Competitor and TV commentator: Emilia Doran does double duty at the U.S. Women’s Am

Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was destined to be a long day for Emilia Doran, no matter how she played.

Her 7:15 a.m. tee time at Bandon Dunes in Oregon required a pre-dawn wakeup and a sunrise range session. A wolfed-down breakfast later, it was balls in the air.

If she survived her morning match against Adrianna Lau of Hong Kong in the Round of 32, Doran would go again in the afternoon. Either way, though, she’d have more work to do.

The oldest player in the field to make it into match play, Doran, 26, was also alone among her peers in juggling a day job throughout the week. When she wasn’t striking shots, she’d been busy calling them as an on-course reporter for NBC/Golf Channel.

“I’m really the kind of person where I like to maximize my days and my experiences,” Doran said. “So there was never a doubt whether I was going to just play or just work. I just like to do it all in one.”

Doran has been enjoying that balancing act since 2021 when she graduated from Wake Forest as a two-time All-American. In those days, she went by Emilia Migliaccio and she might have pursued a professional golf career. Instead, she accepted a Golf Channel internship. A TV personality was born.

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In the week leading up to the U.S. Women’s Am, Doran had kept up the frenetic clip of a golfer who moonlights in the media, winging west from her home in Charlotte to play a practice round at Bandon before puddle-jumping to Salt Lake City to cover a Korn Ferry Tour event. By Sunday evening, she was back on the Oregon coast, ready for Monday’s start of stroke play, with her husband, Charlie, on her bag.

Her expectations were realistic. But adenaline-fueled instincts die hard.

“Deep down, I’m still as competitive as ever,” she said.

In the Round of 64, Wednesday’s opening match-play session, Doran showed flashes of her collegiate self, birdieing the 18th to draw even with University of Arkansas rising senior Reagan Zibilski, then birdieing the second extra hole to win. She celebrated briefly, then slapped her headsets on.

“It can be a challenge,” Doran said of pulling double duty. “But this is the third or fourth tournament I’ve done it, so I’m learning how to compartmentalize.”

If Doran had been covering her own match Thursday morning, she might have found it tough to find glowing things to say. As Lau held steady with a string of pars, Doran stumbled with three front-nine bogeys, was 4-down at the turn and 5-down through 11. She went on to claw back two holes, but by 16 it was over: 4 and 2.

“I would’ve described it as a heck of an effort,” Doran said of her own performance. “But I needed to play better earlier in the round.”

It was nearing noon, the breezes stiffening off the water. Doran stood by the bluffs beside the 17th tee, taking in the views and reflecting on the hole locations she just played. The 10th was tough, she said, perched on a plateau. The 12th was protected by a steep slope in front. She was taking mental notes, a competitor morphing into a commentator. A cart was waiting to convey her back to the broadcast compound.

“I’m honestly probably going to walk 17 and 18 and see those breaks and how those holes are playing,” she said. 

She had several hours to kill before the broadcast. Lunch. A brief rest. Then back at it.

“I’m a little bummed that the result didn’t work out as I wanted today,” she said. “But you know, I’m here with the NBC team. My goal this afternoon it to go out there and put on a really good show.”