U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 2, 2001

Emily Bastel

EMILY BASTEL: Yes.

EMILY BASTEL: Thank you.

EMILY BASTEL: This is all new for me. So somebody tell me what to do.

EMILY BASTEL: Playing against Carol Semple Thompson in the morning was you know, looking back will probably be one of the highlights of coming to Flint Hills, so it was so great to meet her. I was at the banquet on Sunday and listening to all the things she as accomplished. Just an amazing woman and has done so much for Women's Amateur golf and that was so exciting to play against her. Then I had a really tough match in the afternoon, really hot, and you know, we both played well. I think we are both probably around par. Especially at the end having holes with birdies coming down the stretch, so feels really good to get through both of those.

EMILY BASTEL: Not really surprised. You can't not believe that you are ever going to not do well in a tournament but excited and you know, looking -- definitely pleased with how far I have come and looking forward to tomorrow.

EMILY BASTEL: Probably just being consistent. I haven't you know, made too many mistakes that got me into trouble. I had some good saving putts, made some birdies at the right time, but just being consistent overall.

EMILY BASTEL: Oh, sure. (Laughs) I am not sure I can admit who else is-- haven't had time to look at the board.

EMILY BASTEL: Right. Definitely she's a very accomplished player. I have played with her before, actually, a few times.

EMILY BASTEL: National, my sophomore year out at Oregon we played together and at Ohio State we played together. She's a great player. I know she can putt like a mad woman. So, I have got to be ready for that, I think, and I am looking forward to playing against her. You want to go up against the best to prove you can do it, I guess.

EMILY BASTEL: I don't know, I think we are both probably pretty average. I don't hit it terribly long and I I don't think she hits it super long either. At least the other times I have played with her. But I think we both hit a lot of fairways which is the important part.

EMILY BASTEL: That was hard because that putt that -- that putt to have the hole -- it almost went in, and I just been waiting all my matches for some key putt to fall. I have just really -- you know, they have been few and far between my good putts, so you know, then to hit it in a good -- the key I think on this golf course is to hit it in the right spots where you give yourself a chance to make putts. I did that on the next hole, and I knew to get one there would be key, and I had a lot of steam when it hit the hole, that putt did, but that was definitely key to get that putt there.

EMILY BASTEL: 15, 17 feet probably.

EMILY BASTEL: No. But that was still hard. I have been working on pace a lot. When I shot 70 the second day I made everything. I mean, the cup looked about ten feet wide, and it is amazing how from day-to-day that can get just come and go. Then on 17 you know, last thing my dad said to me -- he is caddying, is good pace, that's really all I was thinking about, just kind of pick a spot and fell in the side door.

EMILY BASTEL: Dave. He made the trip with me.

EMILY BASTEL: He is a PGA professional at a course in Upper Sandusky where we are from. It's been in our family since the 30s. He does basically everything there, from giving lessons to being the superintendent. It's the epitome of a family business. I work there, my mom. I have a brother who is 14 who works there.

EMILY BASTEL: Yes.

EMILY BASTEL: Lincoln Hills.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah, I think the thing he does best for me is to keep me calm. I put him through a lot out there just, you know, up-and-down and oh my, you know, whatever, so he does a good job at keeping me cool out there.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah, he's helped me since I started playing, which is nice to have someone that knows your golf swing so well. I have gotten help from my coach at school too, Stacy Snider, she just got married a month ago. She's helped me a lot too with a lot of course management. Setup, things like that.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah -- no, we were all definitely pulling for each other and you know, we are seeing who was in whose bracket when we got into the Match Play opening that we would meet at the end. I had actually a former teammate Kasey Gant was here and two current teammates Stacy Snider and Allison Fouch and my coach was here playing too and her husband was caddying. They watched yesterday the end of the first match and the second match so it was nice to have them there pulling for me. We are definitely competitive, but in a good way, driving each other.

EMILY BASTEL: I played my first tournament when I was 11. I played in like the local junior things. I started playing in AGA's when I was maybe going into my junior year or my junior-- I don't remember the year between senior year, that year, played in junior girls once in Tennessee. So that's started at 11, really didn't get into it until I was more in high school. I played -- this is a good one, I played on our boy's high school team in high school. We have no girls -- there's about 7,000 people in my town, 150 in my class we had no girls on the team. So played with the boys, had the low stroke average my senior year. We won two league titles when I was in high school. That was very fun. I learned to be tough a lot in high school playing with boys for four years, no offense. But so-- and then you know, looking at schools and ended up at Michigan State.

EMILY BASTEL: I will be a senior.

EMILY BASTEL: Some days it is putting. But overall probably just being consistent. I don't hit it the longest. I don't, you know, I can't hit two irons or do anything like, that but I am pretty consistent, I think. I have a decent short game.

EMILY BASTEL: Looking back I think 15 was probably fairly pivotal.

EMILY BASTEL: Made birdie to get back to all square after she just almost knocked it in on the hole before that. You know, had that putt not gone in, you just would keep grinding and I was convinced there had to be some putts left in my putter today. I was waiting, so just to be patient, but that was key, probably that hole there.

EMILY BASTEL: I think, 15, 17 feet, something like that. Just left pin-high left of the hole.

EMILY BASTEL: Probably about twelve feet.

EMILY BASTEL: I had -- I started on 3, I ran the long putt. It's amazing how you get some of those early and it just really grooves your stroke for the rest of the round. I had 3 birdies on the back, made probably, they were all good length putts 15 feet and out, probably, so.....

EMILY BASTEL: I have been giving a lot of thought to it lately only because I will be a senior. I think that has been the most frequently asked question this year is what are you going to do after school. I have no idea. But I am going to see how this year goes at school. And there's some things I would like to accomplish this year at Michigan State so I am going to concentrate on that first and then make decisions after that.

EMILY BASTEL: I have a younger brother.

EMILY BASTEL: Yes, he is 14. Now he is now taller than me and hits it farther than me and he is a good player. We can compete against each other. He shot -- I was 1 under the other day we played he shot 32, and that wasn't that great. I mean it was great for him. He is a great little player. I give a little plug for him, everybody keep your eye out for him, he is a good player. Ben is his name. He has got a good work ethic and unbelievable swing for a 14 year old. It's amazing.

EMILY BASTEL: I had said you know, coming in you can't be like, oh, I only want to get to round 8 and anything after that is not -- you know, I am excited about how far I have come. But you know you have got believe that you have it in you to do these types of things. I said to my dad after the birdie putt on 15, this is what it is all about and it really is. Those types of matches with good players and people watching and TV cameras and stuff I am not really used to, but it was great.

EMILY BASTEL: I actually like that. I feel like it helps me concentrate more. You know not to look around as much. You have got really concentrate on what you are doing. It is great to have people there rooting for you. It is really -- it's exciting.

EMILY BASTEL: We had -- I played in a Futures tournament the beginning of the summer and there were a lot of people there watching, Big 10s my sophomore year coming down the stretch was a lot of people watching there. I have been in National's where we have had cameras, things of that sort, nothing probably quite like this. Match Play is a little different than stroke-play in the fact that it is -- people are, you know it is all you, you know, so yeah, this is definitely probably the most hyped surrounding event that I have played in.

EMILY BASTEL: Golf is funny in that you know, I could say, sure, I think that but you have to constantly prove yourself. I think that is all I can really concentrate on doing. I would like to think that and I think that about myself. I have a lot -- I still have a lot of potential, I know. Nobody lives up to the way they can play, you know, every single day. But I have come a long way, and three years at school, and even before that, and you know, just hoping to see continuous improvement.

EMILY BASTEL: Probably not. Only because I think that all that's in my power is concentrate on one thing at a time. I don't, you know, my first match I wasn't thinking about this match and then the second match I wasn't thinking about tomorrow's match. I can only really control what, you know, one shot, one match, one person at a time and that's, you know, so that is -- going to school in the fall, you know, it would be great and it is great how I have played so far, but you know, when I tee it up in my first tournament in the fall I won't be thinking about this either so I am really going to just take it one step at a time, and you know, I guess that's all I can do.

EMILY BASTEL: My dad works -- we talk a lot. I think I am very -- I like to analyze things, so you know, I probably learn more from a round than maybe the average person just because I am always thinking about things like that. My coach has been phenomenal in helping me with that too. It's really great to have someone like her who believes in you so much and you know, is genuinely rooting for you all the time. She's helped me a lot with you know, the mental aspect of golf, and, so.....

EMILY BASTEL: In marketing. I knew I wanted to go into business because I love golf so much and I thought that you know, no matter what happens after school I would like to stay involved in golf in some respect, so if anyone wants to give me a job, in a year or so, but that was, you know, my thinking in having that major. I don't know what I will market. Maybe myself, maybe, you know, golf stuff, I don't know. But I really enjoy it. I have picked the right one in that respect.

EMILY BASTEL: Anxious, I think that is the best way to describe it. Not so much nervous, but definitely anxious. I think that's -- I am ready, I would like to just go tee it up right now.

EMILY BASTEL: No. I will go back to the hotel -- this is funny, we have been checking out everyday of the hotel.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah. We checked out -- well, we didn't check out. I shot 75 the first day, we didn't check out that day. But yeah, we have checked out every morning. It's a 14-hour drive home, you don't really want to stay an extra day if at least I don't know, I guess we don't. So we have checked out, we are going to go check back in and take a shower and watch some TV.

EMILY BASTEL: I played Monday, Tuesday. We didn't check out Tuesday, checked out Wednesday morning before the-- before our first match.

EMILY BASTEL: My dad feels bad. He is like if it hurt her feelings or if it does anything for your -- it doesn't bother me at all. I really am not thinking if I have a hotel room or not when I am out there playing so it doesn't bother me at all.

EMILY BASTEL: Probably. Yeah. Probably. With my dad running the business, we get here -- this is another good story. We get here on Sunday, Sunday maybe this won't be good for you. I come back from the banquet, I roll into the hotel room. My dad is like on the phone and he is telling me to be quiet. The entire sprinkler system at the course is just done. It's 85, 90 in Ohio right now. We have not got an inch of rain in the past month and a half up there. Everything is just burning up. And he is trying to tell my mom and my brother how to fix, you know know the controllers all this stuff and it was a nightmare.

EMILY BASTEL: Oh, yeah. When we leave, 14 year old Ben is in charge of watering. So they are automatic, they come on in the morning. But we put the big sprinklers in the middle of the fairway and he does that. He goes in to put them on that day and there is no water. I thought my dad -- I thought he was going to have a stroke like right there in the hotel room. He was because that can't happen because we are 14 hours a way and -- so he -- 10 at night my mom is on the cell phone, she pulls off the control panel and in the pump house, he is telling her how to fix everything. I guess they got it up and running. I thought I was going to have to hire a caddie and he was going to have to fly home or something. So if I were to lose that yeah, we would probably head home start driving. We drove out here and had friends in St. Louis who we stayed with, that was a nice break, drove eight hours and got up in the morning, drove 6. So that's probably what we would do, going home if it was late, stay with them or something. They have tickets to the Cardinals, so we might have to stop on the way back and catch a game or something. Hopefully it will be on Saturday.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah, I do everything from make sandwiches in the snack bar to pick up range balls. I mow greens on the weekends. I mow roughs sometimes. It is hard when you are -- we have -- I do that like kind of as a fill-in. Obviously we have people who work there because I am on the road a lot but yeah, I do a lot of different things around there. It's fun though. It has been quite a learning experience and it was great to grow up around a bunch -- you know, people adults and it has been a good experience growing up there for sure.

EMILY BASTEL: Yes.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah. I get a room at home. I get paid and I don't see much of the money, it kind of just goes into my college bank fund. It's my money, I get to use it, but it's kind of a good deal for them because I am pretty much on-call. When I am not working to, I am practicing there most likely, so I am there a lot and I will be hitting balls and then, oh, we need range balls, then I go pick up range balls, then I start hitting again stuff like that.

EMILY BASTEL: Yeah, it must be probably the way my parents raised me. They are hard working and have instilled that in me and yeah, it's different. I know, you know, being a golfer too is different growing up. You have friends that are not doing obviously the same things you are and it's always been nice to have friends you can get away from that at times but to be able to go back and be around golf, I haven't ever minded it.