AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN'S AMATEUR

March 31, 2023

Gianna Clemente

Quick Quotes

Q. Talk about your first time going around the course.

GIANNA CLEMENTE: It was amazing, very beautiful, a little bit more undulated than what it looks on TV, but I had a really good day today and got some good prep in, so I'm really happy with it.

Q. What were you looking forward to the most, shots to play?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Playing Amen Corner. I kind of walked up on the par-3 tee box and I was like, whoa, this is actually real life. Yeah, I was looking forward to the whole day, but yeah, playing Amen Corner was really special.

Q. Are we going to get details?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I hit it in the bunker, short bunker, but I hit it up-and-down, so I'll take a par on that.

Q. How about 13?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I think I made par, too. I think I parred all of them, which I'll take. I'll take that any day.

Q. I was just curious if you could make a connection. When you were here as a nine year old, do you remember anything about it?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I don't remember exactly -- I remember it wasn't good. It definitely wasn't good. But I don't remember if I left it short. I think I probably left it short. That probably sounds like me.

Q. (Indiscernible).

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I got some flashbacks when I walked up on 9 green and I saw 18 green. I got some flashbacks. We're going to do a little better than that this year.

Q. Does it help to play a practice round here before a competitive round?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Oh, yeah, for sure. If I was stepping on that tee box never having seen the course, I would be pretty panicked. I'm glad I got to see it today.

Q. What lessons will you take into tomorrow?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: My caddie gave me a lot of great advice just about the greens, where to miss, little stuff like that, where to miss in the fairways, and that's definitely really important. You don't want to miss in the wrong spots and get yourself in trouble. Yeah, I pretty much wrote down everything that he had to say, so yeah, I feel pretty prepared.

Q. Are you someone who can process all that pretty quickly, writing it down? Is that your style?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I would say yeah. I can take some pretty quick notes, which just comes from just doing it so often at every single tournament.

Yeah, I got a little overwhelmed on the back nine today, but it was a lot of information, but I tried to write down as much as I could and take in as much as I could.

Q. Did you throw down a bunch of balls and chip from different areas?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, pretty much everywhere. Even though you're only playing it once, just everywhere that you would miss. I know my game pretty well right now and what I'm doing right and wrong, I feel like I know where my misses are at, so hopefully that aligns with what the course has to offer.

Q. You mentioned yesterday qualifying for the Amateur when you were 11.

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah.

Q. Of the tournaments that you've won and things you've done, how many pinch-me moments have you had in your career?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Not a lot. The Am was definitely one of them. This was definitely one of them, stepping up on the first tee, stepping up on the par-3 in Amen Corner was definitely one of them.

I think a lot of them were probably here, including at DCP. Not a lot, though. I normally stay pretty in the moment.

Q. Where does that come from? Where do you learn to stay in the moment, not get overly excited?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I think it mostly comes from my dad being on the bag. He's really good at calming me down. He knows me better than any other person does, and he knows exactly what I'm thinking in every single moment, so he knows me really well. Probably a little too well at times. Yeah, he does a really good job of calming me down, especially on the first tee, just giving me a little pep talk when I need it. I don't always need it, but sometimes it helps.

Q. I was talking to your dad a little bit yesterday about riding that fine line between caddie and dad. How do you he juggles that?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I think he does it really well. There are definitely moments where the dad comes out, which is understandable, but he's really great at what he does. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again. He's an amazing caddie. He knows what he's doing, not only on my bag, but if he caddied for anybody else he'd know what he was doing, too. Obviously it helps that he's been around my game since I started, so he definitely knows what he's doing.

Q. He was saying, okay, we're going to go to the dinner table and we're going to probably talk about the back nine. Is that typical dinner conversation for you?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Oh, yeah, 1,000 percent. We talk about golf in our house 24/7. Me and my dad will just sit down, and even if it's not a golf conversation about me, we'll sit down and talk about anything golf. So yeah, it's definitely a pretty common topic in our household.

Q. Is it good to have a relationship with your dad that kids can only dream of? How do you put that into words?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, it's definitely really special. He's basically my best friend. We spend 24/7 out on the golf course together, which I wouldn't trade for the world. It's amazing, and because he started me, he's kind of been around for the whole thing. Yeah, it's definitely really special, especially to have him on the bag.

I know a lot of kids, they have a good relationship with their dad, but not necessarily in a caddie way. Some people like to keep it separate. But I think we do a really good job of kind of blending it all together.

Q. What's the most testy you guys have been with each other in competition?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I don't know if I have a specific moment. We can bicker a little bit. We have some disagreements, like any dad and daughter would. But for the most part we get along really well.

Q. Club choice or --

GIANNA CLEMENTE: We can definitely disagree on the small things sometimes. That's definitely happened a couple -- more than a couple times. But for the most part, we know exactly -- as I said before, we know each other really well, so we know exactly what we're thinking before we even say it, which we finish each other's sentences, we know the yardage before we even step up to the ball, we know what club we're going to say. Even if we disagree, we know exactly what we're going to say before we say it.

Q. He probably knows what not to say?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, for the most part, yeah, he does.

Q. That must be a huge advantage because there's just some common habits there --

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, I mean, again, we know each other better than anybody else does, and he knows exactly when we're going to disagree on something. Which happens. It's normal, it happens. But yeah, when it happens, we do a pretty good job of -- he does a pretty good job of just letting me, even if I'm going to be the one that makes the mistakes, he does a pretty good job of just letting that happen. He steps in when he needs to, but he knows when I need my space.

Q. What's your biggest disappointment in golf? I know you're young.

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Oh, I don't know. I've been pretty disappointed over bad tournaments before. I'm really competitive, as I've said before in other interviews.

I don't know, I was pretty disappointed after the U.S. Girls' Junior. Coming up short in the finals was really difficult. That was pretty -- I took that one pretty hard. I think that's okay; you get so far in match play and you feel like you have so much momentum, and to come up short with like three holes left, it hurts a little bit.

Q. It's got to be a good learning experience to figure out how long it takes you to get over something -- you're over it by now, right?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Oh, yeah. It takes some time. When you're as competitive and you want to win as much as I do, it takes some time to accept a loss. I mean, it happens and it's going to happen again at some point, probably a lot of times, but yeah, that one was pretty hard.

Q. You said the past few years you were looking forward to this day. Is there a moment in your mind from any of the past few final rounds that stand out to you?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, I mean, I've had a lot of tournaments that I've wanted to win and still do, and I think this is one of them. But yeah, I spent almost two years trying to make it to this event and trying to get my rankings high enough, which is very difficult as a junior.

It was hard. There were some moments where I was unsure if I was going to make it or not, and that uncertainty is at times very unsettling, and it can be pretty upsetting. Yeah, to make it here and just to be here right now is very -- it feels great.

Q. Do you have a moment from any of the past ANWAs that you've watched that is maybe a highlight?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Definitely the first year, watching Maria and Jennifer kind of battle it out. It kind of looked like match play on TV honestly because they were the only two people that they were showing on coverage. Yeah, it was really cool to watch that. I remember sitting on the couch and thinking, yeah, I want to do that. Yeah, that was really fun to watch.

Q. Did you ever do it at DCP again after the first year?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: After the first year that I made the finals, no, that was my last year.

Q. Did you try?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: No, that was my last year.

Q. LPGA and Epson Tour starts, who have you been grouped with that's been particularly helpful at navigating what it's like inside the ropes?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I've played with some really, really supportive people. I was very lucky to play with people that understood how young I was and they were very supportive of it, which is not always -- you're not always going to get those pairings. There were definitely some people that didn't like how young I was, but I was very fortunate to be paired with people who were very supportive and offered a lot of great advice.

I played with Cristie Kerr in a practice round, and I actually played with Anna Davis with her, and that was really fun. It was really fun to just see the behind the scenes of her, and she was very supportive of -- I think she thought -- I told her I was 14, and she kind of looked at me like I was crazy, but other than that she was very supportive, which was really nice.