DOW GREAT LAKES BAY INVITATIONAL

July 19, 2023

Paula Reto

Amelia Lewis

Midland Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I am here with Paula Reto and Amelia Lewis. Great round today. Can you guys just talk through your round and kind of how you fed off of each other all day?

PAULA RETO: You know, it was great. It's so nice to play with your partner. It takes so much pressure off of yourself. I was a little nervous on the few first holes it being in the morning, but we fed off each other well. I trusted her, and she trusted me.

Hey, we have fun. Whatever happens happens. I could try to make up-and-down and we kind of grinded out there, but it was all good today.

AMELIA LEWIS: Yeah, I think the big thing is trusting. We started off, and we're best friend, so we play a lot of golf together, and we know we have each other's backs. If we hit a bad shot, you don't apologize. You just move on and rebound.

I think we rebounded really well. We didn't miss hardly any shots today, but when we did, we made up for it. Just a very solid day.

THE MODERATOR: The back nine there, you had about four birdies, I believe, too. Was that kind of one person or...

AMELIA LEWIS: No, definitely teamwork. Yeah, teamwork.

PAULA RETO: Sorry. That was our front nine, which I feel like we came super strong, and then we might have put the brakes on the back nine, which is the front.

AMELIA LEWIS: We were giving ourselves good looks and making putts. Just very solid.

THE MODERATOR: How did this partnership come about? You did mention that you're best friends anyway. Was it someone was, like, oh, obviously we're going to be paired together for this?

PAULA RETO: Well, I think we always wanted to be paired together, but with a few years here and there --

AMELIA LEWIS: Yeah, last year we played together. We did really well.

PAULA RETO: Exactly.

AMELIA LEWIS: I think we were in the top 5 after the first day. Yeah, it just made sense.

PAULA RETO: We were like, this is what we're going to do.

AMELIA LEWIS: We didn't ask each other. We're playing together. It's assumed, so...

THE MODERATOR: I love it. What can you say too about the environment of this tournament, just kind of having fun out there, like you mentioned?

PAULA RETO: Yeah, just even the crowds and everybody here, it's such a nice area to come to. The golf course is great.

So just everything about it: The food, the coffee that we get, just the whole environment. On top of it, we get to play golf and enjoy the course together and play alternate shot, which scares you, but it's fun. Then just, yeah, so...

AMELIA LEWIS: We had a lot of support out there. People were cheering us on.

The charity that we're tied to for this event, they came out at 9:00 in the morning and watched us today. The pro-am people we played with last year and yesterday came out and watched us today. So we just had a lot of support.

PAULA RETO: And everybody loves our outfits, so...

THE MODERATOR: Then one last question from me, too. What are you looking to carry into tomorrow too especially with the different format?

AMELIA LEWIS: Tomorrow will be a little less stressful I think because we can play our own ball. We won't have to say I'm sorry for putting each other in a bad spot.

I think we're making a lot of birdies, so I think we're going to continue the good form.

PAULA RETO: Yeah. I feel like everybody in this format, you've got to just go for it, a lot of birdies. The rest doesn't really matter, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. Great round, ladies.