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U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 5, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

MIKE TROSTEL: Scott Harvey, Todd Mitchell, congratulations, a 3-2 victory today over Zach Atkinson and James Edmondson. Five birdies, one bogey out there, guys, can you talk a little bit about the match? It seems you traded some blows in the front, and you talked about a really important par putt you made on the 12th hole that kind of kept you going?

SCOTT HARVEY: You know, yeah, number 12 was really important. We were All Square at that time, I think, weren't we? Yeah. They were already in, or no-no, they had a birdie putt still, and we both had 8-footers for par I believe it was, and Todd rolled it right in the middle. Match Play, you get those momentum moments, and you're either gaining or you're falling behind and Todd knocked it in, kept the momentum going. We played solid today too, lot of birdies. We both had a lot of birdie putts, and I think that's key at an event like this.

Q. You had no fives on the card today. Still All Square, and then you win 14, 15, and great birdie putt on 16. So take us through that stretch of holes, 14, 15, and 16, if you could, Todd?
TODD MITCHELL: Well, I'd even go to 13. I had a really good looking birdie. I just pulled it just enough so that it wouldn't go in, and that kind of got me going a little bit saying I had a chance here. This is something that needed to go down, and it didn't. And he hits a really good shot on the next hole about the same distance, about 8 feet, and he rolls it right in the middle. Then on 15 I had a shot that actually I thought was on the green and it rolled off right against the rough. I used a sand wedge. We had a similar putt by our opponents this morning in about the same area, and we had a really good read on it. Fortunately enough, I don't hit that shot very often. I just bladed wedge and hit it perfectly and it rolled right in the middle.

Q. How far would you say that one was?
TODD MITCHELL: 18 feet. Yeah. And then, I mean, his putt on the last hole, I mean, it would have gone in, a thimble. Once again, we had it read right. He had to hit a really good shot just to get it to where it was at. It was straight downwind and the pin was tucked. The greens are now firming up.

SCOTT HARVEY: They're firming up daily, yeah, big time.

Q. You talked about you had the read right. It seemed you worked together a lot on the reads. Talk about that team work and working together on some pretty tough greens out there?
SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah, like Todd said. We talk almost every single shot throughout this whole tournament. It gives the other one confidence, and in unit play, that's part of the event, right? Sharing it with someone else, I mean, I love it.

Q. You guys have a lot of experience playing in these sort of championships both into your 30s. Does that help when you're grinding out a close match, when you never led in that first round match winning 19 holes, and then this afternoon when it was pretty close, All Square through 13, do you feel like that experience helps you guys later on?
TODD MITCHELL: It doesn't hurt, for sure. It definitely doesn't hurt. We're both experienced in this type of format in Match Play. It changes a little bit just because of you have a partner, and the other team has two individuals as well. I think we're just kind of going with -- I mean, we don't really have any set plans or anything like that. We're just kind of staying in the moment and trying to do what's best at that time. I know you hear guys say it all the time, and you can call it clichÃ© or whatever, but really, I mean, you don't want to get ahead of yourself and think about the next hole or the next anything. This golf course is so hard, and whether you're driving the fairway or driving the rough, it's hard. It's incredibly difficult to get the ball around the hole. If you hit good shots, you're rewarded, and if you hit bad ones, it doesn't normally work out too well.

Q. Being in here a little bit and watching you on FOX, did anything go through your mind watching it on TV? Were you talking about it with friends at home or just kind of playing your own game?
TODD MITCHELL: Other than seeing the people screwing around, I didn't really --

SCOTT HARVEY: No, I never thought about it. My wife text me before we start. In between matches she was like we'll be watching, me and Cameron will be watching. Other than that I've been doing interviews out there afterwards, but during the round you don't think of anything like that.

Q. Talk about how hard the golf course is? Mentally it's hard. Where does fatigue set in as far as having another long day tomorrow?
TODD MITCHELL: Well, it's funny, we were in our hotel room at what, like 7:15 last night?

SCOTT HARVEY: At the latest. Laying in bed. I'm tired.

TODD MITCHELL: I talked to my wife and I said, we're in separate beds, but we're both under the covers and it's like 7:08. I said I've never done this before. We're getting lots of sleep, you know. We'll just go in after this and get a bite to eat, relax. We talk a little bit about the day. We don't talk a whole lot about it. Last night we were watching the Bulls on TV.

SCOTT HARVEY: We're getting away. We're getting away from it.

Q. Scott, tomorrow you play Sherrill Britt and Greg Earnhardt. You share a hometown of Greensboro?
SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah, I've played with Sherrill and Greg a lot in the same tournaments and just playing around. It's pretty funny that we're all the way across the country getting to play together. I think it's pretty cool.

Q. What do you know about their games?
SCOTT HARVEY: They're both good players, really good players. It will take some good golf to beat them. But all you can do is just come out and show up. In Match Play you don't ever want to play anybody that you know just because you don't want to send them home, but you don't want to go home yourself either.

TODD MITCHELL: I don't want to go home.

SCOTT HARVEY: No.

Q. Speak to the experience of the week as it relates to your expectations? Not so much how you've played and how far you've advanced, but just the totality of the experience?
SCOTT HARVEY: You know, for me like we're talking about before, you get to share the experience with somebody. The course strategy and your warm-up, and reading putts and all that. It's just 99% of golf is just by yourself, and that's the neat thing about this event. You're sharing everything with somebody, and it's a lot of fun.

TODD MITCHELL: I know Scott probably won't agree with me because he had such a long week and great experience last year in the Mid Am, and I had a run in 2008 in Milwaukee that was -- I mean, I remember that like it was yesterday and how much fun it was. Yet, I'm enjoying this way more than I did in Milwaukee. I mean, it's not so stressful. I mean, Match Play individually, I mean you can burn yourself out. I mean, it seeps like a short week, but it's very long. This, the whole last 18 or last 16 holes of the last match, I never thought, man, these hills are big. The wind is blowing too hard, nothing like that. It's so much fun.

SCOTT HARVEY: The whole dynamic.

TODD MITCHELL: It's very enjoyable.

SCOTT HARVEY: The whole dynamic is just different. It's really cool. Like Todd said before, I think it could easily become the most popular USGA event.

Q. The two of you met through Mid Ams?
TODD MITCHELL: We met through the USGA State team, I think it was 2010 at Galloway National or something, New Jersey? Atlantic City, yeah, exactly, Atlantic City. Played a practice round together. We actually played and then we got paired together.

SCOTT HARVEY: Yeah. Then we got paired together. Kept in touch and talk all the time. We don't really like each other. No, I'm just kidding. No, we've become good friends. It's another example of how golf can bring people together.

TODD MITCHELL: I mean, we live 12 hours away by car, and we probably talked leading up to this four or five times a week.

SCOTT HARVEY: Right.

TODD MITCHELL: Not even really about this tournament, just what's going on.

SCOTT HARVEY: That's right.

Q. Looking at the groups that want to advance to the semifinals, those guys have a lot of chops when it comes to USGA Championships. That's probably not a coincidence, right?
SCOTT HARVEY: You know, it's hard. I don't know how to answer that. In team Match Play, I mean, anything can happen to anyone. But at the same time, it's probably not a coincidence. I don't know. I don't know how to answer that. That's a good question.

Q. You guys have already developed a skill of being in the moment. That's not something that's simple to do. In a competitive situation it's very difficult. I have no idea a guy like myself, but you guys have mastered that. To be able to do it as the stage gets more important as the matches go on. It's not something that everybody has. I'm just asking has that developed through your experience in USGA Championships, which is a caldron of your categories?
TODD MITCHELL: I think it allows you to stay patient and not press. Even the first match when we went 19 holes and we were down late, I never felt like we were going to lose that match, ever.

SCOTT HARVEY: Never had that panic moment.

TODD MITCHELL: No, we're like 1 down with 2 to go, and we need to do something now. We just played our own games and, you know, talked everything through, and it could have been the third hole of the match. That match we birdied the last three holes too to get to extra holes. We're experienced in that regard, and I think we don't, you know, get too ahead of ourselves or panic too much.

SCOTT HARVEY: Expecting the unexpected and never really get that shock in your system.

TODD MITCHELL: Right.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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