PELICAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

November 19, 2020

Jaye Marie Green

Pelican Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Awesome, Jaye. Nice 2-under par to start the inaugural Pelican Women's Championship. Best opening 18 holes since the 2019 VOA.

Solid start. How does it feel to get off to that start?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: I didn't really know it was that long. I know I told my brother, I was like, I think this was the best first round I've had in a while, but didn't realize it was over a year ago.

It feels really good to start off under par. Looking at the course on Monday I thought the scores were going to be way low for the whole week. And then looking at it today and I'm like, whoa, this course has changed a lot over two, three days.

So I was happy with anything under par today.

Q. How much of a factor was wind today?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Oh, yeah. I mean, It think I had -- I don't hit it short and I had some really long clubs in. One hole I had a 5-wood in. I was like, wow, I really hit the drive good and my 5-wood good and I still didn't get to the hole.

So it tough. You got crosswind, downwind. The greens are really tricky, too. It was a good test.

Q. How nice is this course? It looks nice from the viewing eye for all of us out there, but when you got out there how nice is it?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Oh, I love it. It's just like a typical Florida golf courses with the run offs, tight fairways. It doesn't really get you too much off the tees as around the greens, which I like.

It's a really good test, because with the big fairways it let's the wind blow, so it just feels like I'm at home on this golf course.

Q. Yeah, exactly. You pretty much are at home. Florida native. Setting up home base in Florida. How nice is it to have the new tournament feel here but also not to travel super far?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: It's awesome. My uncle and cousins live just an hour away from here, so I got to go hang out wit them before the tournament. It's just so great to have family that aren't even far away.

So it's definitely so cool to be in Florida. It's my baby.

Q. I want to ask you about the bike on the record.

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Oh, okay.

Q. We chatted about it earlier. Just what happened? Was this a new hobby?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Well, during quarantine there wasn't really much to do, so I got one of those electric bikes. I saw a lot of people in my community have them. It's a normal bike but with a little throttle, so they go close to 30 miles an hour.

I was going to dinner in the bike lane and the road was under construction so there was no bike lane. It was like dotted lines and I was trying to stay as close to the curb as possible. And I looked to the right, hit the curb, knocked me off balance, and I went to the left to save myself and I was -- almost got hit by a car.

So and then I just flew off the bike right, slammed my shoulder, face, knees; ended up fracturing my elbow. Slammed my head, got a concussion. It was ten-week recovery. I still have little things like in my head, like my brain kind of hurts sometimes.

It's like certain things I forget that I know I know, and it scares me, and then I really can't remember because I'm panicking. I think that's just like post-concussion syndrome, so should be fine.

But sometimes I'm just standing there and I'm like, I don't even know what's going on. And it's not like -- I've always felt that way before kind of, but now I'm like, Man, I can't be losing all these brain cells all the time.

But I think that was a big part of the recovery, was like what if I did hit the car? I felt very blessed and fortunate, but also the fracture I had in my elbow was not a good one for golf. They were really worried about what the future held because I couldn't straighten it past like a 90 degree angle.

I wasn't sure if I was ever going to fully extend it back.

Q. How long until you were able to?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Took like ten weeks.

Q. Wow.

JAYE MARIE GREEN: And it happened like four weeks before the first event, so I thought, Okay, four weeks, I'll be fine. And then -- because they told me it was a sprain at first, so the two weeks was the original time frame.

Then it went to eight to ten. I was like, well, I'm done for the first four or five now. After all the time off I'm like, Ahhh. It's okay. I'm just happy to be alive and I feel really blessed. There was definitely angels around me 100%.

It's really hard to explain. Yeah, I'm just having fun.

Q. What was it like during that period where you didn't know if you were going to be able to play golf again? How were you mentally preparing yourself?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Yeah, I think I knew it was going to be eventually, but I didn't really know if it would feel the same or what. So I just like really took my time and I really started thinking like what would I do without golf? I'm not really sure.

I think I realized I found a lot my identity in golf, so I kind of just felt like really depressed. I was like, I'm no one now. And then it was cool. I started going to church a lot and found my identity elsewhere, so makes life a lot better.

I just feel happy all the time.

Q. Not that golf doesn't mean as much to you, like before 2020, the pandemic and everything, but being able to compete again after that hiatus, does it mean a little bit more in a way? Just like being able to count your blessings and not taking things for granted as much?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Yeah, it's interesting, because at the beginning when I was able t start hitting balls again I was actually hitting it better than I ever have. I was like, okay.

I kind of came out with the expectation like, You're going to win. I'm just playing too well. All I had on my brain was win, win, win, and I couldn't even function, because I'm like this is like -- I'm not anywhere near the lead. This is terrible. What am I even doing?

So now, like a couple months ago is when I started going to church and stuff, and just everything really changed for me a lot. Now I'm just looking at it like of course you care and if you don't play well it's going to hurt, but it shouldn't devastate and you make you feel like a terrible person, and that's what golf was doing to me.

I'm like, I can't live this way. Either you quit golf or you quit this mental thing with making golf number one in your life. So kind of moved a little further down the list to three or four now, so if it doesn't go well I got one, two, and three to have fun with.

Q. And just like from an atmosphere perspective, is it weird not playing in front of fans? Yes, there are people on the course, but does that add a different dynamic to the game?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: At first, like ANA and a lot of the beginning ones was really kind of weird to me, but now this actually feels a lot more like not normal, but kind of like the normal feel of a tournament because you have scoreboards; I see people. It's really nice.

And I feel like even though there aren't a lot of fans, it makes me feel like it's a normal event. I like this atmosphere. Especially if you play well. You're like, oh, people are clapping for me.

Q. Did you give up the bike?

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Yeah. I actually still have the bike, but it's out of commission. They recalled them because of the defect, so...

Q. Wow.

JAYE MARIE GREEN: I'm not going to be on it. I got to go get it checked to see if it's the exact model. It wasn't the defect that caused me to fall. I wish it was, but it was just -- it wasn't. I'll never get back on a bike again. Because when you get going fast all you have to do is hit one little thing.

Q. That was like my dad had a really bad bike accident. His tire got stuck in a crack. He's a big guy, and he went flying over the handlebars. He broke his elbow and he like still can't straighten his elbow.

JAYE MARIE GREEN: Yeah, because they were worried that it was -- because since I was told it was a sprain I was just letting it rest like this, and they told me -- once I figured out it was a fracture they go, You have to immediately extend it or else you'll never be able to extend it again.

I was like, Well, that's like -- especially my swing, I really have a straight right arm like the whole time, especially at impact. So, yeah.