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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2005

James Lepp

ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

CRAIG SMITH: James, great day, you get to play tomorrow. I think right off the bat, when you saw what you got for a draw in Kyle, you probably said, oh, geez, what's my reward for being Medalist.

JAMES LEPP: Yeah, exactly. I didn't know too many names of the guys that were in the playoff, a few here and there; Kyle was one of them and I saw that I was playing with him. But, I mean, I was confident with my game and I knew whoever I was playing, anyway, I mean every player that makes the cut here is going to be playing pretty solid. You've got 312 guys down to 64, so it's not like I have a walk in the park with any 64 seeds.

Yeah, Kyle, he played good today. It definitely wasn't a walk in the park.

CRAIG SMITH: Back to 2 down, but the last six holes, nothing very social about the last six holes.

JAMES LEPP: No, nothing social as all really. That was intense, the momentum shifting from this way to that way. I haven't played much match play, but definitely it's a lot of fun. At least when you end up in this chair right here, it makes it a little more fun. That was pretty intense coming down the stretch there.

CRAIG SMITH: 18 and 19, the drive on 18 and take us up to the two wins.

JAMES LEPP: Okay. He hit it to a foot on 17 and hit another good drive on 18 there. I still felt it was my match to win, especially when I was on 16, I was like, this is my match, and just a 3 putt there kind of wrecked the momentum. But I still felt good about my game and I saw him pipe a tee shot. I've hit good tee shots in the practice round and the one round I had here the other day. Setup felt good and I hit it solid. I didn't pump it by any means, but down the fairway. And then I saw his shot when he hit it, he just smoked it. And I was watching it flying through the air, I was like, okay, it's long, it's got to sit down, you have to hit this ball short of the hole to land it on the green, and I saw it in the back rough, and the back rough is tangly, even if it's a simple, lots of green to work with shot it can come up any which way with how tangly the rough is. And how it came up for him on that shot, you could see it just flew; and other times it could come up barely on to the fringe. I was still going to hit the same shot. I knew I had to land it right on the front, right around front of the green into the slope, because I had a downhill lie with an 8 iron, 167 front.

So I carried my 8 iron probably 160, just over 160 and downwind, I thought it would be perfect, perfect full 8. Hit it a little thin, so I thought, okay, it's going to bounce up there, I was surprised how it land on the green and how quickly it did stop. I heard them clap, I could see my ball there, and I anticipated him getting up and down but when he chipped it long, I was like, okay, this looks pretty good. Hole 1 so that felt good. At least that I didn't have to make a putt. I was going to make the putt, but it was nice that I didn't have to.

But Hole 1, simple 3 iron down the fairway. And he had not hit a bad I guess driving iron, 2 iron whatever he hits off the tee there. He had not hit one bad one off the tee the whole round. He hit every 1 down the middle and just pulled that one left in the bunker. It's an easy bunker shot; he's going to make par. But, I mean I had a very similar shot on hole one, but just five yards shorter with a different club and it was the same shot just with a lob wedge this time, a little more downwind.

When I hit it I thought, oh, it looks good, it felt good. I knew it had spin on it and it just spun down the hill perfectly to probably 2 1/2 feet. It was a right to lefter which I preferred rather than a left to righter. So I didn't feel too great with the putter today and it was nice to have a nice right edge put. I holed it in.

CRAIG SMITH: So 3 feet, 3 feet?

JAMES LEPP: Probably 2 1/2. Between 2 1/2 or a 3, to get technical.

Q. Did you think of playing safe on that shot? Because it seemed like you were flirting with the bunker on the right a little, just to play left of the hole. Were you just figuring, I'll put it in there?

JAMES LEPP: No, I wasn't going to play safe. I was 94 yards. He's going to make par. You get 94 yards and a lob wedge in your hand, you're not playing to the center of the green, no matter where the pin is, unless it's super dicey. I still had six or seven paces to the right of the hole. I pushed it a little bit but I knew it was going to come down. I was trying to hit a little cut with the lob wedge, which wasn't easy to do. Instead of hitting a cut, I hit a push straight shot. I had lots of room on the right side and it ended up being perfect.

Q. Noticed on your sheet, you've got your full exemption from your NCAA title. Would you have played if you had not gotten in as an exempt player?

JAMES LEPP: If I qualified, yeah, but I didn't try to qualify because I was exempt. In fact, I've never tried to qualify for this tournament but would I have gone to the qualifier. So, maybe.

Q. How big was the putt at 12? I know there are a lot of holes left, but were you getting concerned at that point that you needed to do something soon?

JAMES LEPP: I think the key putt was hole 11. There was one on 12, also but 11 was the key one because it was a 2 putt but I knocked my first one by. I had a couple brain cramps on 10 and 1 where I sometimes forget how hard to hit the ball and I look up and realize I'm an idiot because if that went 15 feet by, that's just absurdly too far. Although I do think that green goes a lot faster than the rest. Then I rolled that one in. I just knew the read was right and I hit a good stroke. And that was key because I didn't have any momentum, but at least it didn't slap me in the face and put me 3 down that point.

Rolling that one in on 12 was also key, those two putts. Then I was much more relaxed after that.

Q. Your talk about momentum shifts, looked like you had things going your way after 15; and then 16, you 3 putt; and 17, he hits it stiff. What's going through your mind as you're walking to 18 saying, geez, I had the momentum and just as quickly I lost?

JAMES LEPP: I was thinking there was no such thing as momentum to be honest. Everything defined as momentum was undefined during that stretch; I don't know if that makes sense.

But, yeah, because Hole 16, I felt like I had the momentum and I was going to win this match, and I was ready to win 16, and I was ready to win or tie 17 and not even go up 18. That's just how I felt and hit a good drive there.

My second shot, I mean, right now I feel pretty confident how far I'm carrying the ball and I was just surprised how short that came. I didn't pure it, but I was maybe one or two yards short of where I thought I could land it and it was ten yards shorter of that. I don't know if the yardage was right there. I don't want to say it was wrong, but that's what I thought when I saw where my ball ended up because I definitely would have hit a different club. And you definitely want to be past the hole there and I didn't want to putt up that ridge. That putt was not easy, up and over, you had to be careful with it and didn't hit it as hard as I want to, but still surprised it came up that far short. Then hit a good second putt just broke off.

So just when I thought it had momentum, I still felt good going all square and pit it to a foot and I was like, all right have to try to hit a sweet 3 iron, hook one in there, just toe fanned it in there 50 yards short. I would have had to smoke it to get it there. If I wanted to make birdie I should have hit 3 wood or something, but it's just too risky on that hole. You could hit 3 wood anywhere into the wind like that.

So then the momentum is in his court and then 18, not that I mean he probably feet he had momentum, but I still felt good. And I mean, I know it's a hard hole to par, you've got to hit two good shots in there and he hit a good drive, was like, okay, he's probably going to make par, probably going to hit on the green or somewhere around it or make par and I've got to hit birdie here. That's when I felt, okay, I can win this hole, it's a nice solid shot, and once I ended up winning the hole, then I wanted to end it early there on the 19th.

Q. How much has this golf course changed since you played it on Monday?

JAMES LEPP: The greens, when I played this in the morning, I think I played it in the morning, all of the greens were pretty consistent. They are pretty soft and receptive, balls are spinning back a lot, and what's changed probably from two days ago is that some greens are still a little bit soft but some are just getting hard and a lot faster I feel. For example, I hit a pitching wedge on 15 today and spun it back 30 feet. There was a slot of slope there, but if that's on a crusty green, it spins forward and then make spins back. Other greens you're spinning wedges in and they spin back later. Others are grabbing and spinning right away. I'm learning which greens are which. I do think they are a little bit of a different speed.

Q. Is it good to have a match like this out of the gate and survive it or does it not really matter; is it just going on?

JAMES LEPP: I think it's a good match to have I think early. I mean, it's always nice I get guess to win 4 & 3 or something like that, but everything now is just easier. I don't have to I mean I've been through the 19 hole match and grinding away, up against being dormie against another guy, so I don't have to worry about that. Maybe if it happens again, oh, I've done this before, it's not like, oh, I have to be scared or anything like that. I think it's a good one to get under the belt. Just make the other ones easier and more relaxing if you want to call it that.

Q. Is there a little extra confidence with you having won the NCAAs?

JAMES LEPP: It was a while ago now. My confidence can change within five minutes, so it helps. But anyone that knows me knows I can be confident from one hole to the other, from one hole to the next. I do use it a little bit.

Q. Can you talk about the amount of Canadian golfers in this field this week? There's a lot of guys that made it to match play and usually you wouldn't see that many; obviously on the Tour there's one and a half, if you count Stephen Ames.

JAMES LEPP: One and a quarter.

Q. So could you talk about that?

JAMES LEPP: Oh, I don't know, I wouldn't know what to say really. I know that the RCGA, our golf association, has been working hard to develop players to the next level and they have goals of how many them they want in the top, who knows, ranked in the world. We've got more resources now in Canada than we've had before, with sports psychologists and physio physiologists? Something like that.

So we have a lot of resources and I think it's kind of being reflected in the amount of at least Canadian players in the field. And there's a lot of good Canadian players in college golf, too, that are not even in this tournament. Yeah, it's nice to see definitely.

Q. Does it help having somebody like Mike Weir on the Tour?

JAMES LEPP: I mean, I guess so. I haven't really I wouldn't know how to answer that question. Yeah, it is nice to see Mike Weir and another Canadian. It's not like Canadians are built differently if Mike Weir, a Canadian can do it, James Lepp, a Canadian can do it. He's just another guy that happens to be from Canada. But there's a lot of good golfers there and we do golf a lot up there, too. We have nice courses and everything and it's not I don't know how to explain it. Yeah, it's nice to see Mike Weir up there, sure.

CRAIG SMITH: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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