U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 30, 1998

Tom McKnight

TOM McKNIGHT: There were peaks and valleys all day. I didn't play any best at times, but I made up for it with great saves. The first 18 holes I laid poorly, but I made some great saves, I was lucky to be 3 down after 18. It was the poorest 18 holes I've played since I've been up here. But I was able to salvage enough out of it to hang in there and still have a shot out of it.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, I have no idea what I did. But like I said yesterday, you can't hit it in the rough out here, and I just got uncomfortable all of a sudden off the tee, and just hit it in the wrong places, and hit some shots, tracks off here and there. A couple of times I did hit good shots, they didn't turn out either. It wasn't my day, especially the first 18. I was just kind of hanging in there, but I guess just trying to keep from getting too far down to where I felt like I could come back. After the front 9 or 10 or 11 holes it was getting to be 18, and I felt like I needed to regroup and come back.

TOM McKNIGHT: Just tried to relax, and I hit some balls warming up before I started. It's not like a big swing flaw. I think it was a mindset that I had to regroup. Sometimes just get me in, and I want to get started again. I felt like when I came out the second 18 I was a different person, and it was a fresh start.

TOM McKNIGHT: I don't think I need to, really. I'm just sorry I missed the putts I did. I putted well. I normally putt pretty good. I normally hit the ball a little better than I hit it today, but what can I say? This type of situation, you never know what's going to happen, this type of golf course, you've got a lot of factors. If I hit three or four greens, I'm usually hitting 15, 16, 17 greens. I just didn't strike the ball very well. But this course can do it to you. Competition can do it to you. The good shots are easy. But it's the bad shots and how you handle those that are tough.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, I really wasn't thinking about that so much. It's there, but at the same time I'm trying to birdie the hole. I'm approaching it like I was playing out there by myself, trying to shoot the best score I can on Oak Hill, and I'm trying to make birdie. I wasn't thinking about being 4 down or 2 down, just going out there and trying to make the putts.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, they may be for some. A putt is a putt as far as I'm concerned, whether it's left-to-right or right to left or uphill or downhill.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, not really. It may have. I think to be winning 18 was probably more key than that. And I think the real key was me starting off the afternoon playing well, the second round. I played pretty solid on the front 9 to get back in the match, except for bogeying 8, which I felt like I shouldn't have done. But really had several birdies on the front and that got me right back in there. I don't think being 5 down or 6 down, in 18 holes a lot of things can happen, and I know I never feel comfortable when I'm 5 up, with 18 holes left. You want to keep grinding and keep doing it.

TOM McKNIGHT: Probably, I just put myself in a bad position. 10, I was really disappointed with my second shot, because I didn't hit it like I wanted to. I took the extra club and let off too much because I was just -- the type of shot I was trying to hit I hit. And I was really disappointed, because I didn't even think of bunker was in play with the club I had. And obviously it was just a bad judgment. I hit a poor putt there. I didn't hit that bad a shot on 11, I just pulled it a fraction, and all of a sudden I lose that hole. 12, I was trying to think which one -- I hit a couple of bad putts and then one good one that didn't go. And it was very disappointing on 12. I just hit a bad tee shot and put myself in a bad position, because that's really a birdie hole. I had trouble, and made a good recovery. And that really hurt. And then him, he made a heck of a putt on 13. I thought that was a key putt, after I make mine, and he follows it up with his.

TOM McKNIGHT: I don't remember. I hit a 6-iron -- I started to hit 7, I was about 170, I think I was about 170.

TOM McKNIGHT: Sure, I'm happy as I can be for Henry. I'm disappointed as hell for me. (Laughter.) But I'm happy for Henry. I think it's great. I think it's great for he and his family. It would have been great for me and my family, too.

TOM McKNIGHT: There was a lot of emotion out there all day, with both of us. And it's hard to describe really the feeling, but when you get in competition, you just have to go out there and duke it out with your best friends. You do it every week when you play these tournaments. It's not like everybody is your enemy. But that's the competitive spirit in both of us. We're looking at each other in the face and smiling and shaking hands and can't wait to beat the tar out of everyone. When we're out there we're trying to beat each other, and when we're finished we're the best of friends, that's just the way it is.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, it would be hard to do it today. It's just been a real thrill to be here, and being able to go to Augusta now, just to be -- to play for the national championship. This is as good as it gets, and it's just hard to describe the feeling that you have, the emotion. Look at my family. They're all sitting there with eyes swelled up. It's just an emotional time. It's fantastic, but it's disappointing, but it's still great.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, I kind of do that anyway. I may approach some things different. I don't think I'll work any harder. There's some things that I know that I need to do different, as far as getting ready and preparing. And I think I've learned from this. But I've always worked hard to get here. I just didn't walk in here and get lucky, I think, for the week. I think I've played my way here.

TOM McKNIGHT: I don't know, probably -- maybe the last 30 years (laughter.) I've depended on it for a long time. The last time I remember hitting three or four greens, like in high school, I still shoot 72 or 3, but I've done this before. I've been there and hit bad shots and got it up-and-down, and I've played days where I hit everything great and maybe made or maybe didn't make them. I've played enough golf where I've done about everything, I guess. But I feel very comfortable with a putter in my hand. That's not to say I might miss everything I look at, but I feel like I'm going to miss everyone.

TOM McKNIGHT: They said I might not play again, and if I did it might not be the caliber I was used to.

TOM McKNIGHT: It didn't bother me. I disregarded -- I knew I was going to be back playing. That did settle my mind of trying to go with the PGA TOUR, but as far as playing and feeling I can play again, I really wasn't worried about that, I knew I could.

TOM McKNIGHT: I was probably swinging the club in maybe six or seven months. Not very good, but I was swinging.

TOM McKNIGHT: This course can do that to you. Momentum can change fast. There's not a lot of golf courses you can go out and play and feel comfortable. This golf course you can't relax and put it on cruise control. You've got to keep playing, and all of a sudden if you get in the mindset you see a little chip in the armor, it's hard to get back. You have to dig down deep inside and come out fighting, and that's what Henry did. He went through a stretch like I went through a stretch. But I came back out and proved that I could hit some shots and do some things. And he went through his slump and here he comes back. And I think that's what a champion is made of. When you're playing your best, and everything is going in your favor it's not hard to play. It's when things go bad and you're playing on a championship like this, on a course like this, you've really got to dig deep down inside to come back out and grind it out.

TOM McKNIGHT: Not really. During that stretch I wasn't paying attention to how poorly he was playing. I felt really good about my game, I was playing the course and felt really good. When you start talking about that I wasn't noticing that he hit it poorly here or there, as much as I was thinking about what I had to do.

TOM McKNIGHT: I'm never surprised at anything Henry does. No, I wasn't surprised. I don't think that's a bad play for him. He hit it up there around the green and -- a little chip shot, even if he's in the heavy rough or bunker. He pulled it fairly hard left where he had a tough shot. I'm hitting an iron playing it safe, and I hit a terrible shot, I wish I hit a driver. But it turned out all right anyway, but you don't know.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, what would have been bad to go out there -- and Henry and I be out there by ourselves, no gallery. Give me the gallery, I think that's great. I think it's great they were out there in the fairway. Sure, they may get in your way a few times and may be a problem here and there. But that's what this is all about. If nobody is watching it doesn't mean anything to anybody, then what are we here for? I think that's what makes it so much fun. I thought they were great.

TOM McKNIGHT: Probably in 1985, I played Jackie Nicklaus in the finals of the North/South. And Jack was out there. And he drew the crowd. They were all over the place. There were maybe a couple of thousand people following us around.

TOM McKNIGHT: He won two and one in a 36 hole final.

TOM McKNIGHT: When the putt lipped out on 17. No, I just had fun all week. I'm very disappointed I lost, but, no, I didn't stop -- I tell you what, the closest I came to stopping having fun, I lost my concentration on the first nine holes today. And I kind of caught myself and said wait a minute, we've got to do something different here, and let's have fun and it's been fun getting here, and let's just try and scratch our way back in the match.

TOM McKNIGHT: I think I just got caught of up in hitting a couple of poor shots, and what's going on here? I'm losing holes. I'm giving holes away. And you just have to regroup. It's just a golf tournament. I just had to kind of regroup and get started again.

TOM McKNIGHT: I don't have to go home and go back to school, like Henry does, but I've got to go home and get back to work. I'll play in the Mid-Amateur, but go home and regroup and rest and get caught up at work and hopefully go back and do better at the next one.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, matter of fact one of them came up here. One of my key employees drove all the way last night to get up here today. I don't know.

TOM McKNIGHT: There are a lot of good players. I don't see anything unique -- there's always those guys that come along. You've got the Tiger Woods the David Duvals, the Phil Mickelsons, you have people coming through that are a step above the other guy. And you always will. But as far as anything special or different, they're just good players.

TOM McKNIGHT: Not really. I feel like I'm in pretty good shape. Mentally it's grinding and -- to go through this all week, but that's what we're here for, and that's what's fun. If it wasn't for this type of competition -- that's the reason I play golf.

TOM McKNIGHT: I thought it was dead center. It looked like it hit dead center, I don't know how it missed. I knew it was in. It looked like somebody stuck their hand up there and knocked it out. Yeah, I thought I had made it.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yes.