U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 26, 2001

Robert Hamilton

ROBERT HAMILTON: Thank you very much. It's been a great week. And it didn't quite happen today, but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself, met a lot of great people. And it's been fun.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Going up to 18 I still felt pretty good. I was happy because I still had a chance to win. And that's at the end of the day, that's all can you ask for is a chance to win. And Bubba hit a great shot. He pulled it off when he needed to. He pulled it off at the right time. I didn't hit a great shot. I didn't end up with a good lie. It's a great hole. It's was great for drama. It's probably one of the toughest shots to hit a long iron into a hard par 3 that's got a tough green and a pin that's not very accessible. It's tough to end the tournament on a bad swing, but you have a bad swing on the first round the first day, that's just how it works out, how the cookie crumbles. And it's unfortunate that it happened then, but that's just the way things go. I'll move on and I'm still real happy to be where I am. It was obviously a great stage for a final hole, for the National Championship.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Well, between rounds I still felt like I was in a great position. I was 1-up and I had one round to play, 18 holes. So I took it as now I'm just playing a 18-hole match. And I was 1-up before I even started. I went out and tried to do the same things I was doing all week, and I did pretty well. I had some good holes, a couple not so good holes. But, again, I was in a great position even after nine holes. My whole thing was to stay with my game plan, to try and execute maybe just a little bit better and hope that things fell into place. They were going fine. I was happy with the way things were going.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Of course I considered it, but I figured I would try and make a five and give him a chance to do what he needed to do. And it's tough to think straight in situations like that. I don't know. All he had to do was 3-putt to win. But he made a great putt. And the thing that was even better about it was he said he made it for me. He didn't want me to make it to lose with a double. And that's saying a lot about a person, to say that after just winning the U.S. Amateur. So that's a nice thing and I commend him for that. That was really nice of him. I'm sure it made him feel better that he got the putt.

ROBERT HAMILTON: I tried to hit 3-iron. I hit 2-iron in the morning and I came up short. But I was pumped up and I couldn't tell what he hit, but I knew he hit no less than 3, maybe 4. I just hit a bad shot. That's all there is to it, really. And I got -- didn't get a very good lie so I didn't have a chance to even make a go at it.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Of course. He just hit it. All he's got to do is -- he's going to make 3. And I tried to do the same thing. I just tried to hit it right at the center of the green and I didn't. And that's how it went, unfortunately.

ROBERT HAMILTON: I was scared to even get in the bunker because I thought sand was going to go all over my ball. It was one of those ones where it almost rolled out into the face of the bunker, but it didn't. And so to guess how it's going to come out is a mystery. Those kind of shots are tough to judge. I tried to take a good cut at it to get it on the green because I knew it would run toward the hole and it just wouldn't go. There's a lot of sand up on that hill, and it was one of the -- it was a pretty tough lie. The chances of getting that up and down are very slim, but you never know what can happen in something like this.

ROBERT HAMILTON: There's no question about it. I didn't hit it as good as I did yesterday. I didn't feel like I hit it bad. I might have made a couple of bad swings, a couple balls that I hit left. But overall I hit it solid. It's tough regardless, even if you're playing a regular round here, it's tough to hit these fairways. You're coming down, a lot of them are banked and the rough just makes it that much harder, regardless of what the situation is, to hit the fairway. And I didn't hit it as good as I did yesterday, but I kept myself in the game. I gave myself a lot of chances. Obviously the driver wasn't quite where it was yesterday. Who knows, if I would have hit it good it would have made a difference, you know, it could have. But who knows. It just wasn't quite where it was yesterday.

ROBERT HAMILTON: No, not really. Interestingly enough, only time I was tired was like through 12 holes. I just hadn't had enough food in my system. I don't think I wasn't necessarily tired, but I wasn't quite as strong as I usually feel. I felt great. I definitely know that what I did in the gym, the conditioning that I did in the last seven, eight months has paid off. And I felt strong all day, which gave myself a chance to think clear. It was hot, but I felt like I had a good thing going with as much working out as I did this year. And I felt good.

ROBERT HAMILTON: It's hard to say what's going to happen. Yeah, I had a little momentum there and you usually like to feed off those type of things, but I don't know. It's hard to say. Who knows what happens. If I go right off of that and we go play 10 and that's a good hole that I would be pumped on because I hit an a good tee ball there and give yourself a good opportunity it make a good score on that hole. I don't know. Maybe it hurt. Maybe it didn't. I don't know. I can't tell you that right now. It's hard to say because we don't know what would have happened if I would have kept playing.

ROBERT HAMILTON: That was probably one of the worst ones I had all week. The green was -- we couldn't find -- you probably saw we couldn't find it. It's only three feet off the fairway. I had got some good ones this week and you're going to get bad ones. I just tried to take a cut at it and try to get it to release toward that hole and it kicked left on me and I got a tough lie in the rough over the green. That was probably one of the toughest ones I had all week, next to the one I had today in the second round on five. But I could -- we couldn't find it almost. And so that's tough. You take the good ones and bad ones and I had plenty of good ones so you're going to have plenty of bad ones.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah. Definitely. I would like to come back and play in this event. It's the best event you can play in. And there's no question about it. Hopefully I can do as well as did I this year. It's tough to make match play and it's tough to get to where I got this year. But definitely we will come back and try and win the title once before I go try playing the professional ranks.

ROBERT HAMILTON: I think the majority of them were with the lob wedge today. You just got to get as much loft on it as you can so you can stop the ball with the height. There's no way you're going to be able to put spin on it coming out of the rough. So you got to be able to create some loft and with the lob wedge you're able to do that. Take a little bigger swing and be a little more aggressive through the ball so that you don't get stuck in the rough. And my short game was about as good as it's ever been this week.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.