U.S. ADAPTIVE OPEN

July 7, 2026

Amanda Cunha

Woodmont Country Club (South Course)

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Amanda Cunha, plus 7 today. Amanda, great start today with a birdie. Why don't you talk a little bit about your round.

AMANDA CUNHA: My front nine was pretty good. I had some birdies that really helped keep my score down, but then on the back nine I started off on 10 with a double, which unfortunately couldn't chip on that hole.

But I kind of brought it back with a few pars and a few clutch save up-and-downs, which was really great. Then just the last few holes bogey out.

Overall, it was a really good day.

Q. You're pretty experienced with the U.S. Adaptive Open, competing here. What have you been working on in the past year?

AMANDA CUNHA: Some things I've been working on are my short game definitely. I just also recently changed my driver. Those are the two main components of my game while I'm here at the U.S. Adaptive Open just because of the yardages. I mostly just hit driver and then an A-wedge into the green.

Q. We see you decked out in your Arizona Adaptive Golf gear. Could you talk a little bit about who is here with your team and what that camaraderie is like?

AMANDA CUNHA: Yeah, so we have a really great group of people. We have Sophia Howard, Tyler Cashman, Russel Aide, and myself. We play for the Arizona adaptive -- oh, my God. Sorry.

We have a really great group of people out here. Sophia Howard, Tyler Cashman, Russel Aide, and myself. We're part of the Arizona Adaptive Golf team. We're all such a great, close group of friends, and I think that stems from the culture that we've created this past year at the University of Arizona.

Being able to hang out with each other and golf all of us together -- me and Tyler are both visually impaired golfers. Sophia helps both of us out when it comes to lining us up and just getting around the course, and also she's kind of our driver as well. So that is a great help for our team.

I think the great thing about it is that all of us just share the same common relatability to each other. Like we all know the same struggles and the ups and downs of being an adaptive golfer, but also a college student. So I think that it brings us closer together.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about how the program really started? Did you all find out about it when you went to Arizona? Or a little bit about that.

AMANDA CUNHA: I fortunately was the catalyst for the Arizona Adaptive Golf team. When I was a senior in high school looking for schools, I wanted to find a college that would accommodate my academic needs. So when we found the Disability Resource Center at the University of Arizona, there was also a page -- my dad helped me look because on the website, I couldn't read it.

But he said there was an athletics page. So he clicked on it and saw there were multiple sports for adaptive sports. At the time, I had no idea what it was. I was just playing golf with my dad as a visually impaired person not knowing it was adaptive.

Seeing there's para swim, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, and so many others, we saw there was a golf team but no one on it. I reached out to the athletic director, Peter Hughes, and we were able to get me enrolled into the school. I applied. Then, yeah, was able to get onto the team.

It was a team of one for the first year when I was a freshman. So it was a very -- there was a lot of growing pains and figuring out how to be a team and creating the environment we have now.

Q. Final question. Looking into tomorrow, you're still very much in the mix. What's your mindset, and how are you going to take on tomorrow?

AMANDA CUNHA: I've always had the mindset of there's always more golf. I never strayed away from buckling down on the next day and playing better. I really enjoy being able to kind of prove to myself and show myself that I can play those low rounds.

I think at Kansas I shot my overall best round in a tournament there on the last day. So I'm really excited for what it has to bring.