LPGA Q-SERIES

December 11, 2022

Samantha Wagner

Magnolia Grove

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Sam Wagner. Sam, finally you have an LPGA Tour card. Going to be a 2023 LPGA Tour rookie. What does that mean to you? I saw the emotion coming off the green.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Yeah, oh, my God, it was so exciting. It's been a long five years. It's been a long journey since even before college.

I can't thank my family enough. Obviously my dad is on the bag. Mom is here. Brother was FaceTiming the entire last hole I think. It's just been a group effort for sure.

And quite a journey, and a hard one, too. Just so thankful this week went really well.

Q. I know a lot of emotion, I'm sure. Just put some of that emotion into words.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: I tried not to cry all day. I really didn't want to get ahead of myself. Obviously I was in a really good spot at the start of this week and then going into today, but I had -- the first two rounds were kind of just like boring, not a lot happened good or bad.

So I was thankful yesterday that I had a double on my second hole and just kickstarted some fire, and since then it's just been really, really strong play.

Q. Evaluate today. To finish that way with, again, so much on the line, I know Sunday is always the worst day. Walk me through the round out there.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: You know, I just tried to stay as level as possible and have fun. Like I really -- like I said, I always try not to cry all day, but I was really trying not to think about it either.

My mom said at the start of the day, it's just another round. That's kind of how I looked at it. Also tried to breathe the entire day for sure.

Q. For people that don't know your story, walk me through the last couple years. I know last year was a challenge and this year you were pretty close.

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Yeah, yeah, last year coming off the COVID year I had really bad status so I missed a lot of tournaments.

And then played really well and got into Q-Series, and I think it was my sixth hole of the tournament I called a penalty stroke on myself and ended up missing the first cut by one.

There is definitely a lot of emotions going back into last week. I think last week I literally would walk on every green with the ball marker in my hand. I was like, we're not doing that again.

So I think part of that was just really staying present, and last week I -- or last year I just felt like I think I just rushed a lot of things last year and just got ahead of myself and too excited.

This year I really went in with a level mind and came off a really consistent, strong end to my season, so I stayed with that.

Q. Finally, Samantha Wagner, 2023 LPGA Tour rookie. What does that mean?

SAMANTHA WAGNER: Ah, I'm so excited. It's just been a long journey. That's what everyone here is working for. For me, I know I can compete there and I'm really excited to have the chance now.

Fastscripts by ASAP Sports...