crazy pitch shot and gets up-and-down. So it's shots like that where it's just incredible to see the maturity in their games as freshmen, as a freshman.

Q. Coach, can you talk about (inaudible) tournament golf?
ANNE WALKER: Yeah, there's a lot of heart on this team. Yeah, that's a really tough question. Just good leadership.

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