I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball.
In a bride egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida egg Egg Frida Egg, bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Welcome to the Friday Egg Golf Podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison and the Augusta National Women's Amateur is back. There will be a stacked field at Champions Retreat and Augusta National next week, and we're here to tell you about a few players to watch out for. We'll also talk with one of the biggest stars in the field, Stanford University's Mega Ghane.
Mega is one of the top players in college and you may recall her from the time she contended for a US Women's Open at Olympic Club in twenty twenty one. She was actually in that final, pairing with Lexi Thompson and the eventual champion, Yucusaso. We're very excited to speak with Mega. We've wanted to have her on the pod for a while, but before getting into anwa we thought we'd check in with the LPGA Tour and just see what's been going on there. So all of that is
coming up, but first let's talk about golf in Ireland. Now, if you've been following our explorations content, which I hope you have because it's been really great in my opinion, you know that the Island of Ireland is a golfer's paradise. It has over four hundred courses, one third of the world's true links courses, and exceptional championship layouts surrounded by
epic landscapes. Those championship courses include Royal Port Rush and Royal County Down, both in Northern Ireland, and Royal County Down is going to be hosting the Amjin Irish Open this September, that is this year, so that's going to be really fun to watch, and then the Open Championship is going back to Royal Port Rush in twenty twenty five, so some big tournaments coming up. There, lots of reasons
to get out to Northern Ireland specifically. Now in addition to golf, one of the remarkable things about the Island of Ireland is the hospitality that accompanies any golf experience out there. The nineteenth hole is just the joyful ending point of any day of golf out there, and where better to do that than the confines of a great pub where you can relax after a great eighteen holes
at one of Ireland's many world class golf courses. So if you're interested in an Irish golf experience, go to Ireland dot com slash golf and book your trip today. All right, let's get into some LPGA tour golf before talking about and wha here to discuss everything with me today is fridayg Golf's project manager, Merch Czar and Women's golf correspondent. It's a quite a list of titles there, Meg Atkins, Meg, how are you doing today?
I'm doing good. Garrett, good to be here. And yes, we all wear mini hats at Frida Egg. I'm not the only multi multi hyphen it here. So excited to talk some golf with you.
Yeah, we're we're going to do some travel next week. We're getting out of the house and going to Augusta. We're both going to be covering and as we did last year, so we thought we'd get together and you know, do a little bit of preview of that tournament. But while we're doing that, we thought we would talk about what's been going on in the LPGA Tour season so far, because it's really been pretty interesting. So we're going to do a couple of storylines here, two storylines, major storylines
from this season of LPGA Golf. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Meg. What's your first storyline that people should be paying attention to on the LPGA Tour so far this year.
Yeah, it's it's the big names showing up.
You know. The start of the season is it's a little bit disjointed just with the nature of the schedule, you know, time off after the initial tournaments to go to Asia and then time off after Asia for travel and whatnot. But the players have managed to make this you know, kind of choppy start to this season really interesting. It's been We've had a couple of playoff wins for Nellie Korda, Lydia Co's won and is now on the
cusp of a Hall of Fame. Berth Patty t has also gotten back into the winner circle after a long long break there, and then you have Hannah Green Souh all major winners, the exception being Bailey Tarti who won in China, so the big names.
Are well toward the top, and the US win is open or something fairly recently, right, I remember her name popping up, I forget where.
Yeah, she played.
She played great at pebble and that was kind of my first introductioner. But you know, Georgia's standout player and for her win, I think she went seven under through her last eleven holes to kind of just take that title. So what I've been hoping for and wanting for the past few seasons is kind of to catch a break with injuries and with everyone's kind of games not really aligning the big names, and we've got that now. It's
awesome to see Nelly knock off too early wins. I think, you know, the the longer the storyline goes for Lydia, with this Hall of Fame birth on the line every
every tournament she enters, that's intriguing storyline too. So, you know, really a great start for the LPGA season when they don't really set it up to be to start off with the momentum with how the schedule is, but you know, really really fun finishes when that continued over on Sunday with Nellie's win over Rhinotoole in just crazy conditions and
win at Palace Verdes. So you know, now that we kind of wrapped up the first part and are looking at the majors on on the on the horizon, I think for Nelly, you know, the expectations just get ramped up even more on Okay, when are we going to get that second major? So you know, in about three weeks she'll she'll have the chance at the Chevron in Houston and then we'll roll right into the rest of the major schedule and the real meat of this season.
But really, I mean, I can't stress it enough how entertaining some of these finishes have been, even if you've had to stay up late to watch or you know, not the easiest to find some of these some of these tournaments on the broadcasts. But yeah, it's it's been a fun start, I think, I mean, honestly, outside of the players, I think the finishes on the LPGA side have been much more exciting and with more intriguing storylines
than on the PGA side of things. And that's with you know, not so not so exciting courses, a lot of travel, and not exactly a smooth start to the season.
Schedule wise, Yeah, kind of a herky jerky start, but this has been something that we've been talking about for a couple of years now. That's just the way this start of the LPGA Tour season is in January, February, March. It really does seem to settle in in the month of March and then we're kind of onto major season. I'm not sure I love the cadence as it is, but there have been good tournaments and that has really
kind of carried the day so far. Nellie Corda definitely, you know, starting to live up to the hype I want to say, although it's not just hype around here. It's always been legitimate. You know, she is a genuinely amazing ball striker, but she maybe hasn't one at the rate that we've expected, and part of that is because of some health issues, some injury issues that she's been grappling with for the past couple of years. But she really does seem to be in dominant form right now.
Her win at Palace Verades it was very impressive for a number of reasons. One was that the conditions on the last day, as you mentioned, were very, very tough and one of The one of the fun little side stories for me on that day was that were the things that the players were wearing. There was like lots of little creative ways to to shield themselves from the from the elements that you don't typically see male players.
Deer medsen Spring our rare site, but always always a welcome site.
It was fantastic. But in any case, she she was, you know, well ahead midway through the final round, then kind of lost it on the last couple of holes bogey bogie. But then you know, put her stamp very very assertively on that playoff. So you know, how how would you assess where Nellie's at right now?
Yeah, And listen to her press conference afterwards, and she was actually asked, you know, how how do you stack up how you're playing right now to your peak, which I think everybody would consider that twenty twenty one season when Olympic gold, her major four titles and just top ten and I think, you know, almost every start it seemed like And for her she kind of joked, you know, well, it's been so long since that peak that I can't really compare the two. But I was impressed with her.
Meant how she talked about mentally quickly venting about that finish, which you know was definitely put the momentum if you were if you were betting on that playoff, even with Nellie's accolades, definitely put the momentum in Ryan O'Toole's camp. She drained a long par put on eighteen to get herself two nine under then to meet Nellie. But you know, Nelly talked about, Yeah, I vented, kind of got it out. My coach said, all right, are you ready to go
play now? And and she refocused herself, got on the tee and got it done and on the first hole there. So let's also not forget that this comes off of a seven week break. She didn't play in the Asian Swing at all, took some time off to do some traveling to Prague. Her sister Jess Corta had a baby, so playing the ant roll a little bit and it wasn't just the travel, but you know, she took she didn't touch a club for almost half of that seven weeks.
So you know, I think one that bodes well to just not have you know, a whole lot of rest after that break. And then two, with with the the LPGA schedule, you know, maybe we're getting a fresher Nelly into this this bulk of this season, into the meat of the schedule where you know, the majors are going to come into fast Clip and then we're going to
roll straight into Olympics and Solheim Cup. So if that, if we are seeing kind of Nelly start to peak, you know, maybe that break when we're talking at the end of the summer, if she's still playing, well, we're talking more about how how great that break was for her to stay fresh through the grind of the season.
All right, let's get a second storyline.
I kind of wrote about this a little bit in the newsletter last Friday. I think it's really interesting, and
I'll offer up a caveat that. You know, the sport to sport comparison is never apples to apples, But if you've been paying attention to the overall, you know, sports landscape, you know that women's sports is having a moment here right now with just the popularity of basketball with Caitlyn Clark phenomenon, and then last week the new NWSL season started, and I wanted to kind of talk about women's sports in general because there really has not been a better
time to be leading a women's sports league, and the time is quickly becoming now for Marcusman to capitalize on this momentum.
And I want, you know, I think.
It's it's helpful to look at other sports and how they have taken advantage and of you know, really kicked down the door in many ways, whether it be with expanding their leagues, with media deals, with viewership numbers, and how can golf kind of take a piece of that pie that, you know, and take advantage of what's going
on with women's sports. So if you look at you know, Molly Marcusmone's tenure and what she came into when she was hired on as commissioner, you know, Mike Wan had built the league back up, but she came from Princeton, She came from academia, and she went on you know, a year long learning tour as she described it, to just kind of figure out this new this new, this new landscape and and how to tackle it.
And and if you.
Look at at soccer and the NWSL, Jessica Burman comes on shortly after Molly marc Us Simon, so very similar similar tenures here, and she comes into the NWSL that is mired in scandal, a mess of a league, zero player trust, and she doesn't have the luxury of a listening tour. She's got to get in and turn things
around immediately. And Jessica Berman comes from a background in the NHL where she, you know, many many years going up the ladder in that league, was responsible for, you know, negotiating the lockout deal years ago, and she just comes out,
you know, guns blazon. I think the most important thing that she did was demand the team ownership's step up, and I think that has very you know, obviously golf does have teams, but we have these sponsors of tournaments, and what was happening in soccer was you had these passive team owners.
Alexis Ahanian uh co found founder of.
Reddit, is a i think the majority stakeholder in Angel City, the LA Husband Williams, Yes, husband of Serena Williams and also part owner or I don't know the exact title of the TGL team La GC.
So he I actually spoke.
About this, you know, when he kind of came on and was meeting other owners. He's talking to one owner and it was like, you know, yeah, I have a daughter and this is kind of like a you know, charity thing to kind of show her something that I'm supporting women's sports. And what you've seen is that kind of totally flip on its head where those owners are now out and you have owners who don't see this as a charity but see as an investment in something
they're gonna make money on. And you've seen the valuation of the teams go up. You've seen new owners come in with big time dollars, celebrities, uh, other other athletes. Eli Manning has a stake in a team. Patrick Mahomes and Britain Mahomes are co owners and stakeholders in the Kansas City team here. And you've seen major, major investment. And what that's brought is, you know, these severely undervalued teams are now selling at you know, twenty times what
they were selling for in the past. The league has expanded, They signed a mega media rights deal with with multiple you know, streaming options, Amazon, CBS, multiple venues.
For their product.
And if you're if you're the LPGA, if you're Mollie mark Us Simone right now, if you're not sitting down with what there surely are passive tournament sponsors on on the on the LPGA side of things that you know have been doing this for certain amount of years. Throw an extra one hundred k to the purse each year, and you know, call it good if you're not sitting down with some of those sponsors and having the conversation that you know, the things have changed and it's time
to step up in a bigger way. You know, you can have that conversation with the confidence now with where woman's sports is at that you'll have another sponsor up to the plate if they're not willing to do that.
And I think that's where, Yes, soccer and golf are not the same, but you can take a page out of that playbook from soccer and what Jess Berman has done and start really putting sponsors to the fire of investigation of truly investing in golf, whether that's you know, new tournaments, whether that's new venues, whether that's bigger purses.
We've kind of been baby stepping the way into things with golf right now, and it's time to kind of take that that big next step and get onto the same level as kind of soccer, bsketball and others have gotten to.
And broadcast partners probably need a kick in the butt as well.
Yep, yep, But I think I think that comes. I think I don't think that's going to be They're not going to be the leader there. I think they're going to see investment from other sponsors and and you know, other money coming in through new tournaments or purses or sponsors for players, and they're going to follow suit. I don't think we can expect them to be the leader on that forefront.
Unfortunately.
Yeah, the media rights deal is not really exclusively or their own right. The LPGA sort of has has piggybacked on the PGA Tours media rights deal, but clearly there are some improvements that could be made in that arena as well. All right, cool, So with that, let's get into the next generation of potential LPGA Tour stars or
in a few cases, star amateurs. On the women's side, Let's do some players to watch at the Augusta nash Women's Amateur So Meg, before we bring Mega on, let's try to do these in a kind of lightning round style. Who is your first player to watch for at Augusta National next week?
I'm going with Taylor Gouch's favorite player, Asterisk Tally. She's the youngest player in the field. She just turned fifteen a couple months ago. About it in February, I believe, And she is coming in with some momentum. She just won the Junior Invitational, which is an elite junior tournament, by six, so she's got some familiarity with Augusta too
as a drive, chip and putt participant. Maybe she peaked too early, but I think she's got some confidence coming in to an lad to hopefully make a run there.
Okay, my first player to watch is also a very young player, seventeen years old, Yanna Wilson, absolute stud on the junior scene. The twenty twenty three AJAGA Girls Player of the Year. She's number one in the AJGA rankings. She's a University of Oregon commit, and you know this is her third and wha, right, So she's pretty young, but she's been here a few times. She won on the Cactus Tour fairly recently quarterfinals at the US Women's Amateur.
This is a serious, serious player and somebody to watch out for many years to come. So Yanna Wilson, all right, who's your next player?
All Right, we're keeping it with the teenagers. I'm going to go with Aila Galitski. She's a seventeen year old from Thailand. She's committed to South Carolina. She also played in the Junior Invitational. She finished third at a even par, but that's nine back of asterisk.
But I was really impressed.
She played in the LPGA's Thailand event earlier this year, made the cut, finish T forty one, So very good playing with the best of the best over there in Thailand.
And we'll see what she can do to Augusta.
All right, and my last player is Hailey Cooper. So we've talked about teenagers so far. Hailey Cooper is twenty four years old, so absolutely ancient, right this is She's still young, of course, but Hailey Cooper played her final collegiate tournament for Texas A and M last year. She helped the team get to match play at the NCAA Championships. Hailey's got a great backstory. She was an elite junior.
She actually won the US Women's Amateur four ball when she was still in high school and was a first team All America at the University of Texas in twenty nineteen. But then her game just sort of hit a rough patch. I'm not totally sure what happened. She did get invited to ANNWA in twenty twenty one, but had to withdraw because she tested positive for COVID nineteen. So this year is actually her ANNWA debut. In any case, she's gotten
her game back rest. She got her undergraduate degree from Texas in twenty twenty one, I think, and she got it in three years, so she's obviously got a pretty good head on her shoulders. Then she went to Texas A and M for her master's degree and she just rediscovered her game, had a really great twenty twenty three season. So I think that's a feel good story to watch out for. So there are a bunch of other names that I think people will recognize if they've seen past
AUGUSTA National Women's Amateurs. These names would include Amelia Emiliaco, who is playing her fifth I don't think there's anybody else in the field who has played literally every one of these tournaments. Yeah, and she's planning to be a career amateur. She's been on the podcast before, absolutely delightful person ingrad Lynn Blad is a potential favorite here. This is her fourth an whah, you know, I don't know if there's anybody else you would really choose to be
the sole favorite here. But there's a good, good argument for Lynn blad Amari Aver playing her fourth and last an wha. Rachel Keene in her fourth, Carolina Lopez Chakara, right, you'll recognize that last name is also playing her fourth. An wha. We've got Rachel Heck who just announced recently through an essay and no laying up that she has chosen to remain an amateur and not turn professional in golf, but she's she's coming back to play in her third
an wha. Anna Davis is the returning champion. Gianna Clemente still sixteen years old, but this is her second and I believe she is still the youngest or one of the two youngest players in the field, so obviously a very very talented player. So lots of people to watch out for here. I'm not sure if I missed anybody.
Now that covers the big names.
You know, it's it feels a little bit different without Rose this year. That was obviously the main storyline last year leading in but an what depth never disappoints. If you know, all these names kind of show up, We'll have a very very exciting Saturday.
Of course, one name that we haven't mentioned yet is Mega Gane, and Mega has an incredible resume that she's bringing into this ANWA and we're bringing her on the podcast right now. But before we get to her, let's talk quickly about Blackjack Jerky. So Blackjack Jerky started as a father son idea. They were hiking the Appalachian Trail.
They needed a solid protein source that could survive in their backpacks for a couple of days and hopefully just taste better than whatever they would get at the gas station. And so they decided to come up with their own jerky brand and the result is a very flavorful, tender, and satisfying jerky with just the right amount of chew.
The Blackjack Barbecue Beef Jerky is real top round beef, hand carved, soaked in their legendary marinade and smoked over pecan would no dehydrator, no liquid smoke, just the real deal, the real jerky. So you can try this on your next hike or on the golf course. Jerky is a great thing to put in your golf bag and take out on the golf course. Fills you up, makes it so you're not hungry, you don't want to be. You wantn't want to be trying to play golf when you're hungry.
You know that just is that's not the right way to go for Frida Egg listeners. The deal that Blackjack Jerky is offering is this twenty percent off a single bag or a three bag purchase using fried Egg as the promo code. That's just fried Egg all one word. A five bag purchase will be twenty percent off as well as free shipping. So those are your options. And
here is the url. It is local Palette, Marketplace, dot com, slash pages slash fried Dash, egg Dash Golf or if you just want to go to our newsletter and clar the link there we're running Blackjack Jerky ads, so check out the newsletter and you can get to our special Frida Egg Blackjack Jerky page through that method as well. So Blackjack Jerky check it out. All right, So we are here with Mega Ghane. First of all, Mega, how did finals go?
It went past all my classes. I took kind of a heavy quarter and I took computer science for the first time this quarter, which was it was going well until it wasn't. But I'm glad I took the challenge. I took it with my teammate Paula and good, good bonding experience. But very glad those ten weeks are over.
I've heard that computer science is a big deal at Stanford. That's the word on the street.
Yeah, it's like it was like a must take class. So it's done.
You guys, you figured out a pretty good way to wrap up finals week. You guys played some golf, didn't you over the weekend? You want to tell everyone where you played and how that went.
Yeah, we played. We played Cypress point right after we were done with finals, which was the best prize you could have asked for. It was so good. Like, if there's anything better than playing Cypress, it's playing it right after you finished finals. So it was perfect weather, so good. We went out there. It was unreal and that was like one of my last few courses on my like my top tier bucket list. So I definitely did some pro shop damage. And yeah, she's just like us.
Yeah, so you hadn't You hadn't played there before, this was your first time?
No, I didn't play there first time.
Wow. Any any surprises or observations from seeing the course for the first time.
It's like the whole. I loved the separation of like each of the six holes, like the ones, like how different they were from each other. Didn't I didn't know much about like the history of the course. That was cool to learn about. And then the last few were just insane. Like I've played I've played pebble multiple times, I've played Spanish bass, like the area, like, I'm familiar with what it looks like. But those holes are just gorgeous, like they're not You're just not prepared for them. So
it was it was super super cool. And I bought a huge painting that's going to go up in my bedroom.
Oh no way, what's the painting of.
It's of It's of sixteen.
Yeah, yeah, of course it's a pretty good one.
To have next to my Augusta painting that I have.
Oh no, I'm not bragging at all with So you aren't familiar with the Pebble Beach area. You took down the Carmel Cup last fall. I believe what did you shoot in the final round there?
I think sixty seven okay, which is pretty good.
So what's what to use the key to doing that kind of damage of Pebble Beach.
Oh, well, good conditions. I didn't have to deal with anything crazy, which was a big help. But also just I think that week, I just I just had a game plan on every single hole. And I had a great caddie as well, who was a local there in the practice round and they can't give you advice during the real thing, but he loaded up in the practice round. So I just felt I had a great strategy on every hole. Felt like it was just two putt move
on like type of golf. So it just that that course definitely, uh suits my eye well because my first freshman year, I that was the first on one I played my freshman year, played well there, and then this year I just yeah, it was just felt good. Every shot just kind of feels right, so nice.
Yeah. So the college season is about to pick up here. How would you assess the state of the Stanford team right now?
It's great from the outside and inside, I feel like we feel great and our team chemistry is kind of ridiculous right now, which I've felt. I mean, it was really good last year, but this year there's like I just feel like we move around each other so well,
which is so important. And you know, having eight women that get along that well is pretty impressive in my opinion, and I think that's what really drives us every day, and like we just love being at the golf course every day, which makes a huge difference when you're you know, working to a larger goal and just enjoying the process and doing that with each other. I think that's really what leads to our success in a tournament golf.
You have a new member of your team this year. You mentioned Paula. Her full name is Paula Martine san Pedro san Pedro. Okay, good, so there's the pronunciation. She was in your computer science class with you. This is this is a pretty sensational freshman player. Could you give me a basic scouting report on Paula.
Paula, She's just consistent. She just does everything that people have told me. They come up to me on the putting green after the rounds at tournaments and they're like, yeah, your freshman doesn't miss, Like she just doesn't. She doesn't miss. And I'm like, yeah, I haven't seen it yet either, but she's she's super cool. She's great off the golf course. We've gotten really close actually because of this computer science class, which is nice, but she's such a hard worker and
she's so intelligent in the classroom. She's taking insane class load, which is the golf is impressive, but doing that with what I'm seeing behind the scenes is even more impressive. So definitely pushing me to beget better as well.
Yeah, so she's from Spain and she is going to be in Annoa as well, so that's a little preview of what people might see there. But her results so far this college season have been pretty pretty eye popping, like top top ten and everything as far as I can see. So yeah, that kind of consistency is impressive. Of which, speaking of consistency, Roseng obviously turned pro last year,
but she's hanging around. When I heard that she was going to do this, like be on the LPGA tour and also finish out her degree at Stanford, I was like, how how is that even possible? Have you seen Rose around campus? Has have there been any any sightings? Is she kind of still hanging hanging around there?
Yeah, she's hanging around. When she was here, I would see her almost every day. But I think it's I think it's great. I think if I had to leave college right now, like my sophomore year. I would definitely love to come back from a quarter and feel like a student that's just living a regular life, even though that's not what she's doing. But uh, I think that's great. I think it's a really cool balance that she's able to strike. And yeah, I feel like I would do
the same. I love her situation of tour to Stanford and then coming back and forth. It's amazing.
Wait, are are you giving us a little preview of of Well, I'm.
I'm saying for four years, but I'm saying I think she's I think she's doing the right thing.
Okay, Okay, sounds good. Yeah, all right, Meg, you want to you want to get into her mega's experiences at Augusta National a little bit here, Yeah, yeah.
I do.
I mean, Garrett you mentioned it, but the drive chip and putt, what's what's the experience, Like, I mean, being so young and you've talked about, you know, being more nervous at their their you know, having just those couple shots to hit under under all that pressure and all all the crowds there obviously probably the biggest crowds you've ever played golf at that point. Just talk through what that experience is like being so young.
Yeah, I love the Drive Ship and Putt. It's like it's an initiative like no other, and like it really is the most pressure you've ever felt. And uh, they run it so well and make you feel like you are like just like you just feel like you're getting top notch treatment from start to and and it's so cool. I mean, like what other tournament in junior golf is like that? And when do you get to experience something that feels so high level other than something like the
Drive Chip and Putt. And you know, everyone tunes in for those that uh those few hours where it's on TV, and uh, it's super cool. It's like a taste of the big leagues when you're just nine years old. And and I loved it. I think it prepared me for a lot of golf for the rest of my my amateur career. And yeah, I'm just super grateful. And I and I going to the ANUA now, I feel like I feel it feels like way more like home when I'm there because I've I've just been there since I
was a kid. So yeah, I'm very grateful for the Drive Ship Putt. I think it was a pretty big part of my story.
Yeah, so rolling from that into an whah, this is your fourth ANIMA appearance. Uh, miscut miscut t nine last year. So through kind of you know, those first couple of years out there, not qualifying for the Saturday on the big course on Augusta National, and then the success last year, you know, top tens, an incredible job out there, and then what do you think this year hasn't an on hold for you?
Yeah? I think that first course we play on Champions Retreat, it was not my place for a good while, but it just it had like a setup that I didn't feel like really suited me, and like I didn't have the ball striking to really score there. And on top of that, it's a thirty person cut of the top seventy in the world, so if you're not on it, you're not going to make that cut. So I came close both years, but just didn't quite have the shots
in the bank that I needed. And I really reflected on that before last year's event, made a couple of swing changes, equipment change, hit the ball higher, and yeah, I just came together and I just I just had a greater bank of shots that I could hit, which helped me on that golf course, and then played well at Augusta, which was completely different from the first course. So it was grateful. And this year you're just trying
to do more of the same and it's nice. And another big thing too, is when I the first few years, I was still in high school, so I'm coming out of a New Jersey winter, so I had no outdoor practice going into it, So that definitely has something to do with it being here now.
Yeah, I mean you've pointed out one of the crazy things about and WAT and it's the differences between the two courses. So how is it that Augusta National is so different from Champions Retreat. How do you see those as kind of different tests of your golf game.
Yeah, Like for I don't know, maybe everyone will have a different take, but I feel like the general consensus is that Champions Retreat is more demanding. I think the conditions we play the courses in make it harder because for whatever reason, the greens have just been way harder to hold. That Champions retreats windier there than it has been at Augusta. It's just just set up wise, it feels like it's less scorable and you just make one
bogie and then you're fighting for the cut line. So it's just the intensity is so high on those first few days it doesn't even feel like the same tournament almost as the final day. Uh. And then yeah, Augusta's Augusta is just different. You need to play well at both. But champions are treats a ball strikers golf course, I think.
Yeah.
And so this year what I kind of found was pretty wild number you have four of your teammates also competing at ANNA, as well as four future cardinal coming on too.
So an Walker, I mean, maybe the best the.
World, right of any sport.
No kidding.
Yeah, So you have a big support system there, which will be I'm sure very very nice to have your teammates there with you kind of continuing on with with and whah, you know, first edition was twenty nineteen. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about how you know, Nil and that coming into the picture is kind of kind of changed kind of the look and feel a little bit of and wha we were Garrett and I were both there last year and you kind of see some you know, like Azalea themed bags and
headcovers and whatnot. Can you talk, you know, since this is your fourth can you talk how NIL has kind of changed and in the anticipation in the build up from its sponsors for and whah. I think it's just interesting with the timing and not being there at the beginning and now it seems to be especially with the bigger names and the favorites. You know, they've they've got kind of special edition gear all over the place.
Yeah, I think Augusta is marketing wise, and you know, publicity, it's like a dream because you have the coolest women playing the sport at the best place and great TV coverage and it feels like everyone's tuning in and it's Yeah.
I think I think NIL is great and it helps grow the game on a lot of levels, and it's definitely getting bigger and bigger, and you know, equipment wise, or brands or clothing or even financial groups like people definitely see the value in investing in the highest level of women's golf because I think it just has, you know, the ability to grow the game and touch a lot of hearts because the competitors that I know, like they're just really special people and it's it's cool that people
outside of the golf community or are able to tap into that and take women's golf to the next level. And uh, yeah, it's I have It's all good things to say. And I've been lucky enough to have some experience with nil and good partnerships in the last few years, so it's it's been a very new experience. But you know, my support system, my family, my coaches, my agent, I'll take care of that for me. So I just think about playing the golf.
For you, does it reduce the pressure a little bit to turn professional? We have seen some people, some great women's college golfers, choose to remain amateurs recently, and this has always happened to a degree. But do you think it allows you to feel good about staying in college and staying in amateur for a little bit longer or does it not make a difference in that regard.
I think I would have loved staying an amateur regardless, and I know that I want to turn pro at some point, so it doesn't have a huge impact on my thought process here, but maybe it does for others.
Cool, all right, So Mega, you know you first came to my attention in twenty twenty one, the US Women's Open performance was incredibly impressive. Of now, looking back on that three years afterwards, what jumps to mind from that experience of contending at a major championship.
Good question, I didn't know. It doesn't feel like three years ago, feels more recent, but it's I think what jumps to mind is I feel so similar to when I was playing that final round right now and the person I am today, and at the same time, so
many things are different. So I feel like I've now I can say, I feel like I've retained the best parts of me that I had when I was seventeen that allowed me to stay in the moment, enjoy that week, compete at the highest level, have that amount of confidence going into it, but then also evolved my game in a way that's maybe going to one day help me
close it out on that Sunday. So I think over the past few years, I've been working towards that, and there was a lot of steps I needed to take to you know, grow as a player, and I've taken those while kind of still still keeping those those really good parts of me that you know, I feel like I inherently had and striking that balance is something that comes to mind.
Yeah, this is the This is the eternal tension between innocence and experience. You know, you're you're more experienced, and so you're better, but maybe there are mental things, other things that kind of get a bit more in the way as you get older and wiser. Has that been has that been what you've experienced?
I think the other way around, to be honest with you, I think and less and less mental things get in my way. And I was I was only seventeen, and I realize I'm only twenty now. But I don't love when people say, like, oh my god, you had no idea what was going on? You're just a kid. Like no, I like had a fully formulated break.
You were a person at this point. You were You weren't like a pre person, you were a person.
I was a full foreign person. So I was there. I knew it was happening. I felt every bit of the pressure. And I experienced that level of pressure at other tournaments. And I think just because the stage is bigger,
you assume a lot changes, but it really doesn't. Uh. And I think I've I've continued to have that spark on the golf course and any moment I feel I'm losing that, I just feel like that's the most important thing because that's why I play golf, and I work on fixing that first before I fix anything and related to my golf game. So yeah, not not an increase of any mental troubles, but it's just it's just different,
and I just think I've grown. I've become more mature of a golfer, which you need to do.
What does it mean to become a more mature golfer?
Yeah? I think I think some decision making, being able to recognize my flaws better. I don't think when I was younger, I'd be like, oh, I need to work on that as much as I am now, just being open to doing that. Having better routine means in my practice, in my warm up, in what do I do after the round, a little more discipline, which are all good things, but I still have as much fun. So, like I said, striking that.
Balance, you were in that final group, Yeah, at the tournament Yucasaso and Lexi Thompson. Do I have that right? Because I was. I remember watching this and you know what an exciting and kind of crazy final group and final round that was from your perspective playing in it, were you just were you kind of hyper focused on your own game or did you take moments here and there to look outside of you and see what was going on with the other players and with the gallery
and with the tournament. What do you remember from that?
I think for most of the round I couldn't even tell you because I just don't remember, like it's all a blur, Like it feels like I just wasn't there. Like the first three rounds, I was fully present with that third round, just I don't even really have good recollection of it until like the sixteenth hole because it was just so intense, so I wasn't really I don't know if I was taking it in or focusing on them or myself my game, but something happened and I
just don't I don't remember it very well. But once I hit the sixteenth hole, I think I really took it in, And yeah, I took in the crowd, you know, being there with my family, having them watching Mike, who was caddying for me. We had just formed such a great friendship through that, and then playing with Yuka and
Lexi and watching watching Yuka close it out. That was one of my core memories as well, and kind of just reflecting on that round, realizing like I think I had the game to get me there, but like to really finish it out on Sunday. There's so many component it's that you need to to get the job done, and just reminding myself like you're going to get there one day and how do you do that? And you have the best experience possible to know how to do that when it's your time. So, yeah, it was, it was.
It was a fun day.
So, you know, looking forward to the next couple of weeks here, you know, what's your plan, what are you working on in your game? How do you prepare for this tournament specifically?
Yeah, I think I think the part of the prep is knowing that the prep is done and just getting my body in good shape and like resting, sleeping, practicing an amount that's you know, what's what's just going to get my headspace right, playing putting games that just get the confidence up, stuff like that, and then specifically just working on you know, getting my yardages dialed, like my
wedge numbers, like small stuff like that. But most of the work is done, so it's just about feeling good going into it, and we're leaving for a tournament tomorrow, so there's not gonna be a lot of you know, time to do a lot of practice before the and walk because we'll go straight there.
We're recording this on Monday, March twenty fifth. What is the tournament that you're heading.
Towards, the ASU Invitational?
Gotcha, So you're going to be in Arizona? Are you going straight from there to god Start? You're going to spend a little bit of time there? Yeah? Okayel do you feel like you have Augusta wired at this point? You kind of know your way around town? Nowhere to stay, nowhere to eat, all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, definitely, And if I don't, my parents definitely do because that's been our spring break for the past eight years.
Wild yeah yeah, wild. All right, Well, Mega, thank you so much for spending this time with us. Good luck at and well course we'll be watching you with interest.
Thanks for having me on.
This is super fun, of course, Chars, thank you.
This episode of the Frida egg Golf podcast was produced by Matt Rusius. Thank you, Matt. If you'd like to support Frida egg Golf on another level, I would recommend our membership that's called CLUBTFE. Go to the Frida Egg dot com slash membership and see everything that we're offering there on the content side, where we're constantly posting new stuff in CLUBTFE that we're really excited about, really proud of.
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