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U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 11, 2014Scott HarveyBETHLETHEM, PENNSYLVANIA Q. Tell us about your feelings about playing in your first USGA championship final and then winning. SCOTT HARVEY: Well, to start it off I was a little bit nervous. I woke up at 12:08, to be exact and didn't go back to sleep the entire night. My good buddy Rocky, who was caddying for me, did a heck of a job with keeping my mind on what it needed to be kept on, which was one shot at a time and this, that and the other, staying right in the moment, and you know, trying to keep my mind off the Masters and 10 years, all the exemptions, and everything that comes with being the USGA champion. I don't even know what happened in between when I teed off and sitting down right here. It's been kind of just blacked out, I think. Q. Let's go through the match. Obviously you got off to a good start with birdie, and then he came back and then he had a little run there. SCOTT HARVEY: The afternoon match? Q. No. In the morning. You get out to a 2‑up lead. SCOTT HARVEY: Oh, yeah. I hit a great tee ball at 1 and hit it just short of the green and chipped it up and made the putt. And I can't remember what happened on 2. Q. 2, he hit a long par putt. SCOTT HARVEY: He did make a long par putt, and I missed it. And then 3, I won with a par, which was a great par. Yeah, I ran it way by the hole. Yeah. And then I went 2‑up at 5, I believe it was, and then I started to settle down a little bit and get comfortable and basically started swinging really well and hit some great shots and just kept driving it straight, which is key out here. Q. On 8, even though the hole was halved with birdies, that chip you hit to six inches. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. We were talking about the lie; the grass was laying against us really long, but the way where it was I had a huge margin for error there. If it came out soft, it landed more on the downslope and looked like it was just going to run to the hole. If I came out harder, it looked like it would go past the downslope and still stop at the hole. I'm not going to say it was easy, but that got me going there. And he hit a great shot on 9, and I answered it with an even better shot, and that really put me mentally where I needed to be. Q. On the back nine in the morning, you made three birdies, that held your lead, on 11 and 13, got you to 2‑up, and then the par at 15, you won that hole and then you birdied 18 to get to 4‑up. What was going on in that stretch? SCOTT HARVEY: Similar to yesterday when things started clicking with my swing, and it just started to feel just simple, you know. Didn't really have to think about much, wasn't afraid of anything. Just take it back and hit it, and then we just seemed to be going well. Kind of like I said earlier, almost blacked out, just got caught up in the moment and did what I needed to do and just let the golf take care of itself. Q. Afternoon round, he came tearing out of the blocks. I guess he made a little bit of an adjustment in between rounds and he started finding the fairway. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah, he did. I got a little sluggish. I didn't do much of a warmup session. I went down there, I was feeling so good about my ball striking, I went and hit about 10 pitching wedges. And what was that again. But I came out a little sluggish, hit a few bad shots off the first three holes, and he was really on his game all of a sudden. So thankfully I was able to flip the switch on the fourth hole and get right back in it where I need to be, made a birdie there and then made some good shots on the next hole, made a par, and won both those holes. Q. He put the run at you in those three holes. What was in your mindset? Was it, here we go or, hey, I need to get back on track? SCOTT HARVEY: Well, I expected it. You know, I just thought about when I was eating lunch, what would I do if I was down. I mean I'm coming out firing. I'm going to be on the range, you know, trying to get it honed in. I expected it. I just didn't think he'd win the first three holes. Q. So in your mind the birdie at 4 turned it back your way? SCOTT HARVEY: You know, mentally walking over to the tee me and Rocky were saying let's just bear down, start talking to each other, like he said, like a machine, just like we've been doing every single shot for the entire tournament. And for it to happen that quickly was huge. We'd had that putt before, we'd seen it before, and we knew what it did. And five feet from the hole. Q. And then late in the match you closed it out. Your putter has been good to you all week you said. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. That's all Rocky. He'd get down on his stomach and read the green and just tell me to believe in myself, and you know, truthfully that's about all that's been lacking. I'm starting to realize it's just a little bit of self‑belief. And he made me believe. Q. Let's go back, your father had played in a lot of USGA championships. But he had talked to you, you said, about making a modest swing change, let's put it that way, and you did that after he passed away. Tell everyone here about that. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. We had talked about it. I had a bowed left wrist. The club face was really closed up top. And I could play some really good golf from there, but under pressure it got a little bit‑‑ just got a little bit iffy, I guess is the best way to put it. And me and Dad talked about making a swing change and doing it and doing it and doing it. I don't know. I was always scared to, because I was really good. I could play. And then he passed in October, and it kind of put things in perspective, like I'm really scared to change my golf swing. You know, and so I just did it. I went to Robert (Lindell), and it's not like it's a huge change. I went from say a Dustin Johnson look to‑‑ it's not perfect, but it's light years better than it was, and it's made me a way better player, way better driver of a golf ball, which in USGA events is at an absolute premium. And here I am. Q. The greatest amateur of all is Bobby Jones. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. I get chills. Q. What do you think your dad would say about having that? SCOTT HARVEY: He'd say, "I knew you could do it." That's exactly what he'd say. Q. (Indiscernible) SCOTT HARVEY: Just because it put it in perspective for me. You know, I was scared to, and just you know, him passing just made me realize that, hey, there's bigger things in life than golf, and you know, here I am scared to make a swing change because I'm‑‑ for whatever reason. I don't even know. I was just scared it wasn't going to work out and I wasn't going to be as good or whatever, but I mean at the end of the day, if you're not as good, then you're just not as good. Q. Was he right? SCOTT HARVEY: Absolutely. (Laughs). He's always been right. Q. What was his name? SCOTT HARVEY: Bill Harvey. Q. How close did he ever come to winning? SCOTT HARVEY: You know, he played in a lot of U. S. Amateurs, and he lost way towards the end. I don't know. It was all before I was born. But I know hearing him and a lot of other guys tell the story, he had some good runs, and some people made some unbelievable comebacks on him to beat him. And I know he was good enough; he knows he was good enough. He always talks about putter. If he'd have been a better putter on those fast USGA greens, then he'd have won most of them. I promise you he's right. Q. (Indiscernible)? SCOTT HARVEY: I've walked it a couple of times, with Eric. My buddy who came up here. I've walked it watching a guide. Q. Is that the practice round? SCOTT HARVEY: We did, yeah, just in the practice round. I probably did a few more practice rounds next year. Q. Speaking of family, talk about the surprise of your wife and kids coming. SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. I had no idea. Again, as I said outside, my wife can be a little bit sneaky sometimes, and I looked over on 8 tee box before I hit my drive, and I was like, man, they look familiar, but I didn't think anything of it because I saw a few people earlier in the week that I said, oh, that looks like a friend back home, and I'd go get a closer look and it's not them. Whatever. I saw them, and then I hit my tee ball, and then I kind of walked over there waiting for Brad to hit, and I glanced over there again, and I said, wait a minute, that's Cameron and Kim and my mother‑in‑law and my good friend. I mean it was just‑‑ I was totally in shock. Q. But you had a little bit of a clue? SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. About a month ago they came out and surprised me at the Cardinal Amateur, the last four or five holes, and I ended up winning there, and it kind of gave me a good feeling; they're my good‑luck charm. Q. (Indiscernible)? SCOTT HARVEY: I think they had just gotten there, didn't they? Yeah, they had just gotten there. Q. Family is so important to you, how important is it that your family got out here this year? SCOTT HARVEY: Oh, phenomenal. I was thinking last night when I woke up at 12:08 that I wished they were here, I wished that they could, you know, him in kindergarten now‑‑ not today obviously. But I was just wishing that they were here and sharing the experience with me, win or lose, and you know, the dream came true. Here they are. Right; Kim? Q. Also you kind of talked about other times being a national champion, and you won lots of state and regional events. But where is this going to ring? SCOTT HARVEY: Thought about it all night again. I mean it's just hard‑‑ you know, you can try and you can try and you can try. When you're laying there in bed at night, it's hard not to think about all the stuff. I played on the Concession Cup earlier in May, and one of the requirements for, I think, the senior or maybe it was the super senior. They had one super senior day. The requirements was being a national champion, and I played with Mike McCoy some in the practice round and whatnot and he's a national champion. Nathan Smith, I mean that's just a whole 'nother level as far as I'm concerned. I can't really put it into words. It's hard to do that, but I mean this tournament's been my No. 1 goal every single year. I mean I don't even know what to say. I mean, Rocky, my buddy that was caddying was saying, look, you belong here, believe it. This is where you belong. And that's what we did. Q. (No microphone)? SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. Take Ibuprofen. I took two every night. I don't know. I was going to bed at 8:00, getting up at 4:30, except last night, 12:08. Pretty excited about 12:08, in case you couldn't tell. I don't know. You just keep moving and keep your head down and just keep grinding and keep going and keep going. My back was tingling all day yesterday. It was tingling all day today. I mean I'm tired, but you can't let that stop you. Q. (No microphone)? SCOTT HARVEY: Oh. I didn't know what time it was because I went to bed about 8:00. I turned the TV off and rolled over. I woke up. I didn't know if it was 3:30 or whatever or 11, and I looked over and it was 12:08, and I was sitting there thinking, oh gosh. I just knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep because my mind immediately started racing. It's going to be a long day. And Rocky, I can talk to him on the golf course, but I didn't want to wake him up. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. SCOTT HARVEY: Thank you guys. Thanks for everything. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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