00:00So you're a medalist at U.S. Junior. So this is the opposite of what happened at the USAM.
00:05You were on the bubble of even making it to match plays. So how close was it for for you to actually, you know, making it into a playoff situation?
00:13I ended up being like 20 for 17. So I guess you were safe on the number, but I imagine you were trying to have three other guys, you know, fall back to where you didn't have to go and do one of these playoffs.
00:23I imagine that experience was pretty interesting. Yeah, exactly.
00:26No, I played, I honestly played fine in stroke play. The rough was thick. I took a lot from what I learned at Oakmont to Olympic and had a good first round of shot, even on what was playing a little bit of the harder course in the second round.
00:41Not so much. You didn't get off to a great start and just kind of fighting all day.
00:46And I got the 17 and like pulled an iron shot pretty bad, kind of flubbed a chip, had like 25 feet for par and made it and then made a five footer for par on 18.
00:57And that ended up getting me into the playoff. Oh, man.
01:01Dude, you're a 20, 20 footer away from missing this thing.
01:04Yeah, I know. And at the time, like I, I didn't even think I was going to have to get into a playoff at three over.
01:08Um, like I went back to, I was in the morning wave, didn't really know how things were going to shape up.
01:13I knew the wind was going to pick up, but, um, yeah, then I suited up at like 7 a.m.
01:19the next morning. And, um, yeah, par of the first playoff hole and figured that'd be enough in a 24, 17.
01:26And yeah, but had to go to one more than made a bad bogey.
01:29And I was like, I'm probably going to another hole, but fortunately that was enough.
01:33Oh, it was, bogey got you, bogey got you through.
01:38That's insane. I was actually, it reminds me, uh, one of, uh, one of my former teammates, Stuart Jolly,
01:44I actually caddied for him at the country club. And this is all the way back. And gosh,
01:48this would have been like somewhere around 2000, like 11 or 12 for the U S amateur year that Matthew
01:54Fitzpatrick won. And he cruised through stroke play and a similar deal, big, big playoff. And
02:00there was plenty of guys that you wanted to try to avoid. And the player that we ended up getting
02:05paired against in the first round was Scotty Scheffler. So, so I, I, unfortunately I lost to,
02:12uh, I guess the caddy matchup. I lost to Scotty's sister that day. So I still, uh, I have that one
02:17going for me that of course, Scotty played great. And, uh, I'll never really forget that day because
02:22kind of before he is who he is now, but, uh, yeah, uh, lost to his sister caddying that day. So,
02:28uh, just made me remind me of that playoff experience. Uh, that can be so awkward.
02:34Part of like the USDA thing is, I guess, since there was only two of us that made bogey. So we
02:39were, it was, one of us was going to get the 64 seed and one of us was going to get the 63 seed,
02:43but, um, their seating's random. So it's just one of those things that you just have to
02:47hope that you don't run into a buzzsaw.
02:50That's how it goes. So walk me through the whole, uh, the whole USAM, you know, was it,
02:55was it fairly easy for you throughout the whole time? Was, was there good golf or tough matches?
03:01Uh, how would you describe your play all the way up until that finals?
03:05Yeah, no, I, I definitely didn't make it easy on myself. There were some matches where I feel
03:08like I could have played better, but I got the job done. And there were some matches where I
03:12really had to, I needed every shot. Um, I played my round of 64 match against Tommy Morrison and
03:19we went to 19 holes. Yeah. We went to extra holes. I got up and down from long in the green on 18,
03:26which, uh, then that's one place I wasn't supposed to be.
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