U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

July 5, 2023

Emilia Migliaccio

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the U.S. Women's Open here at Pebble Beach. We're with Emilia Migliaccio. How meaningful is it to be in this week's historic field.

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Oh, my gosh, Lydia said it and Nelly and everyone else, it means everything. This is probably going to be my last competitive tournament for a while at least, so to have it be the U.S. Women's Open at Pebble Beach is just incredible.

I've been -- people have been talking about how Pebble is like sensory overload. Everything just feels different to a greater amount. It's so special to be here. My husband is here. My college coach is here. Her family is here. We're staying on property. It's really just a very meaningful week.

Q. Had you been to Pebble Beach before? Had you played the golf course prior to this week?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: No, this is my first time, and we actually got out -- we were here last week, as well, so I got invited to play in the Friends of Pebble charity tournament, so that was Pebble, Spyglass, and then my husband and I got to play Cypress on Friday.

But that was our first time, so first time seeing the course. I watched some YouTube videos. I've watched the AT&T a little bit. But I watched -- I think there's every shot Tiger hit in 2019 and just stuff like that just to get a feel. But it's never the same when you're on property. It's remarkable.

Q. You went back to Wake for a fifth year this year and you guys won the title. How rewarding was making that decision and seeing it play out?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, I still remember -- so Ryan, our assistant, he walked with me the last three holes, and I had won 14 and 15 to go 3-up, and then one to win on 16.

I'm the only player who was still on the team from 2019 when we lost in the finals. To have Ryan there, and when I officially won, and to be able to like give him a big hug, it's the best feeling -- aside from marrying my husband, the best feeling that I've ever experienced. Just so much -- all the work and adversity and challenges and victories that you go through. It's all for a moment like that.

To have it happen on my last year, I mean, it's really just a storybook ending. Like I couldn't be more grateful and proud of myself and our team for getting it done.

Q. You do have your college coach on the bag this week. How excited are you guys for this week?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: I'm so excited. My parents are actually in Italy for my cousin's wedding, so my mom was out for the caddie job. But Kim has never caddied for me. Obviously she's worked with me a couple holes in college, but we work really well together. We have very similar personalities. She's obviously really good at what she does.

It's going to be just a really fun time. We're just going to embrace it and see how it goes.

Q. You're working with NBC this week doing some on-course reporting. How did that come about, and how are you looking forward to it?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, so the first time I worked the U.S. Women's Open was last year at Pine Needles. I was on-course reporter on Peacock, so they scheduled me again for Pebble Beach, which I was really excited about.

And then I had signed up for my qualifier around the same time and I asked them, would it be possible since Peacock has a morning and afternoon stream, could we work around and schedule my tee times around my Peacock stream and would I be able to do both, and they were really excited about it, so that was cool that they were super pumped and were rooting for me.

Like okay, we're going to root extra hard that you qualify because it would be really cool to have someone on the broadcast who's playing in the tournament.

That's kind of how it came to be. Today is sort of the first day where I'm really kind of juggling both things. We had our production meeting at 11:00 today and I got all my stuff. I'm going to finalize all my research and preparation tonight. It's definitely fun. I don't tee off until 1:18 so I guess I had to use the time in some way, so why not commentate on some golf.

Q. How do you balance doing preparation for the broadcast side versus preparing for your last event?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, I would say leading up until today, before was probably 80 percent or even 90 percent focused on golf. There's not much you can prepare for until you get player bios and knowing who -- for me, lucky I just have to know three players, so knowing who your featured groups are.

I would say obviously I've been in touch with the golf news and kind of keeping up to date with those things, but not until today where maybe it's a little more 60/40. I feel like I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing, so when I'm out on the broadcast I'm just going to be really excited to get to call golf and see how they play.

I have Lexi, Jin Young, and Nelly. I played a practice round with Lexi yesterday. I'm really excited. I hope they play well and I get to watch some great golf.

Q. What was the practice round with Lexi like?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: It was great. She's very just chill, happy-go-lucky, very approachable. Like sometimes with professional golfers you don't think they're approachable because they're in the middle of their practice and stuff, but they really are, as long as just you put yourself out there and say hello.

I had met Lexi. I work on a -- I do a podcast with Bridgestone, so I had interviewed Lexi at the PGA Show for them, so that's where we sort of officially met. I had met her before at junior Solheims and stuff, but I think that's where she put my face and name, recognized me a little bit.

But there was this funny moment on the 13th hole where my coach was lining me up just on a couple holes just to check my aim, so I had turned around, and thinking I was looking at John, my coach. I looked straight at Lexi and as I was looking at her I said okay, I'm aimed at the left palm tree. She's like, go on. What do you want? I said, okay, you can line me up. So that was just like a funny exchange.

Her family was there. She's super nice. Obviously rooting for her hard this week.

Q. What's it felt like preparing for your last competitive event for a while?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: It's felt great. Honestly, it's felt the same. I'm not really thinking about that it's my last tournament. If anything I have to think about it consciously just so I'm extra grateful for where I am and what I get to do and what this means for the history of women's golf.

I just go about it the same way, the same preparation. People say, oh, is it like less pressure that you're not turning pro for college golf and that stuff, and I would say the pressure and the practice is all the same.

Obviously the more experience you get you're able to deal with the high stakes of different tournaments. It would just be a great learning experience and really getting to develop relationships with the players, too, for my broadcasting career is a very important component for this week, as well.

Q. Are there any drills you will or will not miss for preparing for competitive events?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Honestly probably just the extensive amount of effort that it takes. The best players in the world are out there -- it's eight- to ten-hour days if you want to be the best at what you do, and that maybe doesn't include working out and doing extra recovery stuff.

I love to train and I love to compete, but I'm really grateful that my golf leading up to now has opened another opportunity where I can still travel. I hope to travel 30 weeks next year, but that won't be as much as traveling as a professional golfer. Then when I'm off, I can really enjoy my time off.

I'll probably be practicing a decent amount, too, just because I love the game. But it won't be that same intensity, which I think I will enjoy.

Q. I may have missed it earlier, but I wondered if you could discuss your broadcasting experiences. I've talked to other golfers through the years who have had pro careers and gone into broadcasting, and they've learned different things about speech pattern, maybe slowing or speeding up their voice or accentuating sentences. Could you discuss that a little bit?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, definitely. I mean, once I started working on camera, which was the U.S. Girls' Junior in 2021, I really haven't looked at a broadcast the same. I'm always listening to people on air, how they're describing certain situations, how they're heightening someone's golf shot, and maybe some things where I'd probably say that a little differently.

You want to admire and look up to the best in the game in any industry, but you also want to pave your own path in ways that you like to tell the narrative. That's just been really great.

I love listening to the broadcast. I would say really just putting yourself out there, that's the only way you get better, getting your reps in. That's really my goal now as a broadcaster, trying to get my reps in, do as much golf as I can, and eventually get to the main telecast and kind of the highest tournaments, biggest tournaments in golf.

Luckily I'm able to be here at the Women's Open for broadcasting. Just really grateful for the opportunities that NBC has given me, and I'm excited to show them what I've got.

Q. If you care to, are there broadcasters whose styles you admire and like the most? Of course maybe there's someone who you wouldn't want to say, but are there styles that aren't as appealing to you?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, I mean, I would say there's definitely -- Trevor Immelman, he is incredible. He always has something to say and it's always just so insightful. It's never anything like blah. It's always like wow, that's really good insight.

Even if a player hits a bad shot or maybe doesn't make the right decision, he frames it in a way that's helpful for someone who maybe doesn't know golf as well or is like, oh, why did they hit that shot, and he explains that. So I really like that.

I love Morgan Pressel. She knows all the players so well because she's been out here. She just has so much insight to give.

Kay was kind of the first person who I called, and I love the way she tells a story. She has a very rich vocabulary and definitely has her style of narration that I really admire.

Cara Banks, as well. She's just so smooth when she speaks.

Yeah, so I love -- there's so many people. There's definitely like 99 percent of the people I listen to I really enjoy. But those are a few highlights, men and women that I've really listened to specifically.

Jim Nantz, of course, is the best in the game. I listened to like a whole hour podcast with him and getting to learn his story and how he prepares.

Mike Tirico. I feel like I'm maybe forgetting a couple names, as well, but those are just some that I listen to all the time and just really try to soak in everything that they have to give.

Q. You mentioned traveling 30 weeks next year. Is that mostly going to be for broadcasting?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yes. That is not official, so that's kind of a goal, I guess. I have 11 weeks left in the year, so just kind of seeing, okay, if I get the first half of the year, maybe that'll be about 30 weeks.

But yeah, that would be all broadcasting, but hopefully I get to bring my clubs, too, to a few of these events and get to play some cool golf, as well.

Q. What flexibility do you have to have this week depending upon how you're playing in your broadcast? I'm sure they have different scenarios for you. Is that accurate?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, one thing is I won't be able to broadcast or commentate the full 18 holes tomorrow, so my feature group is 8:50, and I tee off at 1:18. I obviously would love to do 18 holes, 18 holes for the next four days, so that's one thing that I'll just have to be flexible in.

And Julia Johnson, she's also on featured groups, so she was saying, I can pick up your second nine. So we're good friends and she's great at what she does, so we'll work together, as well.

But yeah, and then hopefully we're playing on the weekend and I get to do the same thing as I will Thursday and Friday.

Q. What was it like the last month or so preparing for your wedding while juggling this busy schedule preparing for the Women's Open at Pebble, as well?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: Yeah, I had a wedding planner, Nicole. She took the brunt of that planning, which was good. I'm very low maintenance, so for me, it was like, as long as my guests show up and Charlie and I are at the altar and the priest is there, that's pretty much all we need.

The other thing that I really wanted was a great DJ with a lot of dancing, and we got all of that and more.

My whole side of my mom's family is from Sweden, so I haven't seen them in like 10 years, a lot of them, so it was really special for them to fly over for the week.

My dad's side of my family are kind of dispersed throughout the United States. I've been really lucky that Charlie's family are all really close in proximity so I've gotten to meet his grandparents and his cousins and I'm very close with his whole family.

But to have both our families kind of unite was just really special.

Q. I did meet your husband and he said you're not low maintenance.

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: He's right there, so if he wants to have an extra couple words --

Q. I couldn't resist. How familiar are you with Pebble?

EMILIA MIGLIACCIO: I would say now at this point, going into tomorrow, I'm very familiar with the course. It's definitely what you see is what you get. If the wind picks up it's going to be tough just to hit those greens because they're so small.

But I feel I have a good idea of how to chip out of the rough now at this point, how the ball is going to react where it's really, really fast on the greens and where some of the uphill putts are going to be like a little bit slower. Just need to get a little more pace for it to get there.

But yeah, I feel I'm as prepared as I can be. One thing I like to tell myself is if I've done everything under my control to prepare and play my best golf, then that's all I can do, and just have a good mindset going into tomorrow.