She’s playing in the U.S. Women’s Open … and broadcasting it

There’s a honeymoon interval that joins each twentysomething’s first actual job. There may be notnonetheless, a job that joins each twentysomething’s honeymoon. Not to mention, as with budding golf broadcast star Emilia Migliaccio, two of them.

“Folks maintain asking us, is that this your honeymoon?” she stated with fun from her lodge at beautiful Pebble Seashore on Monday morning. “At this level, we’ve simply began to say sure.”

Migliaccio and her new husband Charlie are simply hours away from one of many busiest weeks of their younger lives. However, within the meantime, they’re residing out the wildest goals of each diehard golf couple: an all-expenses-paid two-week trip to a slice of golf heaven known as Monterrey, Calif. on the heels of their marriage ceremony day.

“We truly left two days after the marriage,” Migliaccio stated, shortly earlier than rattling off an inventory of tee occasions the couple has performed since final Monday that features Pebble Seashore, Monterrey Peninsula Nation Membership, Spyglass Hill and, most not too long ago, the west coast’s granddaddy golf course, Cypress Point.

“It was a very beneficiant marriage ceremony present,” she stated. “It seems like we’ve been out right here for a month now, we’ve simply achieved so many unbelievable issues.”

The times are solely going to get longer from right here for Emilia, the 24-year-old Wake Forest graduate and reigning NCAA ladies’s golf champion. Come Thursday, the honeymoon will shortly come crashing again to earth when Migliaccio begins the primary of 4 lengthy days working two jobs on the U.S. Women’s Open.

The primary: broadcaster for NBC Golf’s featured group protection. The second: competitor within the nationwide championship.

Migliaccio’s USWO double-feature is believed to be a primary in golf broadcasting, the place post-round appearances from gamers are commonplace however post-round broadcast assignments should not.

“I noticed Christie Kerr the opposite day, and she or he stored telling me, that you must relaxation,” Migliaccio says. “She retains saying to me, anytime you’ve gotten free time, that you must relaxation.”

Relaxation, it shouldn’t shock you to study, doesn’t come simply. The origin of Migliaccio’s wild week would appear to be a mix of excellent fortune and good golf — two issues which have are available droves since her out-of-nowhere runner-up end on the Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Newbie in 2021 helped to place her golf profession again on the map. After that end, Migliaccio went again to high school for 2 post-graduate years and located herself each a fixture of the Wake Forest and U.S. Curtis Cup groups, successful each the Cup and the NCAA group championship within the final 12 months.

The timing couldn’t have been higher for Migliaccio’s off-course efforts. A voracious reader and razor-sharp communicator, she’d lengthy dreamt of a profession as a golf author or broadcaster. She parlayed her success on the ANWA into an internship at Golf Channel, the place some tactful introductions led to her first stay efficiency for the community. As her stretch of excellent golf continued, the alternatives from NBC piled up. Earlier than lengthy, she’d obtained an invite to cowl this 12 months’s U.S. Ladies’s Open, at Pebble Seashore, for the community.

However there was an issue: Migliaccio was scheduled to play in a qualifier within the occasion, and like each U.S. Open qualifying hopeful, there remained an opportunity — nonetheless small — that she may nab one in every of a handful of spots within the area reserved for qualifiers. Out of an abundance of warning, she requested an NBC manufacturing coordinator if she can be allowed to compete within the occasion and work for NBC. He laughed.

“We’d like it.”

Qualifying day got here, and Migliaccio arrived at Starmount Nation Membership in Greensboro with a bundle of confidence. What adopted, she says, was pure magic.

“I used to be in such a stream state that day. I imply, I simply hit all the things so good,” she stated. “I hit 36 greens.”

She shot 68-65 within the 36-hole qualifier and shortly realized her work on the U.S. Ladies’s Open had doubled. Not solely would she be heading to Pebble Seashore on the heels of her marriage ceremony for a large week with NBC, she’d even be competing within the largest occasion in ladies’s golf at one of the well-known programs on this planet.

“I don’t suppose the sensation of doing double obligation has actually hit me, didn’t hit me within the eye after I certified,” she stated. “I used to be actually excited that I used to be going, oh my gosh, I’m gonna play and broadcast. I get to really do what I actually wished to do. That was my aim, my dream, and I don’t suppose it’s gonna hit me till Thursday.”

And the way will it look on Thursday? Largely like chaos. Migliaccio will name featured teams on Peacock for a lot of the morning earlier than turning her consideration within the afternoon to the golf, the place she has a 4:18 p.m. ET tee time. On Friday morning, she’ll deal with her second-round enjoying duties earlier than shifting over to Peacock once more for featured teams protection. In an ironic twist, the late-early tee time might show a bonus for Emilia. Not like most golfers, the short-succession rounds ought to assist her do a greater job of compartmentalizing.

“I believe I’m doing an excellent job at compartmentalizing it,” she stated. “I’d say 80% of my preparation at this second is making ready for the championship. However hopefully enjoying will even assist me be a greater commentator.”

It helps that she has some expertise with doing this form of factor. An identical scenario performed out eventually 12 months’s Curtis Cup, and once more earlier this 12 months on the Augusta Nationwide Ladies’s Newbie. She would have already achieved U.S. Ladies’s Open double-duty if not for failing to qualify into final 12 months’s event at Pine Needles.

These items have occurred extra to Migliaccio within the final 24 months than most individuals face in a lifetime, and there’s a pure query that follows them: is it doable Emilia could also be too good for broadcasting? She doesn’t suppose so.

“I’m simply excited as a result of the extra the gamers can see my face, the extra I’m in a position to develop these relationships,” she stated. “They’ll study I’m not only a broadcaster; I’m additionally an excellent participant that simply didn’t flip professional. So I’m hoping that continues so I proceed to achieve form of respect from gamers from that.”

It’s exhausting to say what Migliaccio’s golf future holds, however she appears to have a transparent head about the entire ordeal. She can be a member of the golf media, and never an expert golfer, in the long run. There can be no honeymoon interval with skilled golf on this honeymoon. Except…

“Recreation’s good,” she stated with a understanding chuckle. “Simply so long as I can block all the things else out. We’ll see.”

We’ll certainly.

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is a information and options editor at GOLF, writing tales for the web site and journal. He manages the Sizzling Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and makes use of his on-camera expertise throughout the model’s platforms. Previous to becoming a member of GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse College, throughout which period he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Lengthy Island, the place he’s from. He could be reached at james.colgan@golf.com.