U.S. ADAPTIVE OPEN

July 20, 2022

Kim Moore

Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 6)

Press Conference

Q. We're here with Kim Moore, the women's champion of the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open. How does that sound?

KIM MOORE: Sounds pretty cool to me. Sounds really cool.

Q. You came in, you just played great all three days, struggled with a little bit of heat yesterday, but you came back today and posted a great number, a 76 here to take the title. What about your game really elevated you to the top this week?

KIM MOORE: I just felt like I played pretty consistent, especially today. I knew just going in if I just kept getting pars, it would be tough to beat because I knew birdies were kind of hard to get out here sometimes. That was kind of my strategy, just to keep it in the fairway, hit some greens in regulation and just par and see what the field will do.

Q. Big picture what are some of your takeaways from this historic week in golf and the adaptive community?

KIM MOORE: It's been pretty amazing, exciting, humble. Just gratitude is another word that comes to mind. It's pretty cool to be part of a little bit of history in golf, and it's just very exciting for me.

I'm just thankful for my friends and family and their support and all the people back home that are kind of wishing me good luck and have been watching. It's just been very humbling and exciting for me this whole week, and it's just been nothing but amazing.

Q. How do you stack this one up against some of the other wins that you've had?

KIM MOORE: This is right up there probably really close to the top if not the top. I've won some able-bodied events in my time, in college. Never won when I was playing professionally, but I've won some national amputee golf championships. But this being all-encompassing has been very rewarding, and I would say it's probably right up there to the top.

Q. Playing with that four-shot cushion, did it help that you were paired with the players that were chasing you down on the leaderboard?

KIM MOORE: Yes. Yeah, I was glad to see that. Just playing with your competition is always helpful for me, and I just knew, like I said, if I would just hit greens and two-point and get a par, I'd probably do okay.

It was good to be able to kind of be there and kind of watch what the other ones were doing.

Q. What was that walk down 18 like? Obviously you come down, it's a bowl right there around the green and it just seemed like it was a huge crowd.

KIM MOORE: It was pretty neat. It was pretty neat. I think the USGA made a great decision of making that the 18th hole just because of the way the crowd could kind of get around it. It was just really neat to see all the people and the spectators watching.

A little nervous, wanted to finish strong. But it was really cool to see.

Q. You've been a staple in the adaptive community, golf community, for a while. How do you think this championship will help amplify the stories of you and others like you?

KIM MOORE: I just think just what has been seen this week around the world, around the country is going to elevate the amputee community, the adaptive community, and it's just pretty cool to see. I think we're going to have a lot of rise in participation. I hope that's what this brings. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Q. Obviously you played college golf. There were some players in the field who played college golf or are playing college golf. What do you hope this championship can do for juniors at home who might not think that they can reach that level?

KIM MOORE: I think it just takes a lot of effort, sticking to it. I know it can be challenging. If you just continue to work hard and give it 100 percent every single day and stay positive out there, I think it can definitely show some success.

For the young people out there with disabilities or even the older ones with disabilities that might see some highlight clips on TV, I hope it brings a lot of inspiration to them, too.

Q. What have your players been saying to you?

KIM MOORE: They've just been wishing me good luck, saying go Coach, go low. They're just excited and happy for me, too. Got a bunch of text messages at the end. Just a lot of congratulations.

Q. Anything from playing in competition again that you think that you'll take back to your team that you learned being in the heat of battle down the stretch kind of thing?

KIM MOORE: The heat of battle is a great word. Yeah, there's always learning experiences every time you play. I think the biggest thing for me is just staying patient out there because they were longer rounds, and just teaching them those qualities and things that I didn't do well and things that I did do well. Yeah, there's always lessons learned.

I'm always teaching them, so using what I've played, what I've done, what I've experienced to kind of give insight to my players is what I'm always going to do, and this is another tournament that's just going to go right here in the memory bank.

Q. Your leg is I'm going to say old-fashioned looking compared to so many of the other -- you look at Ken Green's leg like coming out of his bone, and yours -- tell me about the prosthetic itself, and have you had it a while?

KIM MOORE: Yeah, I mean, I was born without a right foot, so I grew up with different prosthetics all my life. I got a little baby one that's about this one when I first started walking. They just have grown throughout the years.

With the type of -- it's not really -- it's just more of a birth defect than anything. With that type, I have like a longer limb so it's harder for me to have anything that you might think is fancy. It's more of just mostly socket. That hasn't changed a whole lot in my lifespan of growing. But it's more of the foot that has changed throughout time and the things that they have come up with to really help with mobility and balance and things like that that I can use.

But it does look pretty old fashioned. A lot of people think it's just a knee issue or a knee problem. But it's just something that feels comfortable, and I've had it all my life.

Q. How long have you had this particular --

KIM MOORE: This one I've had -- I'd probably say about three or four years now. It's a rather newer one, but yeah, I'd say about three or four years now.