	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

May 30, 2019

Emma Talley

Charleston, South Carolina

Q. What is it about this course?
EMMA TALLEY: I love it, everything about it. I love Charleston, the city. The fans are great. I'm trying to take the positivity into the week.

Q. Kind of had a shaky start, but quite a turnaround. What did you do?
EMMA TALLEY: Yeah, my whole group. We all kind of struggled at the beginning. I don't know if we woke up too early this morning. It started clicking, and we made a few putts, and all of a sudden it became a birdie game.

Q. This was kind of a reunion week for you all playing together, the Curtis Cup teammates. What was that like?
EMMA TALLEY: We're all really good friends. I stay with them quite a lot. We had a lot of fun. Once we got going, we had a lot of fun, and it's so good to play with both of them. We go way back, both of them. I probably met Mariah when I was 12 years old, and probably Ally 14. It was great to play with good friends the first day of the U.S. Open.

Q. How does the golf course play?
EMMA TALLEY: It's firm. I can't imagine what it's going to be by 3:00. There's a few pin positions out there that it's going to be super firm. I'm glad I was a 7:00 a.m. start for sure.

Q. Feel like it's dried out from when you guys first got here?
EMMA TALLEY: Yeah, definitely. The fairways, I would say, are still not as firm as they were in August of 2013, but the greens are really firm and fast. The speed on the greens are probably the toughest part of this to figure out because the grain. If you can figure that out, you'll shoot well.

Q. There was a huge backup on 11. How do you play the hole?
EMMA TALLEY: They called me a few weeks ago and asked about the Aon Risk Reward hole, and I said no girl out here is going to lay up. So that's where the trouble comes in because none of us are going to lay up. So every once in a while, you'll get somebody that gets in trouble.

I love that hole. I hit a fade, so it sets up perfect to my eye. I just aim down the chute, and it fades a little bit. I'm up there. We actually had 2 out of 3 birdies on that hole as a group. The person that missed the birdie putt was about eight feet away and missed it and made par. My group did pretty well on that hole.

You've got to go into that hole thinking par and just get it somewhere on the green.

Q. Is there a hole or a shot today that the Women's Am saved you today, that experience?
EMMA TALLEY: Probably just the confidence overall. I think I probably saved a few shots just because of the confidence. I have a lot of -- I needed that confidence. I've been struggling a bit this year.

So coming in this week, like I said, all I have is good memories, so I'm pretty confident out here. It makes me feel pretty good. All my tee shots, my caddie said today, how about you just take over because you know this course better than I do?

So I just was really committed to all my lines today and felt really confident.

Q. Emma, you were in an all American grouping today. Players from 29 countries are playing this week, more than that number of countries are represented on the LPGA. What do you make of just how diverse this women's golf world is right now?
EMMA TALLEY: I think we're probably the most diverse professional sport out there. It's awesome. Your mind just expands when you come out here. You meet people from all different countries. Yeah, it's really cool. I can say I know people from all over the world. If I ever want to go on a good vacation, I have a lot of friends to stop by and see.

It's awesome. I think it makes the competition harder. I mean, we're really a worldly tour, and so I think this is the best golf you're going to see right here.

Q. Is there any player that you've met from a country that you might not have been familiar with that you've really learned something about, a culture that stands out to you?
EMMA TALLEY: There's a lot of Thai girls out here. Actually, my sister-in-law is Thai. I'm really in to the Thai girls right now. I asked the Jutanugarn sisters' mom gave me a little Thai medicine thing last week to beat the heat. It's all greens. So, yeah, I'm learning every day from them. The Thai girls are awesome.

Q. Did you try that?
EMMA TALLEY: I did try it, yeah. It's a little strong, but she's like, you can throw it in the trash.

Q. Did it work?
EMMA TALLEY: I think it does work. I didn't use it, but it's supposed to like keep -- in the heat, it's supposed to help you kind of rejuvenate. So they use it. Mo and Ariya do use it. You can ask them about it.

It's like a plant -- it's plants. I don't really know what it is. You smell it, and that's it. And then you take off. It's kind of like -- it's really strong. It smells like a straight-up plant. Yeah, it's really bizarre.

Q. Interesting. Like a fragrance?
EMMA TALLEY: Yeah, like a fragrance. I was like, is this okay to take? She's like, yeah, promise. I was like, okay.

Q. What's Team Bailey?
EMMA TALLEY: Ah, yeah. Shout out to my best -- one of my friends. One of my coaches at home in Paducah, his wife is in her 30s and has two small kids and found out about a month and a half ago she has stage 4 ovarian cancer. So I decided to wear this. It's Fight Like a Wolfe. She was like I want you to fight (no microphone) apart. In honor of playing for her. My mom had ovarian cancer a year and a half ago as well. So this touches home for me.

Q. What's her name?
EMMA TALLEY: Bailey Wolfe.

Q. Two Fs or one?
EMMA TALLEY: One. W-o-l-f-e.

Q. How much did the memories of a couple years ago kind of come back to you today when you teed off in another huge USGA Tournament at this course?
EMMA TALLEY: Like I said, it gave me a lot of confidence going into today. I will say I compared myself to back then. I had a few better shots today than I did back then -- I mean, back then as I did today. Hopefully tomorrow, I can go out there and keep playing well and take that positive energy into tomorrow.

Q. Do you think the Country Club is a worthy test for the U.S. Open?
EMMA TALLEY: 100 percent. Super firm out here. Hard tee shots. Everything about it. You've got to be patient. There's a lot of shots you -- I don't want to say bail out, but you have to be smart and realize -- I actually circled the holes that I needed to make birdie, and I could go for them. Other than that, you just have to make pars. The holes that weren't circled, I basically hit to the middle of the green and stayed safe.

Q. How many holes were circled?
EMMA TALLEY: I counted eight circles, and I made five birdies. So I came close to it. But, yeah, I think that you just got to stay patient. You got to hit it to the middle of the green a lot of holes out here.

Q. Thanks, Emma.
EMMA TALLEY: Bye, guys. Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297