U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 1997

Roger Tambellini

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Yeah. Started off with a par on 1, and hit it right off the tee, made a pretty good par. I hit kind of a cut shot around the trees. Parred 2 and 3. Hit it about a foot on 4, made it for birdie.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Hit a 9-iron. Made a whole bunch of basic pars, I guess, just hitting a bunch of greens hitting a lot of fairways up until 11, I made, I think it was about 25, 30 feet.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: I hit driver, 3-wood right of the green, and hit a bad chip long -- or not a bad chip, but just a conservative chip more than anything, a little bit long, and made it coming back. And then hit -- made another par on 12 and 13, and then hit it about 10-feet below the hole on 14 and made it for birdie. Parred 15. Hit it in the left rough on 16, punched it out and didn't get it up-and-down. Made a good birdie on 17, 2-iron, sand wedge to about 15 feet and made it. And then 18, I hit a good drive and made it interesting by hitting it over in the long rough on the right and made about a 12-footer for par, so pretty boring round, actually.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Yeah, I had a good summer. Hit it bad the first practice round, and then hit a little bit better the second practice round. Yeah, but even hitting it bad in the first practice round, I had a lot of confidence and felt really good about my game. My putting, everything has been kind of clicking and feeling good about everything.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: I have another year of school.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: So I'm going to go back to school in the fall and then the spring, and then I think I'm going to turn pro next May. I'm not totally sure on that, but I think I'll probably turn pro next May and then --

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Right, exactly, exactly.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: No eligibility left.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Spent a year at UOP playing. Only played in two tournaments, and then three years at USC. This will be my fifth year in college.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Yeah, it really did. I kind of felt like I had a round in the bag, and I felt really confident about playing well on the 2 course. I mean, the 2 course, I don't know why all the scores are so bunched up. I felt like the 2 course is a lot easier and my score went up, so that doesn't really help much at all. But I played really well yesterday. Hit it decent today. Didn't do anything special, but it was just kind of -- just made a lot of pars.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Hit it long, straight and make putts. You really have to hit a lot of fairways. I hit so many fairways yesterday that I didn't even know what the rough was like off the tee, but I think the fairways on the 4 course are pretty wide as I remember them. They're so -- so I think hitting a lot of fairways, obviously. But you can kind of spray it a little bit off the tee I guess, but then hitting a lot of greens because the rough is kind of tough to get up-and-down out of. I only missed a couple fairways yesterday. Got lucky and had easy chips, with the exception of 1, really. Hitting a lot of fairways. And then in match play, you know, making all your 4- and 5-footers really. I think that gets to your opponent more than anything.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Pretty good right now. I've always liked match play a whole lot. Haven't had a whole lot of success coming into the summer, but then played really well in the Public Links. Got to the quarter finals which is the best match-play tournament I've ever played in really or been successful in really, I should say. But pretty good. I think the more you like it, the more you're going to be successful at something. So I'm really looking forward to playing some matches and winning some matches.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: I want to play the best player in the world, let alone this field. I want to play everybody. I want to beat everybody. I want to do my best to beat everybody, you know. No, I want to play the best.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Ryuji Imada. APL, is that Public Links I assume?

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Ryuji Imada, and I even played well in that match to lose, you know. I was -- I think I might have been under par, and he was like 6-under par through 13 holes. He killed me. But I played well -- I think I was under par every round that week.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: I think pretty good. I guess the guys that shot low on the 2 course have to shoot 68 or something I heard, and then the guys that played well on the 4 course have to shoot 66 on the 2 course to get it, so I would think the chances are pretty good. But I mean, you know, who knows. Somebody could shoot 62, I don't know.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Rudy Duran right there.

ROGER TAMBELLINI: Yeah, he's been around pretty much all my life in and out, and just started talking with him a lot this summer and playing a lot with him, and he wanted to come back and caddie for me, which is really nice of him. He's doing a great job. I really like having him.