AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

March 30, 2023

Antonia Malate

Quick Quotes

Q. Antonia, I got to meet your whole family today and interview them and they were awesome. How does it feel to have your extended family here supporting you and the rest of the world supporting you really?

ANTONIA MALATE: It's just amazing just having them all out here supporting me, having my back. It gives me a lot of confidence and makes me feel really good out there when I'm playing.

Q. Here last year, second time through. How does that experience help as you prepare for Augusta?

ANTONIA MALATE: It's great to have a lot of course knowledge, especially at this course and Augusta. Having played here before I felt a lot more confident coming into the tournament. You know, that helped a lot being out here.

Q. An eagle on 3 today. Take us through that hole.

ANTONIA MALATE: Hit a good drive and I had 185 yards to the pin. I stuck it to two feet, so it was a nice little eagle to start the round.

Q. Can't stop smiling. It's evident.

ANTONIA MALATE: Yeah.

Q. Felt good about today's round I take it.

ANTONIA MALATE: Yeah, it was a little bit rough towards the end, but did get a little tougher and the greens got firmer, but I stuck with it and kept to my process and it was all good towards the end.

Yeah.

Q. As you look towards the final round on Saturday, what's the mindset?

ANTONIA MALATE: Just the same mindset as I had the first two rounds. Just being in my same process, staying in the moment, and just soaking it all in. Just being out here is amazing.

Q. Augusta National, do you do anything different when you look at that course?

ANTONIA MALATE: Yeah, I'll learn a lot tomorrow when I play the practice round. I learned from last year's round, so I'll take that into consideration for this year.

Q. What's this experience like?

ANTONIA MALATE: It's just amazing being out here seeing all the young girls out here to support us. And this tournament has only been around for four years, and playing in the fourth tournament just means a lot to me and my family. And just being out here and seeing all the crowds, it's really cool.

Q. Was your family out here last year?

ANTONIA MALATE: Just my dad last year.

Q. How does it feel to see everyone for a second time out here?

ANTONIA MALATE: It's cool. Probably be my last year playing and them all being able to come out and see Augusta is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Q. What's changed about your game in the last year?

ANTONIA MALATE: I mean, I just have learned a lot about myself and learned a lot about who I am as a player and that I can be as good as the best and compete with the best amateurs in the world.

Q. You have crossed paths with Rose Zhang in a few different events. When you see her name on the leaderboard and the legacy she's created, what does that mean?

ANTONIA MALATE: She's so cool, just knowing that we play together all the time and she's normal. It's like she's such a cool person, No. 1 in the world. We play with Stanford a lot in all of our tournaments, and just feels surreal to be out here competing against her.

She's having a great week so I'm really happy for her.