KROGER QUEEN CITY CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY P&G

September 17, 2024

Gianna Clemente

TPC River's Bend

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, pleased to be welcome Gianna Clemente here to the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. Gianna, it was a couple years ago you qualified yourself for this event, and now you're back again; different course this time.

How excited are you to be back at this tournament?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I'm super excited. My experience two years ago was amazing. To be able to Monday qualify like that and to have my dad on the bag and in my home state, it was super special. I'm super excited to do it again.

And to get the opportunity with an exemption this year is really special.

Q. You've been playing a lot on the LPGA Tour these past couple of years. What has that experience been teaching you, helping you with your game? Overall, how excited are you to just be out here on tour for another time?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, I mean, I'll take any opportunity that I can get to stack up my game with the pros and to be able to be paired with different pros every week, just kind of experience what life on tour is like. It's been absolutely amazing every single week. I've learned so much about myself.

And again to be able to have my dad on the bag, we've just learned much. We had so much fun along the way as well.

Q. I know last week was a very cool experience for you playing in the PING Junior Solheim Cup. Congratulations again on the victory. How did that sort of the stack up in your experiences out on tour and getting to stay and watch the Solheim Cup after you had already won?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah we were all super excited to watch the actual Solheim Cup. We got to be inside the ropes on the practice round and got to go inside the U.S. team room and spend time with the girls. It was just so fun for all of us.

We were all so excited to be able to be inside the ropes. It was just so cool.

And obviously to get our own win as well was really cool. To be on a team like that is not something we get to do very often in junior golf. I think it was very special for all of us just to be united playing for our country, and to be able to win by as much of a margin as we did, it was really cool.

Q. Having that experience now, how big of a goal is the Solheim Cup for you?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: It's always been a goal for me. Hopefully more than one. I would love to play on Solheim Cups in the future. I love being on teams, even though golf is a very individual sport. It's so fun. Yeah, being able to represent the red, white, blue, doesn't get much better than that.

Q. Saw you at ShopRite, but just a little bit before that, won the AJGA portion of the Mizuho Americas Open. Might have felt like a white whale for you. What did it feel like to get that win at Liberty National, and what confidence did it give you for the rest of the year?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: That was an unbelievable week honestly. That tournament is such an amazing experience for all the girls. It was just so special to be able to experience that and also play in our own tournament as well.

But to be able to play with the pros and also have our on thing going on it's a lot to handle. It was so fun to be able to get that win. It was just so special for me and my whole family.

Q. We knew I think when you were 14 Monday qualifying for LPGA Tour events you were going to be something special. Seems like today you overtook that first spot in the AJGA rankings. If you look back to your first experience and now, a USGA champion, would you you have expected it this quickly?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I don't know. I wouldn't use the word "expected." I mean, hoped for sure. It's always been a dream of mine to play professionally, and just to be on tour and week to week like this, this has been my dream since I was a little kid.

So not expect, but definitely hoped for sure.

Q. And here obviously got to see it during media day, but what do you think about River's Bend so far?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I love it. It's in amazing condition. I think it's a beautiful course. I loved Kenwood as well. I think I might like this place more. It's really, really good track.

Q. What is it you like so much about it?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I really like the greens. Honestly, any course that I -- I live in Florida now most of the time, so any course that I can play bent on is great. I'm not a big fan of bermuda.

So I love the bent part of this course, and I really love the greens.

Q. Obviously with your Ohio connections, being back here, going to have some people come out and try to watch you?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: Yeah, I think some of my family, they're going to come out, which is really cool. My family from Ohio doesn't get to watch me very much. They don't travel very much.

So, yeah, going to be really cool for them to watch me play for sure.

Q. What's the goal this week for you?

GIANNA CLEMENTE: I'm not going to set any expectations. I'm just going to go out and try to play the best I can and just enjoy every second of it.

Obviously would love to make the cut. Would just really want to play the best that I can and try to put up some good scores.