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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 17, 2015

Ryan Ruffels

Olympia Fields, Illinois

Q. I've got Ryan Ruffels who shot 66 at the North Course. Quite a good round of golf. No bogeys. Tell us what went right today.
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I kind of kept the ball in the fairway, which is crucial, because that rough is starting to get really, really long, and the bunkers you can't get to the green from. I think I only missed two fairways today, which was nice. It's a demanding course off the tee, and demanding course all the way to the green. It's long, and there's not many par-5s. I did well to kind of scramble when I needed to and hit the good shots when I needed to, too.

Q. Did you see a good round coming from your preparations?
RYAN RUFFELS: Not at all, to be honest. I had one of the worst warmups I've ever had this morning. Yeah, just couldn't do anything. I was catching shots fat, I couldn't hit a draw. I just kind of didn't know what to expect today, and I got out there and I just started focusing less on golf swing and more on hitting golf shots and kind of just eased my way into the round a little bit. Once I started to get in a rhythm I really started to hit the ball well. It's funny how golf works like that, a bad warmup and I've had one of my best kind of ball-striking and putting rounds so far this year.

Q. We kidded before we started talking here about Jason Day winning the PGA and good golf by Australians. Is he a guy you've kind of followed and look up to, or what's your golf inspiration from the pros in Australia, Adam Scott, et cetera?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, definitely. I played with Jason obviously at the Canadian Open. I got a start there and I played a practice round with him. He obviously won that week and then won yesterday. He's great for Australian golf. I think he's kind of -- Adam Scott, also, but I think even Jason, he's a little bit younger, he's more relatable to guys my age, and just he was due to win a major at some point. It was a matter of when, not a matter of if he was going to. It was great to see him win yesterday, and I guess it's a little bit of inspiration because he pretty much came the same pathway as I did. He won the Australian Juniors coming up. I've been able to do that, and he's gone through the same system that I'm playing now. It would be cool to see if I could maybe continue on that pathway.

Q. You got in through your exemption with the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Probably wouldn't have tried to qualify if you hadn't gotten that exemption; is that probably true?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I've been stuck around 10 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings for a while. I'm kind of between 12 and 8. I've not moved too much. I had a fair idea I was just going to fall into that category. It was going to be hard to fall 40 spots as long as I played half decent. I knew at the start of the year if I just kind of played okay that I'd get into this event, which is obviously the biggest event that we play all year, so I was able to prepare for it that way. My coach from Australia is over here for the week, and so I was able to organize that, and we're really doing some good work this week to try and get in form not only today but for the rest of the week. It's a long week if we keep playing the way we want to.

Q. How long have you been in the U.S.? Did you play anything else in advance?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I've been in the UK for six weeks before this, played a bunch of amateur tournaments over there. Came over here early July, I played the RBC Canadian Open, then I played the Western Amateur last week, and then the U.S. Amateur now, so I've played three events over here and four or five in Europe.

Q. The birdie putts that you had today, did you hit it close or did you make some bombs?
RYAN RUFFELS: No, they were all outside 10 feet on my birdie putts. I holed about a 10-footer, a 12-footer, a 35-footer, and I think a 20-footer. Putter feels really good. I made a lot of kind of 10- to 12-foot par putts, too, which is big just to keep a bit of momentum going because you feel like around the North Course, which is so hard, if you drop one, it's not -- it's very easy to drop one on the next, too, and it kind of just rolls on from there. So the more you can make a save, the better.

Q. Do you circle the U.S. Amateur on your calendar as an event you want to play in and play well in?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, definitely. Every USGA event that we get a chance to play in -- I've played in a few U.S. Juniors, played in the U.S. Amateur last year, so it's always the biggest event because obviously at the end there if you can make it to the final, they've got a big prize on the line there if you can do that. Everyone as much as they say they don't want to think about it, they're thinking about that. It would be cool to do that and be able to play at Augusta and all that kind of stuff. So it is there, but you've got to focus each round at a time. I've prepared for this tournament for a long time now. I've known this is the one I wanted to win, and I kind of feel like I've done the steps that I need to to play well at this stage, yeah.

Q. How about the fact that you got a really good score on the North Course, and does the South Course fit your eye? Do you feel like you've got another good round? You've got a little pressure off you, too, because making it to match play is what everybody wants to do.
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I've changed my mentality a little bit in these stroke play to match play things. It used to always be, geez, I was going to make the top 64 and it restarts from there, and that's fine, but it's hard when you're just trying to make the top 64. I feel like you've got to try and win the stroke play. If you can try and get yourself in contention in the stroke play, then a bad week is going to be 40th or 50th. But if you try and just middle of the field, try and get 30th, 40th, then a bad week is going to be outside that top 64. I mean, the South Course, it's completely different to the North. Not many drivers off the tee. There's a lot of 3-woods. There's a lot of irons off the tee. You've really got to think your way around it. But again, it's a brutal course.

I mean, if I play like I did today, I feel like I can get another score out there, but I'm just going to have to go out there and try and hit the shots when I need to and make a few putts, and we'll see where that gets me tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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