DOW GREAT LAKES BAY INVITATIONAL

July 14, 2022

Alena Sharp

Sarah Kemp

Midland Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Maple-Mite, Alana Sharp, Sarah Kemp. A wonderful little team name, and a wonderful day of best ball. How are you feeling after day two, Alena?

ALENA SHARP: Feel really good. We did so well together as a team today. I think we had the same amount of birdies each, and we saved each other for par a couple of holes. It was just ham and egg. It was so good.

Q. For you, Sarah, what's it like to be back here with someone that you are close to on and off the course and playing this well in a best ball format and this team environment altogether?

SARAH KEMP: It's fun. It was a no-brainer to come back and do this again with Sharpy. We had a great time last year, and, yeah, we're having a great time again this year.

You said, we're friends. We're staying together. It's nice when you feel so comfortable with the person next to you, whether you hit a good shot or bad shot. I know she's still going to love me, so that's okay. (Laughing).

Yeah, we're very happy to be here.

Q. Alena, I was able to catch the last birdie there on 18. A nice little long putt for you. Just what were some of the highlights between the both of you today?

ALENA SHARP: Yeah, I think we just did really well. We gave ourselves a lot of chances. If one of us didn't hit it close -- I mean, it was I think almost every hole we had a good shot at birdie except for maybe the longer holes, like 16 and 1 and 10. But other than that -- actually, you hit it close on 10.

Yeah, we just did really well. We both were hitting it solid. We were both putting well. It makes a recipe for success.

Q. Sarah, what has it been like preparing for this event? Did you guys kind of recount anything from last year, or was it just clean slate?

SARAH KEMP: We really didn't prepare at all. I played in Spain last week on the LET and my clubs didn't make it, so I got them on Tuesday night, but it was fine, honestly.

Yeah, we knew we were going to do the same as what we did last year, which worked. Yeah, our preparation together out here was, yeah, nothing. (Laughing).

Q. So your clubs came from Spain this Tuesday, this past Tuesday?

SARAH KEMP: Correct, yeah, Tuesday night.

Q. And play started Wednesday.

SARAH KEMP: Correct.

Q. Was there a little bit was nervousness?

SARAH KEMP: Yeah. I landed Monday night and I have one of those Apple AirTag on them, so I knew they made it to the States. They just didn't leave Newark.

Yeah, they got there. I guess they landed in Detroit sometime at midnight, but they were very delayed in driving them out to me on Tuesday.

I knew that they were, whether I had to drive and go get them, but they said that they were delivering them, and they just ended up coming at, yeah, about 5:00. So it started to get, yeah -- Alena can probably tell you, I was a little antsy in the room. I was waiting downstairs, like a little -- yeah. Anyway, they came.

Q. Alena, were you preaching patience?

ALENA SHARP: Yeah, I knew it was going to be fine because they made it to the U.S. at least.

Q. That's the first step.

ALENA SHARP: I wasn't worried about not playing a practice round together. We did so well last year with our strategy, so we didn't -- we just figured we weren't going to change it and started out really well. We did well yesterday in the alternate shot. Better than we did last year. I think that was helpful to not be behind the 8-ball today where you knew you had to go low.

We just freed it up basically from the first hole, so it was nice to do that today and have a good round.

Q. When you're able to think back of the way you guys played this year, I know you said you're keeping the same strategy, what is that type of strategy?

SARAH KEMP: We just like teeing off the same tees as we did last year. Like, if somebody has a shorter par putt, having that person go for it. If there's a longer -- the other one has a birdie chance. We both did that really well.

Yeah, same tee shots in the alternate shot as last year. But, yeah, basically that and the fun part. We've been doing that the same.

Q. What's the approach for -- oh.

ALENA SHARP: Oh, I just think when we do that par save, then it frees up the other person to make a stroke at it, and I think that's huge. We've made a lot of putts doing that, so I think it's a really good strategy.

Q. Talk about also the fact that you did better this year in the foursome format. We go back to foursomes tomorrow. What will you take away from yesterday to kind of gear up for tomorrow?

SARAH KEMP: We just really kind of grinded it out. We teed off in the pretty heavy rain in the beginning. We made a really good par on 1. I think that was kind of momentum for the rest of the day, but we were really solid for most of the day.

Nothing, like, amazing, but nothing bad. We hit a lot of greens and lots of fairways, and it was just really solid golf. So if we can do that again and play like we did today, yeah, we'll be just fine.

ALENA SHARP: I think keeping it light and having fun tomorrow now that we have two rounds left is really going to be important because we know we're both playing well, so we just have to stay light and loose out there and enjoy and keep laughing.

Q. Absolutely. Well, great job today, guys. Best of luck tomorrow.