LPGA QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT STAGE II

October 21, 2021

Kaley In

Plantation Golf and Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Let's start with I think I saw an eagle on 14.

KALEY IN: Yes.

Q. Looks like out of the fairway. How did that happen? Just take us through the tee to green or tee to fairway.

KALEY IN: I hit a solid tee shot and then my approach yardage was like 105. Hit a 50-degree and just took one little bounce and went in the hole.

Q. How did that maybe spur some -- or I guess how did it make the round feel even better than it was?

KALEY IN: Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you the last time I've holed out from the middle of the fairway, so it was a nice feeling. I birdied the hole before, so I guess there was good momentum into the tough finishing holes.

Q. You had I think a few other birdies on the scorecard. You started out birdie-birdie-birdie.

KALEY IN: Hot start.

Q. And then you had 13. How nice was it to maybe relinquish some nerves and get off to that quick start.

KALEY IN: Yeah, I wasn't really expecting anything out of today. I feel like the Bobcat typically plays a little tougher, so to start out the way I did was really nice, kind of just set the tone, I guess. I was able to like make bogey and feel okay about it, I guess. Yeah.

Q. I looked at your last event you played Symetra was in 2019. What have you been doing to stay competitive or what have you done since then golf-wise? What have you been doing since 2019?

KALEY IN: Took a lot of time off, reevaluated, reassessed if this was really what I wanted to do. It was a big change and I shock, I guess, I would say coming out to Symetra, playing the events in the Midwest, being so far away from home. COVID was like -- I took a red shirt year in college, so the COVID year kind of felt like it was a red shirt year, I got stronger, practiced really hard. Played maybe like six events, but I took almost a little more than a year and a half off.

Q. What were the events?

KALEY IN: First thing I played was an Open qualifier at Brentwood. I think it was May or something. Then I played in a couple Cactus Tour events and then Cal State Open.

Q. So you really just got back into it this year.

KALEY IN: Yeah.

Q. At what point in time did you come to the realisation that this was something that you wanted to pursue again, maybe go all in again?

KALEY IN: I had some health issues and things to figure out with my body and healing myself from the inside out rather than just like pushing, so I guess after I figured out all those things, kind of like cleared the space to really focus on golf.

Q. Was it a mental thing?

KALEY IN: Kind of, yeah. I've had like digestive issues, allergies, a bunch of different things.

Q. Those un-fun things that we hate to deal with.

KALEY IN: Yeah, a colonoscopy at 25, so that's not super fun.

Q. Not fun at all.

KALEY IN: The prep is worse than the actual thing.

Q. Well, that's good to hear.

KALEY IN: Now if only I could get my parents to get one.

Q. You've kind of become an advocate for it?

KALEY IN: I try. They're 55. They still say no. 54.

Q. But everything is good? You're all good health-wise?

KALEY IN: Yeah, everything is good now, yeah.

Q. Especially after the showing today, I would imagine you feel pretty confident with what you can do out here and moving forward.

KALEY IN: Yeah, I've been playing a lot of rounds at my home course at Big Canyon. I have a guys' group that I play with Wednesdays and Fridays, so we'll play 18 and have about three bottles of wine each, so that's really helped, feeling like I can get up-and-down from anywhere, par from anywhere, birdie from anywhere, so that's really helped the playing aspect.

Q. Does playing with guys, is it different, fun, more fun? Does it change the way you view the game at all?

KALEY IN: Not at all. I think it's a male-dominated sport, so those are the people that are playing the most at the course, at the club. They're all probably 65, 70, 80.

Q. So you're outdriving them?

KALEY IN: One of my friends is 82, and he just shot 80 a couple days ago. Everyone breaks their age. Someone shot 72 the other day.

Q. They're your friends?

KALEY IN: They're my really good friends. I like them a lot.

Q. Don't you hang out with Gabby a lot?

KALEY IN: Yeah, Gabby and I, we've traveled together. We have honorary at the same home course.

Q. Has what she's been able to do to kind of jump back into it, do you feel like your paths are kind of similar in a sense of stepped away, reevaluated, looked at where you wanted to go, and now that you have kind of thrown your hat back in the ring, you feel like it was a good decision and that you can do some damage?

KALEY IN: Yeah, I feel like Gabby and I kind of -- I mean, I was never stepping away from golf. I was just kind of like putting my health first and figuring out what's wrong with sleeping 12 hours a day.

But I think Gabby and I are on the same path. We're both working really hard, and it's fun to have a best friend that you can travel with and you have so many similar interests. It's fun even in a tournament week to go home and watch TV together, cook dinner together. It's been really nice having a good friend.

Q. Do you mind sharing what it was that they came up with for you, the health --

KALEY IN: Oh, I'm allergic to a couple things, and I was on antidepressants for like seven years when I shouldn't have been, so I got off of those the beginning of the year. It's not something a lot of people know. But yeah, I got off of them. I feel better. I was sleeping like 12 hours a day and still tired.

Q. I would imagine taking those would make you tired.

KALEY IN: Yeah, along with inflammatory -- all the inflammation I had with my allergies and stuff, too.

Q. It's nice when you can take that time to figure it all out and then --

KALEY IN: Yeah, with COVID I wasn't traveling, so I was like, okay, I'm still sleeping 12 hours and I'm still tired, not doing much. How can I figure it out?

Q. Did you see specialists for that?

KALEY IN: Yeah, I saw a GI doctor. I saw a psychiatrist. Just kind of all over everywhere, different aspects.

Q. Was it kind of relieving to figure it all out and then -- especially after last year when COVID hit and the year it was, to be able to figure that out and get past the year and get back out on the course? Was that all kind of like, hey, I'm back almost?

KALEY IN: It's been a really long process since like all of my -- I guess I would say issues have been in my life since like freshman, sophomore year of college, so I think like figuring that out -- I mean, it wasn't an easy process of figuring out. I'm still working with my allergist to figure out what exactly I'm allergic to. Getting off the antidepressants, I'm super sensitive to the medicine, so getting off of it just going like five milligrams at a time really was hard for me, so it was like a six-month process just trying to get off of them.