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U.S. SENIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 30, 2017

Paul Simson

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q. Talk a little bit about the match today. 5 and 4. Nice way to do it given you have to go back out there in the afternoon.
PAUL SIMSON: Yeah, Matt didn't have his best game today. Made a few mistakes and I didn't make too many.

That was the difference. I only had one bogey, didn't I? Yeah. So you get one bogey and make a few birdies, it makes it tough on a guy.

He made three or four mistakes with approach shots and put himself in a bad spot. The greens are speeding up and getting firm. If you got on the wrong side of the hole and short-side yourself, you have to hit almost a perfect shot to recover.

That was the difference in the match. He had a few shots that were a little bit wayward and I was able to capitalize on it.

Q. What's the magic of match play for you? You've won this twice? Close to doing it again.
PAUL SIMSON: Well, you know, we don't say that. Got two matches left.

Q. Getting closer.
PAUL SIMSON: Closer, right. You know, you have to be very disciplined as far as staying out of what the other guy is doing. Couple times I found myself wanting to go over and see what kind of shot he had when I had some work to be done.

Play your own game; see what happens.

Q. When you see your opponent in match play is struggling like you said Matt was today, does that change your approach at all?
PAUL SIMSON: No. Just keep trying to hit good shots. Like here. I mean, I knew the green was real firm. It was fine if I was short, which is what ended up. He had a difficult shot out of the rough. Almost impossible to stop it. Had to stop 25 yards short of the green. Just went zooming through. No way to stop it.

The mistake was you get in the rough, you got to really be safe coming out or otherwise you leave yourself a real mess. If get in the fairway you'll have a lot better opportunity to make par around here.

Q. How fun is it?
PAUL SIMSON: It's fun. Winning is always fun. Matt is another good friend. We play against the Virginias and see them in a lot of the regional events. Fine player. Runner-up last year. I knew it would be a battle and he made it a little easier on me than I anticipated.

Q. Is your game different this year in any way? Doing something better?
PAUL SIMSON: No. You know, I real haven't had -- look at what happened last year. Guy makes a hole-in-one on me and I lose in 20 holes.

Interesting statistic that the young one has come up with, and it'll hold true again this year regardless if I win or not. Since 2008 I've won or the person that beat me was always in the finals.

Yeah, Vinny beat me. Yeah, Mike Bell beat me in '06. Just about every year, the winner or the runner-up has had to beat me.

Q. Interesting.
PAUL SIMSON: And I know it's true the last nine years because he went back through the statistics. That's an interesting thing. Yeah, I've got a new best friend. The putter is new since May.

Q. Odyssey?
PAUL SIMSON: Yeah, it's been pretty solid.

Q. Frank or John this afternoon. Are you familiar with either player?
PAUL SIMSON: I know Frank because he plays in a lot of mid-ams and he's from the metropolitan area of Boston.

You know, played in the Northeast Am, and so I know him by association. Fine player. Think I used his tickets one year to go see a Boston Red Sox game.

Nice fellow. I don't know the other guy. I don't think. Where is he from?

Q. San Antonio. When do you do to stay loose?
PAUL SIMSON: I'm probably going to go and just chill. Get in a chair and try not to get too cool. You know then an hour before match start getting ready.

Then go out and do it again. Got to arrange flight changes and car rental things.

Q. What do you mean?
PAUL SIMSON: Well, you know, we originally had this afternoon -- you got to make a choice when you buy tickets. I figured -- I certainly hoped to make match play and thought I would get through one round. The Twins are in town so last night we went and watched them.

So the best guess was that Wednesday afternoon, unless things were going really well, we may be headed home.

Q. I guess things are going well.
PAUL SIMSON: Things are going really well. And dealing with the airlines,whew.

Q. Nice hassle to have, though.
PAUL SIMSON: Nice hassle to have. We will take it. A lot the excited folks. Doc Redman won the Am, Scott Harvey still has a shot in the Mid-Am, and I have a shot here. That would really be something.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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