NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 28, 2024

Maria Fassi

Maria Marin

Pinnacle Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with both Marias after the second round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. You guys spent the last two days playing together. What can you each say from the perspective of having this opportunity whoever would like to go first?

MARIA FASSI: I'll start. I mean, I think for me it's been a privilege to get to play with her. I of course know about her. We sometimes practice together when I'm in town and the girls are in town.

I had heard a lot about her even before she got here from Shauna and Mike. But I've never been able to play with her. Like I said we practiced together but never got to see her out on the golf course.

She is extremely mature and has a very good head on her shoulders. Yeah, just I think I enjoyed it a lot. I think I said earlier in the week, okay, hopefully she can learn something from me. I think I took a lot away from this experience as well, and, yeah, just very proud of her.

MARIA MARIN: Well, I can say same as Maria. It's a privilege to play with her. I learned a lot from her these two days and it was pretty exciting to get to play as I said yesterday in her like home event.

Calling the Hogs on 17 was also amazing. Of course this is an experience I'm going to remember my whole live, my debut and playing with Maria.

Q. Let's just talk about No. 17. You walked with some of your Fassi & Friends. What was it like for you to see Maria in that position?

MARIA MARIN: It's pretty inspiring that being a Latina you have so much -- you're so represented here. I mean, it's incredible, like walking with Fassi & Friends.

Q. Just talk about being a Razorback in this community. We were just watching the TV there. Very busy day here.

MARIA FASSI: It's awesome. We had a few roars on 16 and 17. I was like I know those aren't about golf, which was fun watching Arkansas play against A&M.

I mean, I've said it a million times and I don't think I'll ever get tired of saying it, but it's such a cool thing we have going on here in Arkansas. Everybody just shows up.

Yeah, it makes you feel special, especially when this isn't our country and they definitely make you you feel like one of their own.

MARIA MARIN: As she said, it feels like home. Everyone is cheering for you and supporting you no matter what you do, but because you're a Razorback. I think that's one of the main reasons I came here. Razorback community is just so -- like they stick together.

MARIA FASSI: Yeah. Love them. (Heart hands)

Q. Tomorrow with the final round, it's a little bit of a mind shift and a mental shift, final round. Probably not going to be paired together tomorrow. Going into tomorrow, what's the mentality? You both are up on the leaderboard.

MARIA FASSI: Yeah, I mean, I think for me, I didn't quite have my best today. I fought hard to finish at even par. Putts didn't quite want to go in and stuff. So I think we just got to clean up some stuff and show up tomorrow with a good attitude.

Like you said, we are in relatively good position. Still got to post a good number because there is plenty of birdies out there, which means everybody is going to be making them.

So I think it's just that, like really trying to play clean golf. Limiting the bogeys. They're quite costly here. But for me, I'm enjoying the fact that I'm in contention at home.

MARIA MARIN: For me, my main thing was making the cut.

MARIA FASSI: You did okay.

MARIA MARIN: Yeah. It was just making the cut and enjoying my first experience here. Of course I'm going to be -- I'm a competitor and of course I like to win, but I'm just going to enjoy the walk tomorrow and do what I've been doing this two past days.

Even though I had like a pretty bad hole today, I'm just going to try it erase it and forget about it and enjoy tomorrow and play good golf.

MARIA FASSI: Watch out for her. She's coming.