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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2016

Curtis Luck

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Q. You played a guy named Cameron Young who's got a little bit of a USGA pedigree. How were you able to handle him so easily?
CURTIS LUCK: Well, I just -- I actually know Cameron pretty well, so he was nice to play with, obviously, a friend. That always makes it a bit more enjoyable out there. But I didn't make a whole lot of errors. I probably made one bogey, I think, out there, which that's pretty good going on a course this tough. I made a few birdies to go with that.

I just don't think I did much wrong, to be honest, yeah. And he probably just hit a couple of shots that weren't up to his usual standard I'd say.

Q. Was that the way you wanted to play the U.S. Amateur, you want to absolutely limit your mistakes and just keep --
CURTIS LUCK: Yeah, exactly. These courses come down to strategy at the end of the day, and if you can miss it in the right spots all day and make up-and-downs and whatever, but basically it means that you're going to be pretty close to winning a lot of matches, because as I said, it's a super tough golf course, so it does require lots of pars, a few birdies, with the way they're setting it up, because they are putting some tees forward and some good pins out there for those birdies. Yeah, the course is playing awesome.

Q. You won 9, 10 and 11 in a row to kind of break away. What did you do on those three holes?
CURTIS LUCK: As I said, I didn't really do anything particularly wrong. I just hit middle of the green on 9, two-putted for par, and Cam hit it in the not the best area around the green. And then I hit it to about a foot on 10 out of the rough, so that was a pick-up birdie.

Q. What was the club and yardage there?
CURTIS LUCK: I was in the rough, and I had about 145 yards, but I had this really thick, juicy lie, so I actually just ripped it with a 7-iron and it came out top spinning and landed just short and rolled up to about a foot, so it was kind of a bit of a guessing game, but it worked out my way.

And then 11, I actually got pretty unlucky with the lie I drew in the rough. I was kind of nearly standing in the bunker playing out of it. But I just managed to sneak one up there on the green, and unfortunately for Cam, he three-putted, and I just kind of two-putted and walked off the hole.

Q. And then you birdied 13 and 14 to close it out?
CURTIS LUCK: Yeah, I just hit it close, and basically the holes were given. Yeah, it was a good way to finish. Really strong. Yeah, happy with that.

Q. There's been quite an influence of Australian golfers who are doing well in USGA events coming over here. Do you attribute that to anything in particular?
CURTIS LUCK: I just think they're very good at telling us how hard we need to work, and that's not anybody in particular, I think that's just our coaches and our supporting groups like our strength and conditioning and our physios. I think they're really good at driving into us how hard we've got to work and how well we've got to train to obviously compete at the next level, which is playing professionally. And so I think that's really making us more ready in these big amateur events.

Yeah, I'd say I think we've got really good teams, and I would say, too, we're generally very hard-working. Not saying that anyone isn't, but that's something I do notice is the Aussies do work very hard.

Q. Was there any particular golfer from Australia that came over here and had success that ignited the fire where everyone wants to come over here now?
CURTIS LUCK: I'm not sure about that. Like for me personally, Brady Watt is a really good friend, and he had a massive string of events in the Southern Hemisphere I think between 2013 and 2014, which I thought was unbelievable, and I think that probably spurred me on a little bit personally. But yeah, I wouldn't say there's anyone in particular -- I mean, Oliver Goss obviously making the final of this event and going on to play the Masters and making the cut, leading Am, that's another great one. I think we watched that and go, that's where we want to be obviously before we turn pro.

Yeah, you could say there's a couple of guys, but I think we all have learnt with these great events that you guys hold here, there's great rewards up for offer at the end of the tournament. So yeah, I think over time it's just kind of -- people have decided that this is the place to play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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