U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

May 31, 2025

Amari Avery

Erin Hills GC

Flash Interview

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THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Amari Avery. Kind of a loud 24 hours for you. What happened.

AMARI AVERY: Yeah, yeah, to say it was wild is putting it pretty nice. Yeah, so someone tried to break into our Airbnb in Milwaukee at like 2:00 in the morning. Luckily I had a 2:30 p.m. tee time so it was nice that we were able to sort of figure it all out.

Obviously the police came and we figured it out and we waited until daylight to pack up and leave and we packed up all of our clothes and all of our clubs and everything. We left the clubs at the house and then we just brought all of our clothes with us just in case we couldn't find a hotel or anything. It took a while to find a hotel and we finally did.

We actually changed my boyfriend's flight because he had a 7:30 am flight. He's got a tournament so he can't stay here and just dilly-dally with me. He was able to make his flight, so my dad and him went back to the house, which is on the way to the airport, and they packed up the clubs.

No, I've seen some of the comments. We don't buy similar travel bags. We use the same one from USC, so it's obviously the exact same, it looks the exact same. I think it's equally my dad and my boyfriend's fault for not checking the bags. But they loaded it in the car, my dad took him to the airport, and he grabbed the wrong set.

That was that, and we actually didn't realize until about like 12:15 before my tee time. So it was a little bit of a scramble. We tried to figure it out.

I called everybody that I know. I called TaylorMade. I called my agent. I called just friends that are here. Luckily Gabi Ruffels was playing in the morning and she had already finished, and obviously my agent asked, do you want to use her clubs and I was like, well, how did she play because I was like, if she's playing good, no one in their right mind is giving me their clubs.

I probably wouldn't, either, and I'm a nice person. But unfortunately for her she missed the cut, but it was fortunate for me and she's obviously a very class act, great friend of mine, so she lended me the clubs, and obviously I was able to play and make the cut. Just happy to be here.

Q. How terrifying was that experience knowing somebody was trying to break in and how did that go in terms of if they actually got in or not?

AMARI AVERY: Yeah, I mean, it was just scary, like a bit of a panic at first, obviously. My dad came in the room and my boyfriend got scared first so I just thought it was someone that was in the room. I couldn't tell it was my dad. He told us that someone was downstairs and we needed to wake up just in case we had to get running.

Yeah, I mean, it was just a scary time. We were trying to figure out what to do. We called the police. It took them 15, 20 minutes to get to the house, so it was just kind of scary waiting there.

My boyfriend, my mom, and my dad saw the person outside the door, so it was a little bit scary. We just kind of stayed back away from the front door and we were just kind of hoping it would solve itself, which it was nice that the guy ended up leaving and the police came and made us feel more safe.

Q. When you had to deal with not having your own golf clubs yesterday on the course, did it free you up a little bit and did you have less expectations than you might have in that situation otherwise?

AMARI AVERY: Yeah, like I said, it was a scramble in the afternoon just to figure out if I was even going to play. I sat in my hotel at 12:30 like I guess I am going to pull out from the U.S. Open after a pretty solid round. I was obviously devastated.

But finally getting Gabi's clubs, I had like three sets of clubs on the range. Obviously USGA helped me out so much, so it was nice. I tried out some of the clubs and I figured Gabi's was the best way to go. We don't share any clubs at all. Luckily it's the same brand and I'm very used to hitting all types of clubs when I do fittings and stuff like that.

Yeah, it was nice that it was able to work. Once I got out on the course I figured why think, oh, I'm hitting Gabi's 7-iron instead of just thinking, let me just go out here and play. I feel like I'm playing pretty good. We got numbers on the range that are pretty accurate to what my numbers are, so it felt pretty good.

Q. How soon were you able to get your clubs back and how were you able to get your clubs back for today?

AMARI AVERY: Yeah, during the scramble, one of the other people I called was Gav, obviously trying to figure out how I can get my clubs back. Like I said, he had a tournament. His mom was very kind enough to hop on a flight pretty much an hour after I called and she got here around 8:30 last night.

So she was able to drop it off at our hotel and just make the flight, which is awesome. I can't thank her enough. I can't thank my whole inner circle enough. To hop on a flight like that is crazy, and I'm just super grateful.

Q. Where did she fly from?

AMARI AVERY: She flew from Phoenix.

Q. How much more comfortable did you feel today, and have you kind of settled down? And also they showed your shot on 6; looked like you almost aced that one.

AMARI AVERY: Yeah, that was a good one. I was on the struggle bus today, so it was nice to get that almost almost to go in, but it was a good swing. It was nice to have my clubs back in the bag and just be with something I'm more familiar with.

Honestly, based on the score and just based on how I felt yesterday, I felt like Gabi's clubs were honestly pretty good. I joked with her last night after I called her and I said obviously thank you so much for lending me the clubs. I was like, I might take your putter. Like I love my putter, like everyone knows that. But I don't know, my college coach said I gained putts yesterday.

I was like, maybe I should take her putter and maybe like an iron or two. But no, it was nice to have my clubs back.