Q. Here with Amari Avery after her second round at the Chevron Championship. The first most obvious question is how are you playing so well on a course that you just saw for the first time on Thursday?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, yesterday was the first time I've seen it. But I did have my dad out here scouting for the last week or so, so that was nice. But honestly, I don't know. I just came from Pac-12s and my team just won, so I felt like I had some good momentum coming in just with confidence and vibes. I just kind of was out here just taking it one shot at a time, and glad to have played well.
Q. How is this environment sort of similar to the Pac-12 championships, if at all?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, I think it's just very similar in how competitive it is. I know especially for us down the stretch at Pac-12s we were very competitive, trying to pull through, and kind of separate ourselves from some of the other teams.
I feel like that's kind of the same here. I'm just trying to stay in the game, make the cut, and just take advantage of some of the holes that I know I can, and I think I did okay.
Q. You did do okay. Coming in Wednesday night, I believe, did that sort of help calm the nerves because you didn't really have time to think about anything?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, to be honest, I didn't really have that much nerves coming in just because I came straight off the plane from playing the final round at Pac-12s. I was kind of like, oh, just more golf. Hopefully four more rounds, and I think we've secured it.
Q. If I have this right, your dad was out here following your sister at the Mack Championship Invitational.
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, that's correct.
Q. What sort of advice did he give you and tell you about the course?
AMARI AVERY: Honestly, it wasn't really my dad. He had a lot of help from some of the caddies, and he wrote a good amount of notes, but honestly it was my little sister that gave me some notes. I know she didn't play from the same tees but she gave me some lines off the tee where not to hit it and she just said, don't hit it in the water. I haven't done that yet, so I'm going to keep trying to do that.
Q. I'm curious, first of all, when did you get to your hotel Wednesday night? What time was it?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, I think I got in around 12:00. I didn't think I went to sleep until around 1:00.
Q. Quite the turnaround. In terms of just your energy levels, are you just running on pure adrenaline right now? I know you're young, but it's just a lot of high-pressure, high-stakes golf in one week.
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, honestly, it doesn't feel like that much pressure right now. Just like I said, just because I'm coming off another tournament. I haven't really been getting much sleep just with school and stuff, so I've kind of been running on five, six hours every day, so it wasn't anything new, plus I had a late tee time yesterday, so I did sleep in until around 10:00.
Q. Are you doing homework still?
AMARI AVERY: Yes.
Q. For what exactly?
AMARI AVERY: Well, I'm a comm major so I just have a lot of weekly assignments that I have to do, and unfortunately my advisor and my coaches have been kind of staying on me a little bit. I've been falling behind in school. I'm trying to do something every day just to make sure I stay on track.
Q. How much time are you putting in every day on homework?
AMARI AVERY: Gosh, I hate doing homework, so I try and get in at least an hour or at least one assignment done just to make myself feel better and my advisors, as well.
Q. What led you to turn it around from just shortly before the rain delay yesterday to where you are now?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, I had a rough start yesterday. I just had a bad hole. I was playing well. My ball-striking is great and I was putting well, too. I think it helped just kind of calm me down a little bit because I was getting a little amped up, and we did play like two holes in the rain, so I was just trying to keep it in play and just keep hitting the shots I knew I could hit.
But I think the delay helped and kind of allowed me to relax, talk to some friends, and kind of went back out, tried to finish before the sun went down.
Q. I know your dad was here with your sister in the week leading up to the event. Any advice that he helped on the bag with that knowledge from last week so far?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, he's given me a lot of lines off the tee. I think for this course, if you place it well off the tee, you have a pretty good shot at making a good birdie or a par. A lot of the spots that he has for me off the tee just at certain targets or in trees, those have been the best parts he's been giving me.
Q. Obviously given the hectic travel schedule to get here, what does it do for you and your confidence that you ended up making the cut at this event?
AMARI AVERY: Honestly, I wanted to make the cut and I felt like I could just with where my game is at, but I've been wanting to celebrate with my team back home. We just won Pac-12s, so I'm like, another tournament, but this is the Chevron, this is a major championship. I think anyone would kill to be in this spot, so I just felt like I wanted to take this opportunity and do the best I could.
Q. Did you have plans to celebrate with them tomorrow if you didn't make the cut?
AMARI AVERY: God no. I was planning on staying here. We're going to find a way to celebrate, and they've already been celebrating back home, so I'm just hoping that they're waiting for me.
Q. When did you find out that you were in this tournament?
AMARI AVERY: Geez, like not even two weeks ago. It was kind of ironic, I was with my advisor kind of going over my next couple weeks, and I had Chevron like in my semester calendar and then I was like, oh, probably not getting invited so you can take that off. That same night I got the invite, and I was like, well, you can put it back on, cancel my tutor because I won't be there.
Q. What's your hardest class right now?
AMARI AVERY: I don't really have that many hard classes. I'm a comm major so I'm just doing all comm classes, but I have a social media class, and it's not difficult, it's just a lot of assignments just to keep up on. Every other day there's kind of a small assignment. I'm not very good at those. I'm a procrastinator, but honestly they help me get work done.
Q. Does that include posts from what you're doing?
AMARI AVERY: Not so much. It's more just kind of like keeping up with social media and digital media and kind of commenting on what's been new in the media and like a lot of things like TikTok and Instagram and just a bunch of other things. I think it's kind of interesting. Social media is so big nowadays, especially for like an athlete, so it's a really cool class, and I have some athlete friends that are in the class, as well.
Q. Are you going to be allowed to use yourself talking about social media as an answer for that assignment?
AMARI AVERY: I don't know. I don't know if they'll count that as a good part of the assignment, but I'm sure I'll find something on Google.
Q. I know you've played on the LPGA before. How does this sort of experience compare to a couple other times you've played here?
AMARI AVERY: Yeah, I mean, this is, I think, my third event playing, so it's kind of new every time. I'm not like -- I'm not here week in and week out. I mean, it's a little different. I finally made the cut. The last two I've played I haven't made the cut. I've been really close. But this one is really fun, and it's super close, and like I said, even the quick turnaround doesn't really feel like I'm at a major just yet, but now that I've made the cut, I feel like I'll feel it a little bit tomorrow.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports