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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2016

Dylan Meyer

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

THE MODERATOR: Here with Dylan Meyer who had a great run this week. Was it maybe a tough afternoon, maybe not the way you expected it to turn out or hoped to turn out, but what are you taking away from this week?

DYLAN MEYER: You know, I need to practice on my putting, again. It was good all through the week and at the Western Am, it was the same way. But today I just didn't make any putts. So tomorrow, get back on the grind and start practicing again.

I mean, Nick played a great round today. After the break, he didn't miss a shot. Hats off to him and the Michigan fans out there. They were pretty respectful for most of the day and it's awesome seeing everyone out here.

The MODERATOR: Going back to the 14th, which is where maybe things turned around a little bit and you both were over the green, and he had the great chip-in and you were so close. Tell me about that hole and how things turned from there.

DYLAN MEYER: You know, I hit a pretty good second shot in there. It came off pretty hot off the green. Rolled over the back. I was talking to my caddie, Nate, and I said, "You've got to expect that he's going to make this shot," and what do you know, he makes the shot.

We were deciding on if we were going to putt it or chip it at that point, and at that point, I was like, I have to chip it and try to chip it in. He played a great shot, momentum turned to his side, and he ended up winning a mess of holes.

Q. Not that the crowd was against you, but you mentioned the Michigan guys out there. What was that like playing with a real pro Michigan crowd? Did it affect you later on?
DYLAN MEYER: We dealt with it at the NCAAs with Oregon. That was magnified ten times more because it was the NCAAs. Out here it's not really a team event, but you felt that team atmosphere, kind of that Big Ten rivalry. It was cool especially for me, and I would say Nick would think that was awesome, because he's got the fan love out here. So it was pretty cool.

Q. The weather break, did that have any effect on momentum?
DYLAN MEYER: Yeah, it did. He came out hot and he came out hitting the ball good. I came out kind of sloppy, didn't really focus. Didn't narrow myself down until No. 12. I made a lot of sloppy mistakes that I shouldn't have. Missed a couple putts, and I missed the putt on 12 that I shouldn't have, which I've been making them all week.

Today just wasn't my day on that back nine and on the break, so hats off to Nick like I said.

Q. After your victory at the Western and then your performance this week, what can you take away from this summer as you move forward in your career at Illinois?
DYLAN MEYER: I'm getting better. I think Coach is going to be fairly happy. I'm happy with myself but we're not satisfied. There's still work to go. I didn't win, so obviously there's a lot of work to go into this.

I'm excited to get in with the guys. These new freshmen that we have coming in, it's going to be an exciting fall and an exciting year for us. I'm sure Coach feels the same way.

Q. Along those same lines, how much better are you now than you were three weeks ago?
DYLAN MEYER: I wouldn't say I'm much better. It just actually came together. I think that's the whole consensus, because everything during the middle of the summer was hit the ball good, didn't make my putts; made all my putts, didn't hit the ball good. Finally this last month has been fairly good of everything coming together.

Q. What sort of things do you think about accomplishing as you go forward now, based on what happened over the last three weeks?
DYLAN MEYER: You know, it's kind of day-to-day. Of course you want to win golf tournaments. You want to play good golf. But consistently being in the Top-10, the top 5, and playing good golf through each and every week, different golf courses, it shows you're getting better and your strategy that you have approaching a golf course such at Oakland Hills or any event that we play, it just proves that you can be there every week and that's nice to feel.

Q. What's it like to play a course like Oakland Hills under these conditions in a major championship? What do you learn from that experience?
DYLAN MEYER: You know, you learn more about yourself and how much you can grind and how much heart that you truly have. And being able to be a sportsman out there, too, is a whole part of it. Especially with these Michigan fans.

They say "Go Blue!" and stuff like that, I mean, I could have turned around and said something to them. There's a couple kids I know that would do that. There's some of those things that you learn about yourself. Well, I'm starting to grow up and understand how things go out here.

Q. Playing in such a special event like this, the highs, the lows, what can you take from this to further your career?
DYLAN MEYER: You know, just keep listening to coach, Coach Small. He's doing everything right, and so far, my game's getting better and it's propelling me forward. He's produced a lot of pros and that's where I want to be as I play professional golf.

It's sad that I didn't get any of those exemptions after getting to the final match, but hopefully Nick gets those and gets to experience everything. Just keep growing and keep learning about people. That's the whole fun thing about it.

Q. You said that there were some people, you knew some players who might have responded, might have reacted to some of the things that maybe you heard. What is it about you that didn't allow you to react: Your personality, your upbringing? How do you explain the fact that you were more even keeled and on?
DYLAN MEYER: I keep it inside. It fires me up; I want to play good and I want to play better. I'd rather have my clubs do the talking than me do the talking, because karma comes around and gets somebody eventually. So I don't want to say anything, like, oh, well, that's why I missed that 6-footer, is because I said that. I'd rather let my clubs do the talking.

Q. Did you do Nick before this week? Were you surprised at all, I know you think he's an excellent player, but were you surprised to see him go this far?
DYLAN MEYER: You know, we played together in a couple junior tournaments whenever we both were junior golfers. I've seen him at the Big Ten this past year. Nick's a good player. He's a great kid and I enjoy being around him. He's a funny guy. He was always good; even when he was down, we were still talking. I was down, we were still talking. So it was kind of a good hand-in-hand thing. Because some kids, you get them down, they stop talking to you. But you get them up, they are going to love talking to you. I've enjoyed my time with him and I hope him all the best.

Q. Can you talk about the stretch, just a lot of fireworks it seemed, from 12 to 14. And then I heard you on FOX talk about the approach to these match-play events, where you told yourself, you're a good match play player. Was it as simple as kind of flipping that switch and having a different mentality?
DYLAN MEYER: You've just got to be mentally strong and that's what Coach preaches all the time at school. You can't be weak at any moment in time, because if we are, I need to go to a different program, if that's what I'm going to do, and I'm going to be weeded out pretty fast if I want to turn professional. If I want to play professional golf, I've got to be mentally strong.

Q. What was that stretch like for you?
DYLAN MEYER: Fun. It seemed stressful to everyone else and everyone thought, oh, he's struggling, everyone's struggling for a hole here, a hole there. But it was just fun going back and forth. I think that's what makes match play fun and awesome.

Being able to do that for TV is something good for the viewers. I'm sure they like it.

Q. You've always kind of been told, you don't hit it far enough, you don't hit it straight enough, you don't putt well enough. You took down Horsefield twice in three weeks, the No. 2 ranked player in the world and then you beat the medalist here, and then you lose to the player ranked 1,946th. Do you see an irony in that at all?
DYLAN MEYER: You know, you look on the PGA TOUR and you look at those guys, each and every week, Jason Day and all the guys are up there. But you get the one guy that's the 200-something player in the world, he gets hot. Well, this is Nick's week and he's hot. It's good for him and like I said, I really enjoy watching him play golf. He's got a good game and I hope he makes it to the finals.

Q. What's next for you? Where do you go from him?
DYLAN MEYER: First day of classes.

Q. What's the first tournament of the year?
DYLAN MEYER: I think we play at would have run. Indicate it's I can't in a's event and then we have our home event at Olympia Fields.

Q. Bet you're looking forward to getting back into that rhythm?
DYLAN MEYER: Definitely am.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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