U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 2001

Manuel Merizalde

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Okay. About the match this afternoon?

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Okay. Well, before the match, I mean, Nick Watney is a guy that has been playing really well for the last six months. So I knew he wasn't going to give me any holes or anything easy. So I knew I had to play really well. I was able to make four birdies on the round. And I didn't make any bogeys. So, I mean, it was a pretty solid round. And even though I played that well, I wasn't able to win on those 18 holes and we had to go out and play. And I just gave my chance to make a four, and he hit his driver left and in the left rough, which wasn't a very good spot. So there is where the match ended.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: It's definitely really big, I know. Everybody at my country club, the caddies, the golf pros, they were all together watching the tournament. So I know everybody down there is rooting for me, and, hopefully, I'm not going to let them down and just keep playing as well as I've been doing for these last couple days.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Well, I've just had a couple swing thoughts that I have, that they have helped me to take the pressure off. I'm not really thinking where I want to hit the ball. I'm just thinking on the swing thoughts that I have to do. And I know that if I do them well, the ball is going to go straight or right or left, however I want it to. So I think that focusing on my golf swing has helped me take off some pressure off the matches that I've been playing.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Well, we could say yes, because I haven't been playing well at all for the last seven months. I've been doing some changes on my swing. I just started working with a teacher just 7 months ago. And we have been doing a lot of changes. And they haven't been easy. But I knew that if I was going to be able to accomplish that swing that we're building, it's going to be good and I'm going to perform good. So, hopefully, it's going to keep getting better too.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: I think that just the way I hit my irons, basically. I mean my driver too. Even though I haven't been hitting it very well in this tournament, my driver, I've been kind of wild. I've been kind of like a windshield wiper, right and left a little bit. But I will say probably my iron game and my putting has been much better. I was in a slump, and it seems that whenever you're in a slump like that, nothing seems to go well for you. And you keep trying harder and harder, but it just won't happen. So I think everything is coming back and I'm excited about it.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Well, I would like to have some people, some family up here with me. But I'm kind of used to that. I've been playing in the States for three years now. And I never had anybody watch me at any tournament. But it's just fine because I know everybody down in Columbia is watching me and stuff. So more than in any other tournament. So that I like a lot.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Well, this shirt is from the Columbian Federation. And there was a guy that came here, he's one of the directors of the Federation and he came up here to caddy for Camilo Villegas and brought a couple shirts, and we said we're going to try to use them all the time, we have two. So I've been able to wash one and then wear the other one the same day.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: The hat is the same. Actually, one guy today said, Go Gators. He probably thought I was from Florida.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Well, if the other one is not wet tomorrow, yeah, I'll wear it.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Not very much at all because we don't have public golf courses, only private. So you have to be a member of a country club to be able to play golf. And, you know, Columbia is not a very rich country, so not too many people have the opportunity that I have to play golf.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: When I was eight years old. So that's about 14 years ago.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Yeah. I could say, people in Columbia, they probably think that the elite are the ones that play golf. Nobody else.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: I didn't really see the U.S. Junior, but I saw her at the U.S. Amateur. But that's awesome really for South America. Because, I mean, nobody else besides Marisa Baena has done as well as this girl and, hopefully, me.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: No, he's just a friend. The guy that is caddying for Villegas, he came up here with him. And he said, I'm not going to be doing anything besides going to the mall, so I can carry your clubs.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: He's pretty good. Actually, he's not caddying for me tomorrow because he's got to go back home to qualify for Nationals, the Junior Nationals. Hopefully he'll make it and not just leave me here and not make it.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: I don't know yet. I got to figure that out. We will see. Hopefully I'm going to Camilo to caddy for me. He's a buddy, yeah.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Yeah, I know. Actually I think that I went to Japan to play world tournament there once. And, actually, their team were the ones that won the tournament. So I kind of knew who he was, so I don't know anything about his game, though, but Japanese, he's got to be good.

MANUEL MERIZALDE: Thank you.