Welcome to Off the Looking Glass. I'm Kate Fagan.

I'm Jessica Santana.

All right, Anya. We had the update. We have the results and they're in.

Anya Alvarez here, producer of Off the Looking Glass. The day of my US Open

Qualifier, I felt really excited. I had pre-competition jitters building up,

a feeling I hadn't had in a while. The type of nerves where you can't wait to

face the challenge that's ahead of you.

And when I got to the golf course, I started to warm up and I was in a zone.

My swing felt fluid and smooth. When I went to the putting green, I felt like I had

a rhythm to my putting stroke. And then when I got to the tee, they called my name

and I had a great tee shot. I did start off solid the first four holes and I

felt really calm. Like I was just playing a casual round of golf.

Then I hit a streak of a couple of bad holes, nothing that could completely

make or break the round, but certainly meant that I had to make up some ground.

The sad thing is I never did.

But I didn't feel like I was playing as bad as my score reflected. I was hitting it well.

I was rolling my putts on the intended line, but I just wasn't making good choices.

Meaning I would choose the wrong type of shot or play a hole to aggressively and get

myself in trouble in the process. But the thing is, I never got discouraged.

I didn't beat myself up or feel like I was wasting my time when it was clear that I wasn't going

to get a spot in the US open. I just kept telling myself that it was a privilege to even try to

compete again and give myself the opportunity to try. And on the last hole, which was a part three

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