U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 10, 2024

Maria Jose Marin

Southern Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You ran into a bit of a health issue. What happened on 13?

MARIA JOSE MARIN: So I had around 220 into the pin, and I was down of course. I was going to go for it. I don't know what I did or what happened there. I had a little bit of an uphill lie and, yeah, my knee -- I felt it pop or like kind of stretch more than it should.

It hurt really bad, like if something was not broken, but something was going on there, and I just like went to the floor and couldn't move. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened there.

Q. How would you describe the pain of something like that happening during the semifinals?

MARIA JOSE MARIN: I mean, it's of course a huge pain because I wanted to be until the final so bad. After getting to this point, I knew I was capable of doing something better.

I was doing really good. I was still holding on. I was down but I still got like, what, six more holes to go. I knew I could maybe do what I've been doing the last two days. So it's like I'm 1-down and I could maybe win it in extra holes or win it 1-up on the 18th.

It feels also bad for my knee because this kind of injury, it's been over a year -- it didn't happen in over a year.

Q. How difficult was it to say I can't play any longer?

MARIA JOSE MARIN: It was really difficult because as I said, I knew I could have done a lot more. Of course going into the finals. U.S. Am it would've been so good and would've been -- would've felt so nice to be there.

I looked a my dad and just said, I can't. I can't do this anymore. He was like, okay. Just take care of yourself.

As my coach said, I was smart on my decision I think for the rest of the season.

Q. As a whole how would you describe the emotions of this week, medalist, making it to the semifinals, and then unfortunately having to deal with the knee?

MARIA JOSE MARIN: Overall this week I felt really good. I came with low expectations coming into this week of course because of the course; this is a championship course; it's really tough.

And I said it a million times but I'm going to keep saying it: I wanted to make the cut and have a good chance into match play.

I was medalist. It felt really nice, and making it into the semifinals and having to retire, it's just things that happened, but I'm really proud of myself. I'm happy that I made it this far.