U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 29, 1998

Tom McKnight

TOM McKNIGHT: What a day, unbelievable. It's hard to describe the emotions that I felt out there today, really.

TOM McKNIGHT: Being able to play in The Masters, and just -- that really hasn't sunk in yet, but it will.

TOM McKNIGHT: As much as you've heard and seen, to be there and experience it is just unbelievable. That's all they can say, is you can't describe how it feels being out there. So I get to tell that story hopefully before too long.

TOM McKNIGHT: I hit a pretty poor first shot -- I mean second shot into the green. I pulled it left and it put me in a tough putt. I hit it a little hard. And the greens are faster today than they have been. And I just missed a putt and ran it by a little bit. And actually hit a pretty good second putt I thought and it didn't break. I hate to start off that way, but I did.

TOM McKNIGHT: I hit two good shots on 7. Sergio had hit his drive in the trees, and hit it up -- hit it up short, I guess. And I just played a little bit to the right of the pin and hit it right where I was trying to and made a good putt. It was probably 15 or 20 feet.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah, I hit a real good iron shot. The PIP placement was tough, back in the right corner. And I was at a good distance, because it was enough to where I could hit the shot I wanted to hit and it felt like it was going to skip, and it skipped back toward the hole. And I made the putt.

TOM McKNIGHT: I think I actually had about -- maybe 190 to the hole. I hit a 4-iron. And the putt was probably no more than ten feet, I guess.

TOM McKNIGHT: That was really the first poor drive I hit in a while, and hit it right. And actually chipped it out in the fairway short of the green, maybe 40 yards or so. And Sergio had hit it in the first cut of the rough, but hit a poor second shot into the bunker and I made a good par saving putt there.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah, he made a great birdie.

TOM McKNIGHT: He's such a great player. He's got tons of talent, he's going to have a great future ahead of him. And there's no fear in him, he keeps coming. That's the reason you can't ever get complacent or comfortable, I don't care if you're five up. You've got to keep playing aggressive, because he's going to. You don't know when he may turnaround and make 4, 5 birdies in a row. As long as you keep playing your game and be aggressive and make some birdies yourself maybe you can turn the tables.

TOM McKNIGHT: He hit it over the green, made a great chip shot down. I hit a good putt there for birdie and thought I had a good chance of going, and it didn't break down into the hole. And then he didn't make his putt there for par.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, I've hit it every day.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah, my third shot -- my second shot I didn't hit a very good shot, I hit it into the rough on the right. Actually hit a pretty good third shot. I thought my distance was enough if it came out hot, I hit a 9-iron, it was probably maybe 140, and I felt like going up the hill into the slight easy breeze that I wasn't worried about hitting it over the green. And I hit it real solid and it came out and scooted when it hit the green, and I was in an impossible place. The grass was going the wrong way, I couldn't get a club on it, and I just failed to get it up-and-down.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah, he hit -- he hit a great chip shot, hit driver off the tee, and had a great chip shot and had a great up-and-down.

TOM McKNIGHT: That was probably the worst swing he made today. And that's easy to do that on that hole. You can get a little lazy and get ahead of it and leave it hanging out to the right and that's what he did. I made a good swing on the shot and hit it in there pretty close. And that was a real boost right there. And then birdie at 16 to go two up. I hit probably the best drive I hit all day on 16. And played it a little further left of the hole, to hit it close you really need to hit it right of the hole, and to win kind of bring it in the slope of the green. But I had just left of the hole and a little short. But made a good putt and Sergio lipped his out for birdie. And I think that was a real blow to him, for him not to make --

TOM McKNIGHT: 17 neither one of us hit a very good drive there, left it hanging right, both of us. I guess his turned out worst than mine, because he hit a tree, and it went further right, and he didn't get it out in play. That hole, you have to hit good shots. It's a tough driving hole, tough with a good drive. From where I was I was trying to keep my second shot in between the bunkers and lay it up short of the green, which I did, and try and get it up-and-down. And I figured where he was, he was going to have a very hard chance of making par and bogey is problem I the best he was going to do.

TOM McKNIGHT: I think every tournament I've gone to this summer that Henry has been there, we've been paired together. And it seems like probably every last round. We've always been within a shot or tied or whatever about every tournament, so we'll play at least one, maybe two rounds together in the tournament. And we've just got to know each other and be good friends.

TOM McKNIGHT: I met him either last year or maybe year before. But just seemed like from being paired, we just kind of hit it off and we've been good friends, and I'd be playing, and he'd be playing, and we'd see each other from four holes over, and he's saying, hey, Tom, from a hundred yards away, and we've become good friends.

TOM McKNIGHT: Some people call him Hank, some people call him Henry, and he says his friends call him Henry, tomorrow I may call him Hank, you know? (Laughter.) We just have a good time together. And it will be very comfortable. It's going to be enjoyable, I think it will be very competitive, I hope it will, from both of our stand points. But win or lose, we're going to have a good time.

TOM McKNIGHT: In amateur golf, probably -- I don't know. Every tournament that you go to you kind of feel this. Obviously this is the epitome, it doesn't get any better than this in amateur golf. I don't know, I guess the good Lord has kind of given me a calmness this week, and I've enjoyed myself. And I just haven't been that nervous. I'm nervous, but it's a good nervous. But I feel very comfortable out there and relaxed and been trying to enjoy the moment.

TOM McKNIGHT: Still awesome. I don't know what to say there, except I can't wait to go play, and I wish it was next week.

TOM McKNIGHT: No.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, I've never been there. I've been offered tickets or somebody wanted me to go down and play, and I said: I don't want to go until I can be in the tournament. Time has run out, I might never have gotten to go to Augusta.

TOM McKNIGHT: Sometimes you get tired of looking at their back all day. Otherwise, it's not really a problem. I'm out there playing Oak Hill, the golf course. And I try not to play any particular person or get caught up too much in watching somebody else. I'm trying to play my game and just play the hole. If he's out of position and something else, it may -- I may play a little differently at a particular situation, but overall I'm out there trying to play the golf course and play my game, and not worry about it. No two people hit it alike, some people hit it shorter and some people hit it longer. Some people hit it way longer like Hank does. I don't think anybody hits it further than he does. And it doesn't bother me, I'm used to it. He hits it by a lot of other people.

TOM McKNIGHT: It really doesn't -- it doesn't bother me. When you play with guys like Sergio, maybe Sergio is not that long, because he only gets it 25 or 30 yards by me. Hank hits it 75 yards by me. That's gravy. But it's fun watching those guys play, but when you get out and play in matches, you try to stay away of being in awe of concern shots, because there's probably a lot of things that I do better than Henry does, and that's why we're here. Because if distance was all, we wouldn't even show up tomorrow. But there's just a lot to the game. Not many guys hit it as far as he does and have the game he does. He has a great touch. It will make for a fun match, I hope.

TOM McKNIGHT: Winning tomorrow will take care of it. You have to take it one match at a time. When I came up here the first thing I wanted to do was qualify for matchplay. It was not easy getting to here. Every year it gets harder and harder. At the qualifying site that I was at Richmond it took 500 to make it on a good golf course. I don't know what's happening here. It's just the numbers and the quality of players are getting better. The lowest numbers may not be getting better, but the number of people getting there are. It's tough to get here. Once you're here you have to worry about getting in matchplay, and after that you take one match at a time.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, not at all.

TOM McKNIGHT: I don't know. I haven't really thought of it that way to be honest. He's just a nice guy and we get along. I don't know particularly why. It's hard not to like Hank.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, probably more like 30.

TOM McKNIGHT: McKnight Oil Company.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah.

TOM McKNIGHT: We deliver home heating oil and distribute Citco and Exxon gas lines, we have 17 convenience stores that we own and operate. A little bit here and there, several things, but that's the majority of it.

TOM McKNIGHT: In the summertime I play a lot. We have really good people working at the office, and are comfortable with the employees, and they do a great job. They're good fans. So I feel comfortable leaving. They're calling up to see how I'm doing, what's going on.

TOM McKNIGHT: I hit it short (laughter.) I hit a lot of fairways. I think I have a good short game. I think I drive the ball pretty good. When I'm playing well I think I'm a good driver. I may be shorter, but punt, pass and kick, I may be just as far, when they start going to the middle of the fairways, versus over in the trees somewhere sometimes. I've always been kind of a controlled player, try to hit fairways and greens, and when I don't, get it up-and-down.

TOM McKNIGHT: You're going to have to ask that again, I'm not sure I can answer that.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, I think it takes a lot of patience and a lot of perseverance. It's those that want it bad enough to keep trying and working to get there, to know what they want to do and do whatever it takes to get there, instead of hoping it gets there and hoping it will happen. But I've hit a lot of balls, I've played a lot of rounds, and I doubt if anybody here has probably hit anymore balls than I have. Probably because I'm so old. But I've done a lot of practicing through the years, I still spend a lot of time doing it.

TOM McKNIGHT: Uh-huh.

TOM McKNIGHT: We both just kind of looked at each other and said: Wouldn't it be great if we can meet each other in the finals? What a great situation that would be. I said: Let's be there. But we had our practice rounds set up before we came up here, that we were going to play together. And we played -- Hank and Trip and Duke Delcher, we had set up a practice round, and just the way it happened. I don't know what prompted the conversation, but we were just talking about wouldn't it be great if we could meet in the finals.

TOM McKNIGHT: The odds are not very good.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah, it really is amazing. Like I said, sometimes faith gets in the way of other things happening.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, not at this point. The way I feel now, I'm not ready to go hit the PGA TOUR by any means. There's too many good players, too many young guys, but when I'm -- I'm too old to think about that, and don't have the game to think about that. To be honest, I think I can play, but if I went out there I would want to play and be the best, that's not going to happen. Give Henry two years, he might. But, no, I enjoy amateur golf and if I did win tomorrow, I'd want to come back and win the next year.

TOM McKNIGHT: Actually I played -- it was probably a tournament I played in Florida and actually lost to Brad Bryant. That's been 20 some -- gosh, that was probably -- probably 20 years ago this year, maybe, or 18, 19 years ago, something like that.

TOM McKNIGHT: I played in Anheuser-Busch a couple of times. We got exempt for winning the Virginia amateur. I won the Virginia amateur three times. But we got exempt in the Anheuser-Busch.

TOM McKNIGHT: Up in the mountains of southwest Virginia. About 80 miles southwest of Roanoke.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, I hadn't gotten my card yet and it was a good opportunity -- my dad was thinking about getting out of the business or doing something -- he just really didn't want to grow the business. I felt like there was a good opportunity there. And I was starting a family, and I felt like that was a good opportunity to do something. I didn't plan ongoing back to Galax. I felt that was a good situation, and it's turned out good for me, and allowed me to play in these tournaments and stay competitive.

TOM McKNIGHT: Yeah. My other son caddied for me the practice rounds and the first two qualifying rounds, and he's in Florida right now trying to find a way to get back. We're trying to fly him up. He's going to school. Actually he's going to David Leadbetter Golf Academy. And he was supposed to get started. He was down there today, but he's going to jump ship and come back.

TOM McKNIGHT: Jay is down. And this is Tee.

TOM McKNIGHT: T-e-e. His name is Gene Thomas the Third.

TOM McKNIGHT: Well, I just want to go to the first tee. It's just fun for me. I don't know that playing 36 holes or 18 or whatever is to my advantage or disadvantage. I mean you could argue for either case that it would be to our advantage to play that. I don't know, it's just -- I'm going to try to go out there and play well tomorrow and hope he does, too, and hope we have a great match.

TOM McKNIGHT: No, I was 43 when I came, and I'm 44 when I go back, so time is going pretty fast. (Laughter.) But I don't feel like I'm old. I feel like I'm as young as they are. I'm looking around and playing kids that are younger than mine. So I just -- I guess you're as young as you feel, and I don't feel that old.

TOM McKNIGHT: Monday.