AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

March 30, 2021

Abbey Carlson

Quick Quotes

Q. Tell us about just the wait to get here, what you've been through and looking forward to finally getting to play Augusta National.

ABBEY CARLSON: It's been a year for the record books, that's for sure, in more ways than one, and I think anyone across the world can say that. But just from this field's perspective, I know myself, everyone was bummed it was canceled. I was really looking forward to it last year.

But just really happy to be here this year and I think that's just the summary of it; just thrilled to be here.

Q. Not being in college golf, and now having to carve out time for golf yourself, how challenging is that?

ABBEY CARLSON: College golf was a time demand in its own way, but it was like golf was the reason the schedule was busy. And now it's work for me.

It's definitely different. There's not enough hours in a day, not enough days on the weekend, that's for sure and then you throw some short days getting off at 4:30 and suddenly it's dark out and it's like my plans to go to the range suddenly are gone. It's definitely been difficult.

Q. How did you prioritize your practice? What did you make your priority to work on and how did you find time to do that?

ABBEY CARLSON: I mean, I tried to just like get myself to a place where I felt comfortable. I knew there wasn't going to be nearly enough time for me to really feel like I had every single shot that I may have had a year ago. So, for me, it was just like feeling comfortable, focusing on tempo. Not trying to get bogged down with technical stuff because I knew I didn't have the time to really focus on anything, like, technical.

Q. And talk about taking off time from work?

ABBEY CARLSON: Yeah, I have had to take off all this week for work. I told my boss as soon as the invite came out, "I'll be gone this week." It was kind of like, yes, I'll be gone, I'm not really asking for permission, type of thing.

But taking off this week kind of added a little bit of pressure the last couple weeks of trying to get things done and things wrapped up, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything at work, like trying to tie up loose ends before I left.

Q. Does anyone at work know what's happening this week?

ABBEY CARLSON: There's a few. There's a select few on my team who I've talked to a little bit more who kind of know how big of a deal it is to be here and others are like, oh, she's just at a golf tournament. It's kind of weird to some of them but they are all super supportive which is great.

Q. What is the last tournament you played?

ABBEY CARLSON: The last tournament I played was a small Florida mini tour event last June. So it's been almost a full year because before that, it was the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

Q. Did you look for anything small?

ABBEY CARLSON: I mean, I really wasn't looking anything because I took a solid six months off and barely touched a club, so competing wasn't really in the forefront of my mind. Would I have liked to? Yes. But I came to realize that a lot of amateur events are during the week, which makes things hard with work. That's a new challenge I never really realized there was a huge benefit to in being a junior and college golfer.