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THE MODERATOR: Please welcome to the interview area 15 year old Asterisk Talley, even par-70. Asterisk, walk us through your round and how you're feeling right now.
ASTERISK TALLEY: I feel like I could have done a lot better today, but I'm not mad at all about my round. Coming into the round I was hearing everybody even par is a good round today. I wish I could have been a couple under par.
With that triple I could have played a lot better but I'm happy with where I'm stand and I feel like that gives me confidence going into tomorrow.
Q. You're the most recent USGA champion in the field with your Four-Ball win. Did that give you confidence coming into this week?
ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, for sure. I feel like any USGA will prepare you for any tournament you have coming up. They always say the courses are similar. They're always tough. There's nothing too different about them except for just the course in general, how it plays.
But I feel like the rough and stuff, you just have to stay in the fairway and on the greens, and if you do that, you'll be fine.
Q. You got here on Tuesday. What were your first impressions of the course?
ASTERISK TALLEY: It was hard. Yeah, for sure. When I was on the first hole, I was just like, these greens are stupid. It's just so hard. The pins they had on the practice rounds, I was like, if they put the pins here I'm going to start crying.
I was on the verge on a couple holes with the way I was playing. But I'm not mad with where the pins were today, the way I played the course, so I feel like I'm happy with how I did.
Q. Your coach has described you as fearless in the past. Where does that come from?
ASTERISK TALLEY: I feel like sometimes that's good and bad on the golf course for me because I feel like I'm always calm on the golf course. I don't really get nervous.
But at the same time, my course management is kind of fearless in a way because I always go for everything, or I used to go for everything, and I feel like that's where it comes from.
Sometimes it's not good when you're fearless going for a pin and you hit it in the water. I feel like that's kind of where it comes from, but sometimes it's good whether you're not nervous and you just keep your composure throughout the round.
Q. Who did you watch at Pebble Beach last year?
ASTERISK TALLEY: I watched Nelly for sure, and then I think I watched some of Lexi, and definitely some of the amateurs to see how they were doing. I wanted to be in their shoes, so I was just seeing how they did and how I could improve on my own game.
Q. Who's caddying for you?
ASTERISK TALLEY: A local caddie that we hired. He's actually really good. When you say local caddie people are usually like, well, that's okay, I guess. But he's really good. He knows the course really well. He's helped me a lot.
Q. Is he a good player?
ASTERISK TALLEY: I haven't asked, but I know he's been caddying here for a long time, and he really knows the course well. I think he's helped me a lot.
Q. Now that the scores are in for the first round, does your strategy change at all knowing that you don't have to go that low and the expectations? Do you change strategy or do you continue with the game plan that you had before?
ASTERISK TALLEY: I think my game plan is going to stay the same because I wanted to go low today and it didn't really work out that well. I feel like if I would have just stayed with bogeys today it would have been better, but I feel like the game plan is the same for tomorrow knowing that I can go low tomorrow, and I feel like it's just going to stay the same. I'm going to do the same things.
Q. At one point you were tied for the lead. Did you realize that at the time?
ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, I did. I look at the leaderboard all the time. I feel like some people get scared to look at it, but I don't really do that. It's just I want to see where I'm at, and then if I need to start playing better golf and get my head in the game, or if I'm doing well, I still want to, like, charge for the lead, get ahead.
It didn't really work out that way, but I'm still happy the way I played today.
Q. You mentioned you knew even par would be a good round. Did you watch some of the early morning coverage this morning and did you know about Nelly's 10?
ASTERISK TALLEY: So actually funny story. I watched her 10 and 11, which was like early in the morning, I guess. Then I went to go get ready for my round, and then I got in the car, and when Nelly was off 11, she was 1-over, I think, and when I got in the car I was like, oh, did Nelly get back to even par? What happened?
He's like, I think she's like 8-over. I was like, I don't really know how to respond. And then under her scorecard it had the dashes and then you could watch the hole when she got the 10. Then I watched it, and it kind of got me scared for that hole.
I tried to not let it get to me, but I was just like, that's not really like Nelly. People don't really think about people making mistakes like that, but it does happen to everybody. People make mistakes like that all the time.
I feel like, yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on what happened.
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