U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR FOUR-BALL

April 24, 2022

Sara Im

Thienna Huynh

Grand Reserve Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. Let's start from the beginning of the round today with 1. Tell me about the chip-in on 1.

SARA IM: I mean, it definitely woke me up. This is what I told The Golf Channel people, as well. It definitely woke me up because I was pretty tired.

Everything seemed brighter at that moment. Everything seemed brighter. We already played 18 before that, and we played 36 the day before that, and then we played like four days straight maybe of 18 holes before that. Of course we were like practicing and all this and out here all day. So I was pretty exhausted, but that woke me up. Nothing hurt after that. My eyes were wide open. We were good.

THIENNA HUYNH: Honestly, to me it felt like it set the tone for the day.

SARA IM: Definitely.

THIENNA HUYNH: Because we knew coming in it was going to be difficult. It wasn't going to be easy. None of our matches were gimmes. We had to fight, but we knew this one was obviously going to be the hardest one.

SARA IM: Yeah, yeah, because they've been playing really well, too. I've seen their scorecards. But we just knew that if we kept on going, being consistent like we have been, because we've been really consistent these last six rounds –

Q. Yeah, four the last two days and then two -- seven total.

SARA IM: We had the one stroke play day. I forgot what the question was.

Q. Then moving to 3, 3 was pretty much a gimme because you hit it close, right?

THIENNA HUYNH: Yes, yes.

Q. You guys were up two through three in the final match. What are your thoughts after that?

SARA IM: We've been 4-up through -- 3-up through 5, I think --

THIENNA HUYNH: We were 4-up through 5.

SARA IM: Were we? 4-up through 5 in another match and we went down to 1-up, so we knew that they can come back. We just needed to stay focused I feel like and just not underestimate them at all because honestly that happens so much.

THIENNA HUYNH: People relax when they get up.

SARA IM: You should never relax.

THIENNA HUYNH: I told her this yesterday during our first match in the morning. Even though we were 4-up through 5, I felt even more nervous because I don't want to lose such a big lead already.

Q. And then tell me about the birdie on 9 to go 3-up.

SARA IM: That was all you.

THIENNA HUYNH: No. 9 probably has to be one of my favorite holes I would say it's pretty difficult for right-handers, but for me I'm a lefty, so it's a natural draw for me. I was in the rough, so I was a little afraid that it was going to kick to the back, but with the wind going right to left, I was able to kind of launch it high and then land it there.

I spent a lot of time on that putt because we knew that we had to get a lead. Like the goal was to be -- to have as big of a lead at the turn just so that we won't have to fight.

SARA IM: Which we still ended up doing.

THIENNA HUYNH: We still had to fight until the end.

Q. That's match play.

THIENNA HUYNH: Yeah, anything can happen. But sinking that putt, it wasn't even like the perfect putt. It wasn't. My stroke was bad. The line was fantastic, but the stroke was bad, and it barely snuck in on the right side.

Q. What did you say it was, eight or ten feet?

THIENNA HUYNH: It was like ten feet, but it's could pass as straight but it has a slight turn to the left, so that's the scary putt. Those putts are the scariest ones.

SARA IM: Yeah, definitely.

Q. So then they get one back I think on 11 and you guys sink a long putt on 12. How big is that for the match and what does that do for your confidence?

SARA IM: So I definitely think that it was such a major point in the match, just because they did birdie the last hole and they got really hyped up. Next hole, like I just sunk it, like a 100-footer. It was really long. It's crazy. It's just both for us confidence-wise and that honestly -- match play is all mental. Golf overall is all mental, but especially match play, it's so mental. If you know you're going to come back, they'll probably come back. It's just crazy. I mean, I feel like it was a perk for us mentally, and I feel like it affected them mentally, as well. Just because they made such a good putt on the last hole and it just was -- I just sunk it.

THIENNA HUYNH: I think it's also kind of important to mention that we are people that don't get riled up, like hyped up.

SARA IM: Not at all.

THIENNA HUYNH: We'll have really good shots where one of us will stand there, sink like a massive putt like that -- when she made that putt on 12, I just --

SARA IM: Golf claps.

THIENNA HUYNH: Like nice, good one. That putt was insane.

SARA IM: No, I knew the speed was good. I was like just praying, please. Like literally it was this much is all it needed, and it did. It was just a really good putt if I'm being honest.

Q. When the championship final comes down to 18, talk me through just 18 for both you guys.

THIENNA HUYNH: Every single person including us was nervous.

SARA IM: You still hit your ball in the trees.

THIENNA HUYNH: My driver, yeah. And I hit it in the bunker, which I didn't even know was possible to happen.

Going into 18, we were there before for three of our matches. We were 1-up going into the last hole. So I think we had the nerves to handle that. Also 18 isn't easy. It's not a gimme par-5 that people think it is. It's not at all.

SARA IM: You need to drive it straight.

THIENNA HUYNH: You need to drive it straight. If you drive it long it's an advantage because you can reach the green.

SARA IM: It's hard to stop up there.

THIENNA HUYNH: I'm glad that Sara clutched up and saved the par. I saved the par, too, but she guaranteed the par there.

SARA IM: Yeah, I feel like for me, 18 was -- I was definitely tense going into 18. Like the drive was all right, but even the second shot was okay, even when I was in the trees, I knew I was going to -- were you there?

Q. Yeah.

SARA IM: So I was right behind the trees, and my ball was okay but the tree was right in front of me, and there's another tree up maybe 20 yards with like its branches coming out, so I was like I need to draw it around this tree and then go left at that tree. I was actually okay at that one. It was the chip shot I was scared of because it was straight downhill, past the hole was straight downhill. Actually Kaitlyn's shot was a lot harder than mine. I was really impressed with her shot because she hit it in the perfect spot and it still -- she couldn't have stopped it. The only thing I told myself, because I knew Bailey was over the green for birdie and Kaitlyn was past the hole for birdie, too, and I was like, I just need to par this. I just need to get it on the right side of the green. So that chip I was pretty -- I was a little nervous because my chipping -- on TV it's not going to look that bad, but my chipping this week has not been great at all.

Q. That one was great. The one you needed was.

SARA IM: So I definitely was tense. And the last putt.

THIENNA HUYNH: I told her right before she putted, just hit it short. It's fine if it's short.

SARA IM: I hit it really soft. I thought it was going to be short, and it kept on going.

THIENNA HUYNH: Any more and it was going to take off.

SARA IM: I was like, good thing I stopped that. It was definitely an exciting hole, though.

Q. At what point did it sink in that you guys had won?

SARA IM: Right now.

THIENNA HUYNH: Right now.

SARA IM: I've calmed down. Before that I was all over the place. My interview with Golf Channel, not good. I was very nervous and I was -- I don't know, I was everywhere. I hope this interview knows that I'm not usually like that.

THIENNA HUYNH: Okay, that final putt, like everyone walking off and then we hugged, that was like -- did you see the picture?

SARA IM: I looked pretty good.

THIENNA HUYNH: Feeling that, it was weird. Like it's not something that -- it's a very unique experience.

SARA IM: And USGA tournament, too.

THIENNA HUYNH: I was standing there with my hands over my head, like did this just happen?

SARA IM: It's crazy, yeah.

THIENNA HUYNH: I did not expect for this to happen this early, seriously.

Q. Do you guys know everything that you won today, the exemptions and --

SARA IM: You want to know which one I'm most excited about? Guess what I have not qualified for yet and I'm 17? U.S. Girls.

THIENNA HUYNH: She's literally more excited.

SARA IM: Of course I am, girl. I want to play U.S. Girls -- so much fun. I want to play that so bad.

Q. Do you think you both will be playing in the Girls' Junior and the Women's Am this year?

SARA IM: I'm good with the Girls' Junior. We're good with that. It was the Girls'.

THIENNA HUYNH: I played in the U.S. Amateur when I was 14.

SARA IM: We are in the U.S. Am?

Q. Yeah, at Chambers Bay.

THIENNA HUYNH: When I was 14. I was like a baby. I wasn't even in high school yet and I played that. The goal was to get in that tournament before college, and this is like -- this is it.

SARA IM: Wait, U.S. Girls, U.S. Am, Junior PGA?

Q. You're in this for the next 10 years if you guys want.

SARA IM: 10 years? Oh, my gosh. Sorry.

Q. I'm pretty sure, yeah. And then the -- I guess the next Girls' Juniors if you're age eligible. And the Women's Am this year, Chambers Bay.

SARA IM: Finally.

THIENNA HUYNH: That was really good.

SARA IM: Literally I have not qualified. That's so depressing. Everyone else qualifies for that tournament. I feel like we're missing out.

THIENNA HUYNH: It's the worst luck.

Q. Sum up with the week was like, and knowing everything you guys just won, in short what does it mean to you guys to win this championship?

SARA IM: It means a lot.

THIENNA HUYNH: It obviously means a lot, but my mom -- the day before we came to our flight, she said, you guys better win or else this whole thing is going to be a waste because this trip has been so expensive. Please put that in there because my mom is hilarious. No, but it's so surreal. You said it, she said this on 18 green, can you believe that we're USGA champions.

SARA IM: No, actually, though --

THIERRA HUYNH: This whole week we've played really consistently. We've played extremely consistently. It's been the same scores, minus 3, minus 4 the entire way. I think that's something that we have over our competitors is that we don't have a day where -- we don't have a round where everything is going in or everything is not going in. Like we're guaranteed to make birdies. We might have a bogey.

SARA IM: It's literally once in a while. I think there was only one round we had two bogeys and that's it.

Q. Was there a shot prior to today that stands out that was like, huge?

THIENNA HUYNH: I know. In the round of 16, hole No. 5, I chipped it in for eagle.

SARA IM: Oh, you did, yeah.

THIENNA HUYNH: To be 4-up. That was a really good chip.

SARA IM: It was straight in, like center of the cup, and we were like, wow. Obviously those holes went by so fast.