Nicole Criscone (9 years old - Clifton Park, New York) spent two days at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship as a junior reporter and wrote about her experience for LPGA.com.

This week I had the two most AMAZING days of my whole life! I was invited to the Westchester Country Club for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to be an on course Junior Reporter. WOW! What an experience! I loved every moment of it!

I also learned earned SO MUCH from this experience. I learned that being a reporter is a very difficult job. You have to listen actively, pay attention, and possibly write everything down to make sure that you don’t miss anything. Thanks to my new friend Meghan, who taught me how to use “voice memos” on my iphone, now I won’t miss anything important that is said AND it saves me a lot of pain in my wrists from all the writing. I learned that you need remember to use a firm hand shake when you introduce yourself to someone. My friend Dottie Pepper taught me “no dead fish” (handshakes) and some people even commented that a great handshake is a great impression.

What surprised me the most during these two days was that during the pro-am, the LPGA players seemed really relaxed and had a lot of fun on the course. I saw this for myself while I walked with Jessica Korda inside the ropes. I got to know her and she had a lot of fun out on the course. It wasn’t all serious the whole time but Jessica was very focused and hit the ball great when she needed to. I learned about the pro-am experience and how amateurs get a chance to play alongside the pros. It looked so fun, and I would love to play in one. We talked about a lot of different topics including birthdays, Taylor Swift and how she prepares for major championships. She also gave me a couple of keepsakes including a tee with her first name on it.

My favorite part… well there are SO many. One was sitting in on the pre-tournament press conferences. I was able to listen to Michelle Wie, Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr, Lexi Thompson, Suzann Pettersen and Lydia Ko. I loved asking the players questions then hearing their answers and also having people say that they were really good questions that I asked. The players all had great answers and I learned a lot from them.

I learned that when I look for a college, I should feel comfortable at the college I choose and that I should be a player not just “on the team” from Stacy Lewis. I learned from Lydia Ko that if a player starts in the LPGA younger that they can retire earlier, like she said, she wants to retire at 30 years old. That sounds great but I definitely want to go to college first.

I also met many important people on this trip. On the course, I ran into David Cannon who is one of the best golf photographers in the world. He’s covered the LPGA for many years and has produced some of the most iconic pictures in the game. What a cool job!

I also met a lot of people from the television production team including the producer, Tommy Roy. He’s a great producer and even covers the Olympics. Mark, the technical director in the production truck even let me try out some of the control buttons. I watched them during their rehearsal and he has a tough job controlling all of the screens. I did not expect that many people to be behind the scenes for the show.

And then last but not least, I met the AMAZING Dr. Condoleezza Rice! She is the former Secretary of State and now she plays a huge role in women’s leadership. Dr. Rice is also a Professor at Stanford University which is where I would love to go to college someday. In our short meeting, she gave me some advice that I’ll always remember: keep working hard.

There are many things about these two days that I will always remember but the one thing that will always stick in my mind is, HARD WORK DEFINITELY PAYS OFF!!! The LPGA players definitely work hard every day!!!

I would like to thank, Meghan Flanagan for showing me all of the things she did for these two days! We had SO MUCH fun together! Also Mr. Kraig Kann who allowed me to ask my questions during the press conference and always told me my questions were great. And I want to thank all of the LPGA players for being so nice to me and for answering all of my questions. I would like to give a double thank you to Dottie Pepper and John Craig for helping me get to Westchester for these two amazing days.

Amazing! What an Experience!

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