U.S. GIRLS' JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2026

Clairey Lin

Old Chatham Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Congrats on advancing to the championship round of the Girls' Junior. Talk about how you're feeling. How excited are you for tomorrow's match?

CLAIREY LIN: I'm so excited. I did a lot of work coming into this tournament, a lot of thinking. Like practice, like on the practice green, me being like, if this is the putt to win the U.S. Girls' or this is the putt to make it to the final match, and to actually be here is super cool.

To see all of the work pay off, to like really make it this far, it means everything.

Q. Is visualization like that, is that part of your practice routine? Is that something you really focus on?

CLAIREY LIN: Yeah, I think you have to. Especially in a long week like this, you kind of have to -- you have to believe in your capabilities and your capacity to make it this far. So I think visualization is a pretty big part.

Q. That's awesome. In that second match, there was a four-hole stretch where you went like four birdies straight. Flipped the switch, completely flipped the match on its head. What was working over those four holes? Just making long putts, hitting good approaches?

CLAIREY LIN: Yeah, I think part of it was knowing these pin locations. I played it in the morning, so I was familiar with what the ball was doing, especially near the hole.

There came a few putts like on hole 12 and 13, I knew what the ball was going to do exactly. So I was able to hit good putts and take it from there.

Q. I'm sure she told you this over there, but with making it to the finals this week, you are exempt into the Women's Amateur in a few weeks.

CLAIREY LIN: No way. I didn't know.

Q. Yeah. How do you feel about that?

CLAIREY LIN: First of all, I didn't know about that. Now I feel amazing, like whoa.

I was in the locker room with a few of my friends before, and although they left this week already, they keep telling each other, I'll see you at Am. I'll see you at Am. And I'm like, well, I won't see you at Am, but I guess I am now. Pretty cool. I'm so excited.

Q. Flipping over to tomorrow, another long day. What's your game plan looking like tomorrow? Obviously you've had a lot of success this week. Is there anything you're still trying to focus on moving into tomorrow?

CLAIREY LIN: Yeah, I think I'm just going to keep it the same as I have the past few days, still work on my tee ball a little bit and kind of reset like I did the past few days.

Try and keep the same routine as I have because it's worked pretty nicely. So just kind of doing the same thing.

Q. Today obviously we had the Golf Channel crew out. Does playing with cameras and bigger crowds, how does that feel for you? Is that a different experience? Does that affect you at all mentally?

CLAIREY LIN: I try not to let it, but I think it's a huge honor to have these cameras on us and have these people following. I think it's really cool that people take their time to come out and watch me play. So it's more of an honor than anything.