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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2005

Ryan Yip

ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

PETE KOWALSKI: We'd like to welcome Ryan Yip, a 1 up winner over Brian Harman, advancing to the quarterfinals. Two things to start: You played two matches today, and carried your bag the entire time. Give us a reason why and how you feel after doing that.

RYAN YIP: I just like sticking to my routine. It's nice to just carry my own bag and pull my own clubs out. I'm just real confident that way and not have anyone distract me or anything like that.

PETE KOWALSKI: How much fuel is left in the tank after doing 36 holes today?

RYAN YIP: I have a lot of fuel left. In college, we work out a lot. I feel like I'm in great shape. I don't think it will be a disadvantage at all.

PETE KOWALSKI: The 18th hole proved to be the deciding hole. You didn't hit it in the greatest spot but you ended up winning the hole. Talk us through that 1th hole if you would.

RYAN YIP: I tried to lean on one and came over the top of it, hooked it into the rough, just lucky to find it, and then that decision, I knew he wasn't in great shape but I should have walked over there and looked where he was, but I didn't. I just kind of laid it up and took my chances in front of the green making a par. Luckily, he didn't have the greatest lie over there and I was able to sneak away with a bogey.

PETE KOWALSKI: Would you consider your victory today an upset? I'm not going to try to take anything away from your win, but Brian Harman is a Walker Cup team member, a USGA Champion as a junior; would you say it was an upset?

RYAN YIP: Yes and no. I mean, this is a great tournament. Anyone who makes match play is obviously a great player. You have to go through 36 hole qualifying just to make it to the championship and another 36 holes of qualifying stroke play. Anyone who makes match play is obviously a great player.

Q. How many U.S. Amateurs now have you played in?

RYAN YIP: This is my first attempt at a U.S. Amateur, so this is my first one.

Q. Now anything surprising outside of the tee that you find and you must feel that 36 holes today you really had a job?

RYAN YIP: Sure did have a job today. The Canadian Amateur tournament is exactly like this one except minus the thousands of people.

So I mean, you can understand why Tiger Woods counts this as a major victory, because this feels like a major out here with, this media center and all of the people around, it really feels like a major atmosphere, and I've been to a major tournament before watching. You kind of get that feeling out there, just trying to grind your a way around and make pars, that's what major championships are about, just making pars.

Q. Two wins now today, two wins today, has it hit you yet that you are two steps away from playing for the United States Amateur crown?

RYAN YIP: No. I'm just taking it one step at a time and one match at a time. Hopefully that will happen, but I'm not looking that far ahead. I'm looking at my match tomorrow, how I can prepare and be ready for that match tomorrow.

Q. What about your game now? What was the strong part of your game today?

RYAN YIP: I'd say just staying patient and not getting overly aggressive out there and just trying to keep the ball in play, because it's very difficult out there. If you miss a fairway, it's a struggle to hit the greens because they are really firm and you need to spin to hold the greens.

Q. How did you end up at Kent State?

RYAN YIP: Actually I was playing Canadian junior tournament up in, I think it was New Brunswick and Darny Darret (ph), the assistant at the time, came up and he saw me playing out there. And then since a week later, I got a phone call from them and ever since then, I've been really happy with my decision of going there. I didn't have very many other choices because when I went to school, not many people knew about me and didn't know how great I was in high school or whatnot.

So I was kind of an unknown coming from Canada down here, but I'm really happy with my decision to go to Kent State. It's a great university. I'm happy to be playing under Herb Page, who is an excellent golf coach and is very underrated as a college golf coach. He's probably one of the best in America, if not the best. With the university he's done a great job for building a new facility out there, and it's a state of the art, 7,000 feet, indoor putting green, heat installed to the snow if it snows out there in the wintertime. So we're going to be a real class facility out there. Hopefully soon we're going to challenge for a national title.

Q. So much attention is paid to the Oklahoma States and the Floridas and the Georgias and the world and whatnot. Are you a representative of the caliber of play of the MAC?

RYAN YIP: Korey Mahoney is out there from Eastern Michigan, he plays in MAC. We're well represented out there and there's quality players in the MAC, that's for sure. Don't count us out.

Q. Can you talk about the level or depth of Canadian golf?

RYAN YIP: Canadian golf is getting a lot stronger. We just instituted Future Links a couple of years ago, and that's growing the game to all of the Juniors across Canada. We are starting to come out and show ourselves at these national tournaments like this in the United States. We're starting to get real deep and we've got a lot of talent in there. Richard Leep from Canada is out there, Mark Leon, J.C. Deacon. So there could be another Canadian walking in that door to this media room very shortly. We just instituted this year a national team where we have a national amateur team, I think it's eight or ten guys, and I'm a part of that. This year I've grown a lot from that team, and we've done a great job in Canada and we're going to have a lot more Canadians out there in the tournament. We're going to have a lot more great Canadian amateurs soon. I can see it; we've got a lot of great juniors out there.

Q. Can you be aggressive on this golf course? Is there any stretch out there, one, two or three holes where you can really be aggressive?

RYAN YIP: Yes and no. I mean, in the morning I was a lot more aggressive with my short irons. The greens were a bit softer, so you could get up there and try to spin a wedge and hold it. But in the afternoon I found that every time I tried to do that and it skipped too far, I had to throttle back, so I just started ended short of the hole and tried to let it run up a bit.

There's a lot of short holes out there, about 350 to 370 where you could get aggressive and try to make some birdies but then again you have to be careful because these greens are so severe, they are probably about 13 on the Stimp, 14, won't you say. I think be aggressive but you've got to be careful with the greens because they are so firm. You have to keep yourself on the right side of the hole to get a good birdie opportunity.

Q. How did you find 16?

RYAN YIP: 16, the par 4 up the hill, that's a great hole there. I mean, you can't hit really driver out there because the fairways are so firm it could run through into the rough and past. So I just tried to hit a 3 wood down there and I hit a 7 iron that landed on the green, it just skipped right through. I thought it was a good shot. That's a very penal hole there if you don't hit the green in two as I found out.

Q. You talked about you carrying your own bag but the other part of a caddie would be to help you read these greens and if you had a local caddie, one that's here at Merion, I would think that they would be helpful to do that, but you decided not to. Have these greens been difficult for you to read?

RYAN YIP: I think they are difficult for anyone, even the local caddie because the big thing on these degrees right now is speed control. If you control your speed, you can pick the right line. You can pick the line but if you don't pick the right speed from the line you pick you have to be very precise, especially when they are up to 13 on the Stimpmeter.

PETE KOWALSKI: Do you have family with you here at the Amateur?

RYAN YIP: No, I'm by myself here out here. They came to the Canadian Amateur last week. They had to pick and choose. The Canadian Amateur, it's a lot easier on the wallet than coming down to the U.S. Amateur. I'm sure they are rooting me on; just like to say hi to them.

PETE KOWALSKI: From Canada, are you all bonding together? There's quite a few left in the field, are you spending time together?

RYAN YIP: Yeah, we go out there and we root each other on and we say hi to each other and just hope we all do well.

Q. How did you do at the Canadian last week?

RYAN YIP: I lost to Richard Scott in the second round. It was a good match; he beat me 2&1.

PETE KOWALSKI: Congratulations.

RYAN YIP: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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