Q. All right, Kate, officially heading to the LPGA next year. What does that mean to you?
KATE SMITH STROH: Just really never like saw myself there. I think growing up in the Midwest and like not going to a huge golf school and then just having three years on the Epson Tour, never really felt like any of this has been easy, so this is like just a dream come true.
Q. Then we kind of talked earlier this week about each year on the Epson Tour getting better and better. You said you felt like you were ready. Now this just confirms that. How does that feel, that confirmation that you can go out there and compete?
KATE SMITH STROH: Yeah, I feel like I just had to convince myself I was good enough, and that's what I was working on all week, just believing in this myself.
Yeah, it's been like building blocks, and the Epson Tour has been so great for me to just prove to myself that I'm good enough.
I'm so excited just to get out there and be ready and, I mean, play on the best tour in the world. Like that's insane.
Q. And then played in your first LPGA event earlier this year. (Wind interference.) Any experience or anything you learned from that event that you're really going to try to hone in on and focus on going into next year?
KATE SMITH STROH: Absolutely. I think when I got to the Epson Tour I was like, oh, I got to change and do stuff differently. Playing in an LPGA event I thought, oh, I needed to change.
I think I'm just good the way I am and I need to just believe in that and keep working hard. Obviously like whatever I have got me there, so I'm going to try to keep trusting that for the next stage.
Q. Obviously a lot of things, LPGA rookie, travel, new schedules, all that stuff. What are you mostly excited for?
KATE SMITH STROH: Gosh, I don't even know. I'm excited for the travel. A lot of my friends are out there, too. Like I've got to see them graduate, and so being with them.
Just really I'm just excited to keep being able to golf. Like I think women's golf, like mini tours or whatever, you feel like the clock is always ticking.
It's just nice. It's like a new chapter in my career that keeps going.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports