AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

April 2, 2021

Katherine Smith

Press Conference

Q. How would you describe the day out there?

KATHERINE SMITH: Surreal, definitely. A little nerve-wracking to be finally on the ground and hitting golf shots, like doing something I know really well at a place that, you know, I've never been this close to or just actually being where so many great golfers have been, it was really -- I have no words for that.

Q. Who was able to make the walk with you?

KATHERINE SMITH: Yes, they gave us a Masters caddie and then my brother got to walk inside the ropes because he was caddying the last couple days. It was cool and nice to share that with him.

Q. Was he as excited as you were?

KATHERINE SMITH: I think so. We grew up watching golf together so he was better at knowing, oh my gosh, remember when Phil was in the pine straw over here or when Bubba cut it over here. I remember those things vaguely but I was kind of young on some of those. He was bringing a lot of memories back and really made the experience really special.

Q. Was there a shot you wanted to recreate?

KATHERINE SMITH: I definitely wanted to go for it on 13 but it was into the wind today, so I was like, I don't need to lose a golf ball today. That's what I was really excited to hit.

Q. How did the golf course play?

KATHERINE SMITH: It was fun. I struggled at the start and end and made two birdies in the middle. It was scorable. I was feeling okay about missing the cut but you make a couple birdies, and you're like, I could have had the course tomorrow. You always do that. You play that game in golf. I think it will play, we will see, with these conditions, like the weather being sunny, I think it will play pretty similar. But just depends because the greens are really firm and obviously challenging.

Q. So when someone asks you how was Augusta National later on in life, how will you rank this day in your golfing career?

KATHERINE SMITH: It's probably at the top. Obviously I didn't bring home a trophy or do anything spectacular myself but I really think this experience isn't like about me as an individual, it's more about the game of golf and all of us being here as a whole. It definitely ranks at the top. I hope to beat it with something spectacular down the line but yeah, some golf course is so special and so fun. That was the big takeaway of just how fun it was to play it.

Q. How are you feeling?

KATHERINE SMITH: I don't know, I felt like I should have been sad but like the experience was so good and I met so many amazing people and got to spend the week with my family in this COVID year. Really happy, but really tired. I got in the car and I was like, oh my gosh, what a long day. Happy but tired and it showed on the first couple holes today.

Q. What do you think was the hardest hole?

KATHERINE SMITH: I think 18 will play hard for the girls that are playing. Also, trying to think, some of the green complexes on the front side with having long irons in were pretty difficult. Yeah, we just don't spin the ball as much as the men to it's going to play differently than what you see on TV but these girls are really good. So I'm so excited to watch.

Q. What did you hit?

KATHERINE SMITH: I hit hybrid and it was probably the right club. I think we had like 3-wood, a 5-wood and maybe a hybrid into our group -- so into the wind today. It played long.

Q. How far did you have?

KATHERINE SMITH: I had 170, so yeah, I played it about like 35 yards longer just with the wind and the hill. The girls are good. They are going to be fine. I birdied 7 and 15.

Q. What did you have on 7?

KATHERINE SMITH: I think I had a pretty short iron. Not too bad. It plays differently. Fun to roll in one, and yeah, say I birdied at Augusta.

Q. Your parents were outside the ropes?

KATHERINE SMITH: Parents were outside the ropes and they let them in on Amen Corner to take a picture. We'll see how many years we can put that on the Christmas card. Slowly age us with one of those apps.

Q. What do you think it means --

KATHERINE SMITH: It's huge -- we had the year off so it's hard to see the impact. The impact I hope for everyone to see is how good women's college golf has become. It's always been good but I feel like in my five years the skill level and the talent and the scores, like we're going low and we are going low often. To televise that means so much to us and I also think it translates to the LPGA and just women's golf as a whole.

Q. What would you attribute that --

KATHERINE SMITH: I think like college athletics is getting a lot more serious. I think women at a younger age, I know like I had a lot more opportunities than the girls that were older than me. I think women are getting more opportunities. Like PGA pros are getting girls in it at a younger age and like First Tee, all those programs are kind of like, we're seeing the product of those now. Yeah, it's really cool to see.