U.S. WOMEN'S MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 12, 2024

Hana Ryskova

Brae Burn Country Club

Quote Quotes

Q. You're a USGA champion; how does it feel?

HANA RYSKOVA: It feels great. I think it needs to settle a little bit. But it feels great for sure. It was a good day.

Q. Starting with the match on the front, back and forth a little bit. On 3 it seemed like your only hiccup, the tee shot hitting the tree, but you still managed to get a par there. Were you kind of thinking fairways and greens on the front to kind of just stay in it?

HANA RYSKOVA: I mean, Lindsay is such a great golfer, so I knew this was going to be about birdies, that par is not going to be enough. On hole No. 3 on the front nine, I hit a fairway once, second time today. I didn't really on that particular hole, but in general I knew I needed scoring, so it was a lot of I was trying to be more targeted, a lot of flags, chips, yeah.

Q. You were 1-up at the turn. That putt on 10 seemed to be big. Talk to me about that putt to go 2-up.

HANA RYSKOVA: Yeah, I hit a good drive. I hit a good shot exactly where I wanted it, and firm greens got it, and the chip wasn't easy at all. For me, wherever I was, I knew that it's an uphill pretty much straight putt. I knew if I'm going to hit a stroke at the hole it's going to go in, and it did.

Q. How long was that tee shot on 10?

HANA RYSKOVA: I hit 7-iron in, so about that.

Q. So close to 300 yards or over?

HANA RYSKOVA: Yeah. But it's down the hill. Don't give me that much credit. I didn't lose my collegiate length yet.

Q. You got one on 11 to go 3-up and then 13 was another big one. Describe a little bit about your play the last four holes, how aggressive you were playing with the lead.

HANA RYSKOVA: I mean, on 10, obviously I just wanted to make birdie because it's a par-5 and it's a great time to make birdies. Then on 11, I knew Lindsay didn't have an easy putt, but also it was a decision to either be long and have a 45-footer putt or putt from below, so I decided to do that, and the two-putt actually worked.

That was that, and then on 14 yesterday I hit a great shot but it caught the downslope, so I was over the green. So I chose today to stay short again and either make birdie or not, and I did from there.

Then my wedge play finally showed up after a little practice yesterday, after those four extra shots. I just wanted to go get a birdie. I knew she had to, and I just wanted to.

Q. How did it feel after you hit that wedge on 14?

HANA RYSKOVA: Oh, man, it felt good because I knew it was -- I am a good wedge player and it hasn't showed up yet, so I was glad it showed up in the right moment for sure.

Q. How far was the shot and what club did you hit?

HANA RYSKOVA: It was 76 meters, and I hit 58 and a half. It's 60 bent to 58 and a half. We say 60, AKA 58. It took us a while.

Q. How were you holding up out there today? The week is such a long week, so many holes of golf. How did you feel this morning?

HANA RYSKOVA: Oh, I slept like three hours. I had such a belly ache. But I think I ate something -- you don't have to write it down. But I felt good because I met Lindsay once but I had so many people from Louisville reach out how great they are, her and Austin, and Ethan was excited to have a good match, too, just the vibe was so much different today than the rest of the week.

I was excited to play. Obviously I think we were all hurting and I think we're all tired. I was kind of excited it was the last round, but I was excited to play. Coming here -- we decided on Tuesday, we booked everything on Tuesday, so we weren't sure until the last minute if we were coming here or not, but I'm glad that we did.

Q. How do you control your emotions in a match like this, in the final match? It's so close on the front, big crowd out here watching you?

HANA RYSKOVA: Oh, I love the crowd. I feed off the crowd ever since -- and I am so appreciative they all showed up at 8:30 in the morning. It's not that warm anymore.

But the front nine doesn't really play in my cards because I can't use my driver, and if I use driver on 5 I can't reach it most of the time anyway or it's not a smart decision to go second to the green. I knew if I was patient -- again, patience is everything. I was just being patient and really more focused because I knew Lindsay is a really good player.

Q. You will be playing now in next year's U.S. Women's Open. Does that sound good? At Erin Hills.

HANA RYSKOVA: I mean, it sounds amazing. I just need to tell my future employer that I need some PTO for that. No, it feels great. We were looking at the sites, and I've never been to Wisconsin or Oregon. So it's great. I'm just super excited. It's a big thing just to qualify for the U.S. Women's Amateur in general. It's such a big deal. For me to not worry about that part and focus on the bigger deal, it's really cool. And for U.S. Open, dream come true. Not even a dream. There's these Opens and these Opens but am I ever going to play them? I'm an amateur. I didn't really want to turn pro ever. It's just a good experience to go as an amateur and go play that tournament for sure.

Q. You talked about earlier in the week that you're applying for jobs right now. What would you like to get into?

HANA RYSKOVA: I mean, undergrad in marketing, MBA. I would love distillery spirits but it's very hard in Kentucky. I love sports, always grew up in sports, so if the USGA has anything full-time remote, let me know.

But if anything it's not my first job -- pretty much my full-time first job. I want to grow in it. I don't want something that's going to be for a year and I'll go somewhere else. Pretty much anything, communication, marketing, media, something similar like that. Yeah.

Q. What was your favorite part of the distillery spirits certificate, that part of your MBA program?

HANA RYSKOVA: It was just so amazing. When I was growing up, my mom was PR for the second brewery in the country, which beer back home is a really big deal. We have the highest consumption of beer per capita in the world year after year.

Q. Impressive.

HANA RYSKOVA: Yeah, it's an impressive stat. I grew up around breweries and things like that. Then obviously in Kentucky Ethan absolutely loves Bourbon. I love Bourbon slushy, that's about it. But I adore the industry and how different it is, the free tire system and how each state is very different, the marketing has to be different because you either have a retailer or not or you have the second man.

Just like the whole thing. For me, a lot of people get into it just because they want to, but I actually had six classes in it and studied it for three months. It makes a really big difference. I had professors who worked for Jim beam, so there are professors but just for the class just because they work in it for years.

For me, it's just a very interesting topic. It's not just, oh, this tastes like raspberry or whatever. It's how it works and how barrels work. I could talk for years.

Q. It seems kind of specific to Louisville, the program. Is that because of the Bourbon --

HANA RYSKOVA: Yeah. Will if it's not distilled in Louisville or in Kentucky, it's not a Bourbon. We have about 98 percent -- 96 percent of Bourbon is in Louisville. So yeah, it's very specific, and it's very interesting for everyone. It's a good business to get into because it's always going to be in Louisville because there are a lot of rules.

We have pretty much up to May, everyone has the same classes and then in summer you pick, then you can have a certificate in analytics, healthcare or distilled spirits. We have a lot of professors in undergrad who teach and they are working for distilled spirits, but MBA is we have a certificate in it and a lot of people are taking it because it gives you an edge because a lot of people want to go into a distillery, but if you finish undergrad or MBA and you've never worked like a tour guide or anything, it's very hard to get in that industry. So since I have the certificate, it gives me that focus on it.

Q. Is Bourbon -- will you celebrate with some Bourbon? What's going to be your drink of choice?

HANA RYSKOVA: Well, it's definitely going to be a margarita because my girls at home -- women's golf team have a Cardinal Cup starting tomorrow and all of my alumni friends are meeting on Saturday. So we're excited. We're very excited to have that picture all together because it's very hard to get all together at the same time, so it's definitely going to be a margarita Saturday.

Q. I know it just happened and you're still processing, but Women's Open next year, do you have any players that you'd like to play a practice round with? I know the Kordas have Czech heritage.

HANA RYSKOVA: No, obviously I would love to play with Nelly, if she's coming back or not next year, but in general for me -- I don't want to focus on the other players because if I'm there, I'm there as a player and I want to focus on my game because it could go nice from there, too. I don't really want to -- I always wanted to play with Annika Sorenstam, always. Such a dream. Just because she's European and they always said I sound like her, look like her, and my coach always used to tell me what she says and how I should do it. So it would be a dream to talk to her and play with her, but obviously she's probably not going to be there. So in general, I just want to go there, focus on my game and maybe see what they're doing differently or just more of because they're professionals in it.