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U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 10, 2019

Gabriela Ruffels

West Point, Mississippi

Q. First time you've played 18 since stroke play.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah.

Q. Were you a little nervous, not having seen the hole in a while?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Wasn't really thinking about that, to be honest. I knew my coach gave me a pretty specific target from the tee, and then we took some time over the second shot and managed to pull it off.

Q. The length of the second shot was?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: It was 143 meters. I still do meters. I'm Australian. But yeah, I hit kind of a three-quarter 7, and it turned out good.

Q. You were up 3 and then Andrea started -- she hadn't made a birdie all day until 14. You probably thought at some point a girl of her caliber is going to make a run at you?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Of course. I was actually kind of surprised early. I knew that she didn't have her best stuff today, but I knew that she was clutch and that she was going to come in pretty strong, and on 17 I knew she was going to make that putt. Like she does that stuff.

Yeah, I knew I just kind of had to keep calm, keep my head down, stay patient, and that's what I did.

Q. What were your thoughts standing on the 18th green when she's going over that 20-, 22-footer to obviously try to tie you?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I mean, I expected her to make it. She took her time. As I said, she's clutch, and she has done that stuff before, so I did expect her to make it. I was just kind of watching her to see her body language to see if she was kind of holding her club because usually when she does that, it goes in. But she kind of got out of it early, and then I saw that it went a little ways past. But yeah.

Q. Second final now in the last month; obviously this one will be 36 versus the 18 you played at Pinehurst. I don't know if you've ever played a 36-hole final before. Thoughts about that tomorrow?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: No, I've never played a 36-hole final, but starting the week this is where you want to be. Yeah, no complaints. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. And you have a chance to do something no Australian has ever done, to win this championship. There's only been two that's ever made a final. Your thoughts on that?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, it would be great. I'm not really going to think about that, just going to kind of focus on my game, keep doing what I'm doing, and if that's the result at the end of the day, then I'll be super happy. But even just making it to the final and getting that opportunity to kind of try and get the title is really great.

Q. How often have you seen or played with Albane in any Pac-12 events or tournaments?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, same with Andrea. We play together all the time. I've played with her quite a lot, and she's one of the nicest people ever, so yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Q. What do you notice about her game from this event and playing with her the past couple years?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I think same as Andrea, just really good ball striker, good off the tee, good iron player, and a pretty solid putter. I think, again, I'm going to have to do something pretty good to beat her because she's one of the top-ranked amateurs in the world, so we'll see.

Q. You might be public enemy No. 1 in Palo Alto by tomorrow because you've already beaten two Stanford players, now you get a third.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah, we'll see. I don't know.

Q. Is Ryan going to come down tomorrow?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: No, they're in Canada.

Q. He missed the cut, so --
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Oh, I really didn't know.

Q. He said he might come in.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Oh, really? That would be awesome. I don't know. If he is, I'd love the support, but if he isn't, then I know he's watching from wherever he is.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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