U.S. GIRLS' JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2021

Avery Zweig

Columbia Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. First of all, playoff yesterday. Just reactions to getting through in that fashion.

AVERY ZWEIG: Well, to preface, we were at the hotel, Cheesecake Factory, pretzel bites, pasta, like changing our flights, and then my mom -- like I remember her coming in and she kept refreshing -- pressing refresh on her phone.

She's like, Oh, my God. Projected cut line, on the number. Avery! I was like, Oh, dear.

And then my caddie was like, Well, if it's more than a 4 for 1 I don't think we're going to go. And then at that time it was 9 for 1 or something, and I said, Well, I at least need to try.

And then it turned out it was 9 for 4 because the holes coming in are super hard and people give up shots.

So I think in the playoff, honestly me being resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to be playing today and then coming back an hour later, it was kind of helpful because it was a little bit of a free roll, Okay, well, I didn't think I was going to be here in the first place, so might as well just try.

The playoff was definitely intense. I was struggling with my ball-striking, and I think it definitely gave me some good thoughts coming into today because I hit some really good shots under probably the most pressure I'm going to get at this tournament.

Yeah, so playoff and then I knew I was going to be playing Cindy, so I knew it was going to be a tough one today.

Q. Talk about the match today; you jumped out to an early lead. How did that help your confidence?

AVERY ZWEIG: Well, first of all, I have the utmost respect for Cindy. She's a fantastic player. Obviously me being the underdog, I knew I needed to get off to a good start at least, and I was fortunate enough to stuff it in on 1 and then I made some good pars.

There were just little moments where it could have been in her favor and then I was able to execute before she did, so that kind of put me in the driver's seat for the rest of the match.

My caddie and I were really clicking today with clubbing and putting reads. I definitely have some room for improvement, but I was just thinking how obviously this match, playing the No. 2 seed is going to be one of the tougher ones.

All that, I guess, momentum I have going into the other ones, it's going to be really fun.

Q. Not many people here are coming off an LPGA start, so how does it go from LPGA and then you're right back at the Girls' Junior?

AVERY ZWEIG: Well, the caliber of players here, the top 15 or 20, they could compete there. It's more just -- because a good player is a good player. I think for me, one of my main goals since the start of this year was to become more well-rounded, just short game, putting, and just more consistent.

You definitely see that, and honestly, that's what I had coming into today because I knew even if I lost I was going to learn something valuable.

I just tried to stay in it, and again, I was in the driver's seat and pulled through.