U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2001

Robert Hamilton

ROBERT HAMILTON: Thank you very much.

ROBERT HAMILTON: I think it was six or seven previous times.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah, it feels really good. Like you said, it's been a long road just to get here. I've had a lot -- I played really well this summer so it's given me a lot of confidence that once I did get here that I knew that I could play with these guys. I played with a lot of the top players on a weekly basis for the last two and a half months. So I've got out there and I've gauged my game and I've learned a lot. And so I'm just trying to apply the stuff that I learned this summer and it's obviously starting to pay off.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah. I knew that I am playing well, that I'm good enough to make it to match play. So my initial goal was to go out and just put up solid numbers to get into match play. And then at that point you just take your chances, you hope that you play well. And you take each match at a time, each opponent at a time. And then you just hope for the best. You just if you start looking too far in advance you lose track of what's going on. And then who knows what's going to happen.

ROBERT HAMILTON: It's amazing how good the younger players are. I'm not old, but the high school players are already so good that -- when I was in high school I was okay. I was probably a little above average, but I wasn't even coming close to where these people are now. And I play a lot of golf with like Jason Harwick who has just came out of his freshman year at Texas and he went to the same high school I did. And to see that, it's just amazing. There are so many good young players these days that you can't take anybody for granted because they're playing so many national events at such an early age that they get so much experience that when they get here, like Daniel, who is a great young player. They're not blown away by the experience as much as somebody who doesn't play.

ROBERT HAMILTON: All week it's been that's kind of when -- where I started to play well. I've just hit, got the ball in a good position for the most part on those holes. I'm not sure why. I don't know why I play them any better, but I think maybe by doing it a couple times. It's just weird, after I get off that seventh green it just seems to fall into place and I start hitting some better golf shots and that's definitely been the turning point in all the matches, for sure.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah, he was playing very well. He hit some really good golf shots when he needed to. After I hit in the water on 6 I wasn't worried, I was still in a good position. I wasn't down. I don't think I've been down in a match except for the first one. So I knew I was coming into the holes where I have played well. So all I did was try and stick to my game plan get good yardage and just let everything fall into place. And then I hit some good shots and he hit a couple loose ones and that all equals getting to a good advantage going into the back side.

ROBERT HAMILTON: He hit 7-iron to the middle back and I had hit 7 yesterday from the same -- basically the same position, off the tee to the back also. And I just decided to try and hit 8-iron, which was the right club, but I just made a bad swing. I was probably guarding against hitting in the left bunker just because there's a huge ridge going from the bunker to the flag. So I knew I wouldn't have any chance to keep it anywhere close. And I just hit a bad shot. I came over it a little bit. Caught it a little heavy. Double. Just like that.

ROBERT HAMILTON: No. I don't believe we have played against each other. I think he played for BYU. We're in the same events, but I never played around with him.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Yeah, I shot 67 here in the first round.

ROBERT HAMILTON: This golf course is so demanding if you're not hitting the ball as crisp as you need to. So getting out and playing a good round here was obviously -- it gave me confidence so that the rest of the week in match play that I was fully capable of making birdies and recovering when I wasn't in the best position, which obviously I've done fairly well this week to keep from making a whole bunch of big numbers.

ROBERT HAMILTON: No. To tell you the truth, at the beginning of the week I was struggling a little bit. And every day I started to hit a little bit better I got a little more confidence. But I can still play a lot better. I've played probably mediocre. But I've hit some great shots. It just been some really good shots and some not so good shots. So if I can just get rid of my errors and continue to progress throughout the week and hit it a little bit better and get a little more confidence and get a little more comfortable with the course, then everything should fall into place.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Well, the rest of the day I'm just going to get something to eat, probably go back maybe watch the telecast, just to check it out. I haven't seen myself on TV before, so it will be kind of fun to watch. But Phil, my caddy, we have been talking about it all week, that it's one shot at a time and it's one match at a time. And, like I said earlier, if you get in front of yourself, things can happen in a hurry. And that can be the whole downfall is thinking too far ahead. I want to be in the final match, obviously, and have a chance to go to Augusta and play. But tomorrow all I can do, if I start thinking about tomorrow then it's going to be tough. And I'm sure I'm going to be thinking about it at some point, if I'm up or down or whatever. But to just do what we do best, my caddy and I do best is we talk before each shot, we stay in the moment, get a good yardage, where are we going to hit it. And that's all can I do is just stay as much in the moment as I can and hopefully at the end of the day, don't even think about it and talk about it some more. But until then, I'm just going to do what I've done all week, which is stick to the plan.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Phil Cuthbertson is my best friend. He played in the event. He didn't make it to match play. But we play golf almost every day. Every time we're playing we're almost playing golf together. So we get along really well. And we know what to say to each other. We just won the biggest two-man event in Northern California. It's probably one of the biggest events in California, two-man events, the Northern California Amateur, which is at Spyglass in Monterey. And it was funny because we're out there playing and we're just jelling because whenever we play together we're usually playing matches against other friends. And us two against them, we don't usually lose. So it's fun. We know what each other is doing. He's been great all week. He's been keeping me in the moment, he's been slowing me down. I tend to start walking a little fast or whatever. My emotions get up, you know. He's just kept me in the moment, he's kept me calm. He knows if he wasn't here I wouldn't be this far. He's been keeping me where I need to be in terms of my emotions.

ROBERT HAMILTON: Thank you.

ROBERT HAMILTON: All right. Thanks.