U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 6, 2026

Molly Smith

The Honors Course

Quick Quotes

Q. Molly, great round today. You were 4-up through six I believe to start the match and then no bogeys today. I think all pars.

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah.

Q. Can you just talk about it a little bit?

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah, I mean, my goal was to like if I hit a bad shot, make sure I get the next one back in position.

So I feel like I did that pretty well today. I made sure even if I couldn't get to the green in regulation I had a shot from the fairway. Because the rough is -- can be pretty thick, and sometimes like if you're in the rough it's hard to advance it all the way to the green.

So I definitely tried to be aggressive when I was in the fairway and could, and then be conservative when I was out of position to make sure I got myself back in position.

Q. Obviously we can see the numbers on the scorecard, but we're not out there with you. Is there a specific hole or shot that sticks out as something you thought you did well?

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah, I mean, I made two really good pars on nine and ten. Nine I was out of position off the tee and got it -- I had like nine feet for par and made it.

Ten I hit in the fescue left and had to wedge out to the fairway and then stuck my wedge to make par there.

I feel like those two pars were really important because at that point I was 4-up but say I went bogey, bogey I could have been just 2-up with eight to play.

I mean, I made one birdie today. I feel like the pars that I made that were challenging were kind of more important from a mental perspective.

Q. Yeah, definitely. Could you just talk about your match play experience? Like do you have a lot of experience in the format? Is it something you prefer?

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah, so, I mean, I've played this tournament a bunch but this is the first year that I made the cut, so this was my first U.S. Women's Am match play experience.

But this summer I played match play at the British Amateur. It's definitely something that I'm not super duper familiar with because I've only played it here and there, but I feel like I'm gaining more experience and getting better at it each match I play, so that's good.

Q. And then you already mentioned it a little bit, but this is your fifth time playing in this tournament.

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah.

Q. First time making match play and going on, now won a match.

MOLLY SMITH: Yeah.

Q. How does that feel to get that off your back and be able to focus on continuing to win?

MOLLY SMITH: Feels pretty good. Not going to lie, yesterday -- I played good the first round. I shot 1-under, but yesterday I would say I was more nervous than typical because I feel like, I mean, you don't want to think about this, but I played this tournament four times before and I missed every time.

So I really wanted to get into match play as like my first goal. Once you make match play, I definitely felt a lot more comfortable on the course today which was good. My shots coming from the start were a lot better than yesterday just I think because I was a bit more comfortable.