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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 13, 2014

Lee McCoy

JOHNS CREEK, GEORGIA

PETE KOWALSKI: Lee McCoy joining us, co-medalist who was defeated in extra holes by Nathan Smith. I'm sure it's a tough emotional time for you. Tell us what happened on that last hole.

LEE McCOY: Pulled the wrong club off the tee. In that kind of situation, you've got to know you're going to hit it a little bit harder than you normally would. And I had 310 to the bunker on my line; under any other circumstance, I'm not going to hit a 3-wood 310 yards. And look at me; I'm not a big guy. But I had a feeling I was going to, and I tried to go back and pull 5-wood but I just couldn't make myself. And sure enough, swung hard and caught it right in the middle and just got a bad lie in the bunker. Thought I hit a pretty good chip and it was into the grain on the little upslope where I landed, just a little pitch and made a little ball mark. Didn't release and misread the putt and that was it. I really didn't hit that bad of a shot on the hole. But that being said, the way Nathan played coming in was unbelievable. To birdie 171-down and to make five from where he was on 18 was just stellar. So you know, you can't commend him enough for making those two numbers that he did there. So I don't feel like I beat myself. I got beat and that's a better feeling than other way.

Q. Knowing what you know now, would you have tried to go for the green on 18 in two?
LEE McCOY: Absolutely not. He had, I'm guessing, probably 220. I was playing for five, even after he hit it to the back of the green, because that's two out of ten up-and-down from back there, I don't care how good you're feeling, especially with all those people around the green. That's not an easy shot. Actually my third shot, I hit it right where I was trying to hit it, I just wanted 20 win feet up the hill and take mine; I was playing for five.

Q. If you had to get a shot back, play it over again, what one would it have been?
LEE McCOY: Probably just the tee shot on 1 or on the 19th, on the playoff hole because I had a feeling I was going to knock it in that bunker and the bunkers on the golf course are not firm at all. You can get a bad lie in there very easily and I happened to, so definitely.

Q. After the playoff in the morning, kid probably smiling saying, playing this old guy, I'm sure you weren't thinking that --
LEE McCOY: Absolutely not. I saw the list and I saw four-time Mid-Am winner and a guy that's played in the Masters four times, and I was like, I get to play the grizzled veteran in the first round, fantastic. I don't think he had his best stuff today and neither did I. I didn't play nearly as well as I did the last two days. He made some incredible up-and-downs and he just scored unbelievably well, like a veteran would.

Q. Two co-medalists are down after the first matches and there's a lot of name guys that are not making it through for tomorrow. What does that say about this whole idea of bringing the Top-50 in the world?
LEE McCOY: Just goes to show you they are two different golf tournaments. They are not similar in any way. I would have loved for it to have been a four-day stroke-play event. I probably wouldn't have been far off the lead. I probably would have shot even today playing against Nathan and I would have been right there. But you know it's two different golf tournaments and I knew that coming in. It was still a huge honor to be a co-medalist in the stroke play, and that's the only thing keeping my head up right now to be honest with you. You can't expect anything going in as a high seed. You can still draw a guy like Nathan Smith and go out there and get beat.

Q. How much experience did you have in match play prior?
LEE McCOY: A pretty good bit. I played in two Junior Ams and made match play both years. I played NCAAs this past year and made match play. We didn't make match play the year before; a couple other small college tournaments the year before that were half match play. So I have a pretty good bit of experience and I've had a lot of talk with my coach, Chris Hack, as Georgia, about match play and how to play. I followed right along with what I should have been doing today it. I just didn't hit it as well as I did the last two days, and the putts just weren't falling. Like I said, I don't think I beat myself in any way. I'm proud of the way I played and just got beat.

Q. In your match-play experience, have you had a match like this that was so back and forth?
LEE McCOY: Nothing under this circumstances, because I've never been to the match play in the U.S. a.m. before and it's a totally different feeling. Let me think -- I don't think anything of that magnitude, no. I've won some and I've lost some but nothing like that.

Q. How do you right-hand I cap Nathan going into tomorrow? And it was said that he probably didn't have his best stuff, he's won the mid Am four times and if you're playing him tomorrow, what do you think?
LEE McCOY: I wouldn't be happy about it if I was playing him tomorrow. Usually if a guy hits it not as great as he could and scores the way he's scoring, that means he's due to hit it good and he's probably still scoring the same way. I like his chances. I'm not saying the guy is going to win golf tournament or anything; he very well could, but I wouldn't want to be playing him tomorrow.

Q. Could you imagine being 36 and being a financial advisor and reaching round 32 of the U.S. Amateur?
LEE McCOY: That would be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. It would be even better to be making a paycheck but that's pretty solid (laughter).

PETE KOWALSKI: Well played.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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