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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 13, 2014

Ollie Schniederjans

JOHNS CREEK, GEORGIA

PETE KOWALSKI: We'd like to welcome Ollie Schniederjans, six and five winner, first round of match play at the U.S. Amateur. Pretty quick work today. How did you do it?

OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I played good, and he didn't have his best day I would say. I wouldn't expect the matches to finish up that quick. They don't seem to do that. Most of the time in match play, it's come down to 17, 18, kind of almost every match it seems. So I don't expect the matches to wind that quick the rest of the week. Maybe they will, maybe -- that would be great. Obviously I'm ecstatic to be done for the day and have some time to rest for the long day tomorrow. But yeah, very pleased with how I managed my game out there today and exceeded for tomorrow.

Q. Any holes that were key to the matches to get you started?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I birdied the first hole. Hit it in there close and made a nice 4-footer and then got up-and-down on the next hole from a tough spot to go 2-up early. I gave them one, actually, on 6 but then I made a couple really, really good two putts on 7 and 8 and stuck it to a foot on 9 and turned at 4-up. Kind of was tough for him to come back from that.

Q. How does it feel to get this first match under your belt?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah, it feels great. I haven't made it past the first round in Amateur or U.S. Junior yet. I've struggled to get to match play and then to win the first match, so this is the furthest I've gone already in one of these. I'm excited to get that out of the way. I have played some match play this year between NCAAs and the Palmer Cup, so I had some nice experience and I feel so much more comfortable playing match play now than I ever have, and especially on this course. Very pleased with -- today couldn't have gone any better. The first day, you want to get out there early, get done early and have time to rest for the big day tomorrow. So very pleased.

PETE KOWALSKI: And your first win in match play, in those events you mentioned, with the big stage of the Amateur, close to home, you're a Georgia Tech guy, world No. 1 ranking; that's a little bit of weight on your shoulders.

OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah, there's a lot going on. It's a lot going on, but I'm handling it well. The stroke play is such a beast because it's just a circus out here the first two days. There's so much going on. There's so many players. There's good draws, bad draws, 312 players on the course. I mean, it's just -- today is so much more -- the pace of play is amazing. It's twosomes because it's match play. Guys pick up when they are out of the hole. It's completely more in my element, the match play seems to be here, just the pace of play. I had huge problems the first two days with pace of play. It's hard for me to stay patient but today I can kind of walk to the beat of my own drum and I stayed in momentum and rhythm all day.

PETE KOWALSKI: Literally, you don't even look like you broke a sweat.

OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Seriously, it feels that way, compared to the last two days.

Q. What did you find after round one? Obviously you weren't happy in the first round -- was it just pace of play? What did you find after that?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: No, it was, I had not played in four weeks. I haven't kept score in a round in four weeks. I played The Scottish Open, took a vacation, practiced, but I had not kept score in a competitive round. And seriously, just my game felt good coming in but it was a little off that day and I was hitting it too far. My irons war pure, but I wasn't totally in control of them. I just didn't play anything like myself. But I learned from that and I got the first anxious feelings out. I mean, I was so anxious to start the first round, it was a joke. The most anxious I've ever been to start a round in my whole life, to finally get this thing started. I kind of got over that the first day and got a little bit more back to normal, and started feeling more like myself on the course. And I had and amazing stretch of holes yesterday that got me right back in a comfort zone. I was thinking, you know, I was going to have to do something at the end, maybe it could have been that way, but to get to 5-under with four holes left, three holes left, I was 5-under and I could kind of just limp my way home and still make it, so that was nice.

Q. Are there disadvantages to playing at home?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah, definitely, if you make it that way. It could definitely be a distraction for me playing here with so many people watching. But I think part of it bothers the guy I'm playing against. I know it bothered the two guys we played with yesterday, the last two days. We had so many people; as soon as I put out, the gallery is walking ahead. I'm sure Tiger's players or Rory -- I feel like almost a little bit like that, like they are there to watch me and they don't care as much about, you know, that's just the nature of how it is here for me. So I feel like I'm putting out and they don't care anymore, they are walking to the next hole. That's what it was like the last two days. Today, I think this guy had never played in a crowd like that, and most of the week I could be playing against guys that have never played in a situation this big with that big of a crowd, and I definitely handle it well. So that's an advantage because I make it that way. But it could definitely be a disadvantage if I wasn't that way.

Q. Did you follow through on your strategy of not knowing who you're going to play until you got to the tee?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I tried to but it didn't work out. I found out really quick. That's impossible.

Q. So you'll know tomorrow?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I'll know. I'll know who I'm playing. But I still stayed with, I'm playing Highlands, and in my mind, I was like, I'm going to keep score today on Highlands. I'm going to shoot as low as I can. I was like still keeping score like I'm playing stroke play, whereas I didn't care about just beating the guy. I wanted to shoot a good number that I can feel good about.

Q. What do you do the rest of the day now?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Practice, eat some lunch, I don't know. I've got a lot of time. I'll probably go back to my house and read a book. I like to read. Like I'm reading Seve's book right now. It's kind of cool. It kind of gets my mind off everything, and I like to read about other great players. I'll read stuff -- like I read Nadal's book a couple weeks ago. I like to do that whenever there's downtime in tournaments. Because there is; there's times when you get done and you have all day to do whatever. You don't want to sit there thinking all day about the tournament.

Q. Which Seve book are you reading?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: His autobiography that he wrote. Might go see a movie, something like that.

Q. As for tomorrow, what do you look to as far as potential for a lot of golf?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah, I'm prepared for that. I think I've been really well rested heading into this. That was part of my strategy was to be ready for the marathon, because this tournament's a marathon if you make to the finals. I'm very physically fit for it and today couldn't have gone better mentally for me to relax. The last two days were really draining. So today was great and I'll go get some good sleep tonight.

Q. Did you go on vacation?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I did go on vacation. I went to the beach a lot. I went to California. My girlfriend lives in Laguna Beach, so hung out with her for a while.

Q. Play golf at all?
OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah, a couple times. Practised. She plays tennis, so whenever she would go with somebody, I would go to the range. Her mom used to play golf, so we would go to the range with her mom and hit some balls for a little bit. That's about it.

PETE KOWALSKI: Thanks, Ollie.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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