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U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 23, 2018Cole HammerGarrett BarberTequesta, Florida Q. These are mind-numbing. Just give me your thoughts about how well you guys performed this week. COLE HAMMER: It was incredible. Really the best way to put it is we just ham and egged it the entire time. Whoever wasn't in the hole, the other person was and had a look at birdie, and then when we had two looks at birdie, it seemed like almost always one of them went in. We hit the ball well but for, I don't know, a couple holes here and there. Just -- I don't know, we just paired really well together. The camaraderie out there was really good, and I think that's a big thing that got us through. GARRETT BARBER: Yeah, we were fortunate that both of us were playing pretty well coming in, so that helped a lot and gave us a lot of confidence. But yeah, we just -- if I was ever in trouble, Cole was in the fairway or vice versa. So that helped a lot, yeah. Q. I was talking to Scott Harvey before the championship started. He goes, I didn't see any birdies out here. You guys obviously figured that out pretty quickly. COLE HAMMER: Yeah, I think the rain helped -- the greens weren't like firm. They weren't soft but they weren't firm just because of all the rain. I mean, they were perfect but they weren't firm, so I think that led to a lot of birdies for us because we were able to take advantage of our shorter clubs into the greens than our opponents, and from there, the greens were so pure that we just made so many putts. I think at the beginning of the week, if the rain hadn't come, it would have been a little more difficult to make as many birdies as we did, but still, we rolled the ball well this week. We made a lot of putts? Q. How about your thoughts, you guys are now USGA champions. At the end of the year a plaque is going to go up in the museum. You guys are going to be on it. You guys are going to be on that trophy forever. Just put that into words. I know you guys have played USGA championships before. Put into words what it means to be a national champion. GARRETT BARBER: Pretty cool. I mean, the USGA, everybody knows it's a world-class organization, the best tournaments around the world. It means so much to be on that wall and in that museum. I can't really put it into words. COLE HAMMER: Same here. Growing up watching U.S. Opens and U.S. Ams on TV, I've just always known that being a USGA champion is something that I desperately want, and to finally do it, it feels incredible, feels as good if not better than I thought it would, and especially to be able to do it with Garrett. It's really cool to be able to share this moment, and I'm sure we'll look back on this for a long time. Q. I know you guys have probably been friends for a while playing junior golf, but I know you played together at the Junior Presidents Cup last year. Is that where the friendship kind of took off? COLE HAMMER: We actually signed up for this before we played in that. But we made sure to play in that together because -- in preparation for this and just because we knew we'd be a good team. We actually played alternate-shot together there, and we actually did really well -- Q. 3 & 2? COLE HAMMER: Yeah, it seemed like it wasn't even that difficult for us. We just figured four-ball would be that much easier. Q. How about some of the shots in the championship match? I guess you chipped in on 3, and then -- how far was the chip? COLE HAMMER: The chip was probably 25, 30 feet. Garrett had just lipped his chip out, went about six feet by, so I was trying to get it close so we could get par. But they had just chipped in on 2 to take away our lead after No. 1, and the chip-in on 3 was huge. It took away all their momentum? Q. And then your shot on 6, the ball was embedded, I guess, so you got a drop, but where you were -- I know you made clean contact, but to get that ball to come and check up and go off the backstop and come back down, that's like a one-in-a-million shot for some people. COLE HAMMER: The only reason I was able to get it close is because there was a backstop. It would have been -- I would have been hard-pressed to nip it off of it and stop it short of the hole. I knew I had the backstop there. I had a good lie off the drop even though I was in the pine needles, and it worked out just the way I wanted it to. Q. You knew about the backstop there? COLE HAMMER: Yeah, I did. I was trying to do it. I don't think I would have -- it wouldn't have been smart to not use it with Garrett not in a good spot in the bunker. Q. And then 13, I don't know what iron you hit in there -- GARRETT BARBER: 4. Q. From? GARRETT BARBER: 235. Q. Talk about that shot. Those guys back there were like, oh, my God, impressive. GARRETT BARBER: Yeah, Cole did not want me to hit 4-iron. He didn't think I could get it there. I was like, I got it. So I hit it hard, hit pretty much a perfect shot, just landed in between the flag and the bunker. It was perfect. Yeah, it was a crazy shot. I'm fortunate they conceded it. COLE HAMMER: You would have made it, but it made a little -- Q. I mean, it was three feet. COLE HAMMER: It was a little slider, though. I was going to go for it, I had so much of a birdie putt, so he would have been able to jam it in the back. Q. And then your shot on 8, what did you have? That was a tough shot into the wind. COLE HAMMER: Yeah, it was 167 uphill into the wind, so I hit 6-iron and I tugged it a little bit, didn't think it was going to get there, and I was like, oh, get halfway there, and it ended up four feet maybe, and then that was big. That was a good turning point in the match to go 2-up there. That was important because we had the honor on 9, and I hit another one close and put some pressure on them. Q. Where do you guys go from here? GARRETT BARBER: Sunnehanna. Q. Both you guys are kind of right on that fringe of the U.S. Am exemption? COLE HAMMER: So close. Q. You don't get any points for this? COLE HAMMER: I know, this is just pride. Q. I don't make those decisions. COLE HAMMER: Yeah, we're close. If we don't make that first cutoff, that new cutoff in early August might help us since that cutoff is coming up pretty soon. But we're really hoping that we see Pebble. GARRETT BARBER: Yeah. Q. And obviously this event goes to Bandon Dunes next year. Do you think you guys can squeeze it in with college? COLE HAMMER: Maybe. GARRETT BARBER: Hopefully. Q. Some nice coaches that maybe will let you play? COLE HAMMER: There's a chance because this week they don't have -- oh, NCAAs. Q. Starts Friday. It's in Arizona next week so you could get from Oregon to Arizona pretty quickly. COLE HAMMER: That's true, play Grayhawk. I don't know, it would be tough. It's just whatever the coaches want us to do, but there's always a chance. Q. Coaches seem pretty -- I mean, there were college guys here. I know we had some female players that played in the women's four-ball and they were going to regionals right after that, so I guess it depends on the coach, right? COLE HAMMER: Yeah, it depends on the coach. We'll see how they are. Q. Was it any extra special for you playing close to home this week? GARRETT BARBER: Yeah, having -- I know I saw some of my friends from my club at home, we're 45 minutes from here, so that was really cool, and just having all my family out here was just special. So yeah, just really special. Q. And how many texts -- did you guys get one from Jordan? COLE HAMMER: Yeah, Cameron sent me a -- I got like 50. Cameron sent me -- GARRETT BARBER: I'm not that popular. COLE HAMMER: Cameron sent me a video with him and Spieth and Greller just saying congratulations. Q. He was working with you? COLE HAMMER: Colonial. Q. How about you, anybody of note? GARRETT BARBER: No, no Spieth. Q. Just mom and dad? GARRETT BARBER: My mom and my sister. Q. And everybody else in junior golf. GARRETT BARBER: I have a few friends, but yeah. COLE HAMMER: Shut up, you had like 50 when I looked at your phone. Q. I'm sure it's been a great week for you guys, getting to play with a buddy -- COLE HAMMER: Yeah, it was so fun playing with Garrett. We've known each other a long time, but to finally get to team up together was really fun. On and off the course it was really fun. Q. Did Frankie and Shuai last year motivate you guys because they had such a blast doing this? COLE HAMMER: I think so, and to have them here, they probably pushed us since they were in the tournament for a while. It would have been fun to play them this morning in semis if they had made it. But no complaining here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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