U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 1997

Bryce Molder

BRYCE MOLDER: All right. I started out with a good birdie on 1. Made a pretty long putt.

BRYCE MOLDER: It was about 30 feet. Got off to a good start. I hit it in the rough on 3 and kind of chopped around for a little while and made a bogey there. But turned around and made birdie on 4, about 10 feet or so. Then the next hole, let's see, par 5, the next one, I made a birdie on the next one. Made about a 10-footer. Made some pars coming around. Knocked it about 4 feet on 9 to make birdie. I made par on 10. And went to 11, par 5, and I knocked it to about 2 or 3 feet, I guess about 2 1/2 feet, and made that one. Made some pars for a little while and ended up 3-putting 16, so I made bogey. And then I knocked it about 2 1/2 feet on 17. And then on 18, I hit it in the bunker, in the fairway bunker, and had a chip out and ended up making bogey, so ended up at 3-under.

BRYCE MOLDER: It was tough to tell because I played the practice round, and I hit the ball pretty well, and I don't know what I, you know, what I shot in the practice round, but it was fairly high. So I didn't -- I didn't want to have a target score. I wanted to just kind of get out there and hopefully get off to a good start and try to be patient with this course. If you're not patient, you're in trouble. But I was fortunate to get off to a good start.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yes, sir. It's kind of funny. In the past, I've played pretty well in the qualifiers. I don't know if I just try to go out there and don't shoot a low number or I don't go out there and relax and play. But in the past, I've played pretty well in qualifying.

BRYCE MOLDER: I think it is, because you're trying to shoot a number just to get you in, and you don't know what that number is. So a lot of people go out there and try to shoot as low as they can, try to win it. Some people try to go out and make pars. Everybody, I think, takes it a little bit different. In this kind of situation, par's a great score. Just get in. If you play well and you make some putts, then that's great, too. I just go out there and hit as many decent shots, good shots as I can.

BRYCE MOLDER: Love the course. I played it the other day, and I was hitting it well. I thought this isn't too tough. Then I thought back, and I was hitting a lot of 3-, 4- and 5-irons in there. From the fairway, the greens look really, really small. They end up being bigger than they look, but they look small. It's a great test of golf.

BRYCE MOLDER: On 11, I had just a little 8-iron. I had the wind into me, had about 140 yards. I landed it real close to the hole, ended up 2 feet past it.

BRYCE MOLDER: 17, yes.

BRYCE MOLDER: That was 8-iron also. It was a little downwind also. Just a little punch again.

BRYCE MOLDER: You know, it really did. Those are the easy ones, I guess. You knock it in that close, and it makes it a little easy on yourself.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah.

BRYCE MOLDER: They didn't play quite so well last year. They were really young, and we're still going to be young, but hopefully I can come in and help some. We have a guy that redshirted this past year. He'll have four years. He's a great player. We should have a great chance of coming out on top if we all play like we should. It's all kind of a matter of playing well at the right time, I guess, in college.