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U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 25, 2018Rusty MosleyCharlotte, North Carolina Q. Take me through the 18 hole. Let's start there. RUSTY MOSLEY: 18th hole I just won 17 to get back to all square for the first time since No. 12. I was really wanting to hit the fairway and I didn't do that. Q. On 18? RUSTY MOSLEY: On 18. I was just trying to get it as close to the green as possible. My short game has been good all week. I wanted to give myself a chance to make par. When Stephen hit in the bunker and kind of got a bad break with his lie, I had a putt to win down the hill. Just get it started, and it rolled right in the middle. Biggest putt of my life so far. Pretty neat. Q. How many feet would you say? RUSTY MOSLEY: Probably 25 right down the hill. Chip shot didn't check up for me like I thought it would, but you make the putt and it kind of equals out. Q. Saw you a little bit at the turn. Looked like you were putting pretty well today. RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah. We had a good match. I'm not sure how we scored. We were both under par, and out here that's a good score. My goal starting the week with match play is not to give away holes with bogey. I did I think once or twice today, but to come back like that, it proved to myself that I'm where I'm supposed to be. Q. Okay. If this is where you're supposed to be, what's taking you so long to get here? RUSTY MOSLEY: Well, that's a good question. You know, I graduated Florida State in '05 and didn't play competitively a lot for the past 12 years. I tried to qualify for the Mid-Am last year and missed it by two shots. My son is ten and he is playing junior golf, and I want him to see me play like I used to and know that he's capable of doing it, too. We come from a small town, but I went to a big school on a scholarship to play, and he needs to know he's capable of doing it. I kind of wanted to prove to myself that I still got it. I don't want to waste these years and not play competitively. Q. What did you do in the interim? RUSTY MOSLEY: I played some. You know, I have a great company I work for, Cintas, and a great boss that let's me play. We play in customer events and that kind of thing. Just on the competitive side I just never got into it. This year, last year, I decided to give it another try. Q. At no point you really missed the competitive... RUSTY MOSLEY: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Q. Just family and work and... RUSTY MOSLEY: Just family and work and I started a new job about a dozen years ago at Cintas. You know, you spend a lot of time doing that and building your career, because first things first you've got to provide for the family and that kind of stuff. We had two kids and few dogs, so just never worked out. It has now, and I'm glad I'm here. Q. You said your son kind of has been the motivating factor for you. Did the juices come back quickly or did you have to really start working at it? RUSTY MOSLEY: Well, I played in my state mid-am, the Georgia State Mid-Am, in May of 2018. Finished eighth. That was my first I guess event that I qualified for in a long time. I finished eighth and I proved to myself then that I still got it. I love the competition. I was nervous as a cat. You know, I played good and tried to qualify for the U.S. Am and missed that by a few. The more I played the more comfortable I feel, and today was just fantastic coming down the stretch like that. Q. What was it like when you stepped on the grounds Friday, Saturday? RUSTY MOSLEY: I played in the 2000 U.S. Am at Baltusrol. It reminded me some that, because the USGA does such a good job and they treat you so well. The course is just awesome. I stepped on the grounds and I thought Charlotte would be a challenge for me, but the more I play it the more comfortable I feel, the more comfortable I feel on the greens. We don't greens like this in south Georgia, so the more I play the more comfortable I feel. I feel good on the greens rolling it, so we'll see what happens next couple matches. Q. So you talked about your son. Do you all play a lot together? RUSTY MOSLEY: We do. We have the unfortunate scenario that we don't have a golf course in our hometown anymore. Q. Where do you live? RUSTY MOSLEY: In Vidalia, Georgia. I'm part of a group trying to work on that to open one back up, but we've had to drive to get ready for this 30, 40 miles to the nearest golf course. The nearest golf course with good greens we're going to St. Simons or Sea Island. So it's been a challenge getting ready for this. When I qualified I made the decision I was going to put the time in to get ready. I did, so it's paying off. Q. How much work went into that? How much time would you say after you qualified... RUSTY MOSLEY: So we would travel every weekend either to Savannah or St. Simons, and then I would go every day about 40 miles away to hit balls and chip and just try and get my stroke down. I knew the greens were going to be lightning fast up here compared to what I'm doing. But just try to get in a good rhythm with the swing and make sure it's feeling good and see the ball going in the right direction, and then show up and roll the dice and see what happens. Q. Are you a feel player? RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah. I would say I am. I have recently switched to the line on the golf ball to line my putts and stuff up, so that's working out well. But, yeah, I've always been a feel player. I don't look at my swing on video. I'll tinker here and there, but as long as the ball is going straight, then I'm happy. Q. When you started playing more and practicing more, what came back quicker? Were you surprised at how quick some things were coming back to you? RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah. I mean, it's never come easy to me. People say at home it looks easy, but it's never easy. Golf is so much mental. When I was 2-up today, when I got down 2, I just kept telling myself, You're not mentally weak. You can finish this off. You can come back and make some birdies. Made a few birdies on the back, made a huge par. So the mental game is what I'm most impressed with so far this week with me. Q. Why didn't you turn pro after Florida State? RUSTY MOSLEY: Well, I got married in June, graduated in -- would've been a year, so... I don't know, I just never did. Got married shortly after college, and I don't regret anything. The pro lifestyle is difficult. I make a good living. Like I said, I have a great boss and great company. I don't regret that. But if I hadn't tried to qualify for these events, then I would've regretted that. Q. Did the bug ever just come back to you? At any point did you think, I'll go qualify for this or maybe I'll try to qualify and it just never... RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah, this year I made myself sign up early. Q. I mean, the fact that you're 39... RUSTY MOSLEY: 36. Q. 36. You've still got years ahead of you. RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah. Q. But maybe the clock is starting to tick. RUSTY MOSLEY: Oh, it's ticking, yeah, for sure. I played with a guy from Georgia Tech in the U.S. Amateur qualifier that made it, and they hit it so much farther than I do. I'm trying to get a new driver from Titleist. I went and got fitted and they didn't send it in time. I need all the help I can get. I'm the only guy in the field hitting a 983K. Yeah, when the guy was doing survey he was like, Oh, my God. I was like, Hey man, it goes straight. Q. When did they quit making that? RUSTY MOSLEY: I got fitted in 2003 in college. I would go to... Q. Is that when you got it? RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah. I hit it great, but I went to the PGA store and put it on a launch monitor and tried another driver out. This was a few years ago. I said, How many yards am I losing? He says, About 12. I said, Okay. How much is that driver? He said, About $600. I said, I'm good. (Laughter.) Then when I qualified for this I got my dad over to Sea Island and I hit the TS3 from Titelist. I love Titleist stuff. I ordered it and I was trying to hit them up on Twitter to send me my driver. Please. I'm playing in the Mid-Am. I got no response. So if you guys know of anybody at Titleist, send them a text or an email and say, Look... But, hey, the 83K is still kicking. Q. And that's a Titleist? RUSTY MOSLEY: Yeah, it is. My irons are Titleist, too. Q. Are they old, too? RUSTY MOSLEY: They are probably six or seven years old. Yeah, my wife wants to go to San Francisco. She says I can't buy new irons until... Q. Are you playing with lotto balls? RUSTY MOSLEY: No, it's a Pro BX. I told my wife, I got to buy some new irons. She said, You can't do that until you take me to San Francisco. So I got to take her to San Francisco before I can buy new irons. Q. How was it at Florida State. Why did you end up there? RUSTY MOSLEY: I grew up a fan, the war chant. I was a football fan first. When I got recruited to go down there, it was a no-brainer. I love Tallahassee. It's a great town. Met my wife there. We go to the football games some now. Met all my friends, and it's just been probably one of the best decisions that I've made. Q. Are you on the bandwagon to fire Taggert? RUSTY MOSLEY: Not yet. Not yet. Q. Close? RUSTY MOSLEY: We're getting there. Q. What went through your mind when you made that putt? Better yet, I saw you squat afterwards. RUSTY MOSLEY: I just had to kind of -- I'm trying to soak this in. Jay Bilas did the speech on Thursday night and just talked about soaking it in. I didn't do a good job of that at Baltusrol when I was there. I was 18 and young and stupid thinking I'll do this a dozen more times. It doesn't work out that way. You know, match play is so tough mentally. I got up early. I was 2-up through 3. Didn't win another hole until I made a great putt on 14. You know, I almost drove the green on 15. Stephen got up and down out of that bunker. You say always expect the unexpected. You say that, and then you don't really expect him to get up and down out of a downhill slope out of a bunker for birdie. He did and I had to make an eight-footer; I made that and stuffed it on 17 and won that hole to go all square. Then to win 18, to win the last two holes to move onto tomorrow -- and I think it exempts me to Colorado next year. That was a huge goal. My first goal was, Let's make match play and see what happens. Then Monday morning Darren had to withdraw after 9. I was playing good. I was 3-under. This morning on Kyle I just never let him in the match at all. Then today I had the same start. To be 2-up and let him come all the way back and win four straight holes and be 2-up on me, mentally it's hard. I was 2-down with five to go. I won 14, 17, and 18. That was just awesome. Q. I talked to Nick Cassini, and he kind of went through the same. Played and then just went black for 12 years, work and everything. He said the thing that he thought -- he said when he thought he would be playing Masters, and so somebody asked him like before the '91 -- when was it, 2001? Whatever Masters or U.S. Open it was that he was at, they asked him, If you win, are you going to turn pro? He was like, I don't know. He just thought Masters would come because he was the No. 1 ranked amateur at the time. He says, And I never have played in one. So he appreciated his experience here. Is that what you're trying to do? RUSTY MOSLEY: Absolutely. I'm glad my son is here. He's missing school. My wife is a teacher and she's missing school. My mom is a teacher and she's missing school. Q. You got one of the bigger galleries. How many people? RUSTY MOSLEY: I got my whole crew here. Mom and dad and wife and son here now; earlier this week, over the weekend I had probably eight more people. Just family and friends that drove in. It's about a five-hour drive. Q. Who is on your bag? RUSTY MOSLEY: My cousin Tyler. I had Chad Zorn, a friend of mine, earlier in the week. Tyler took the bag today. Chad had to go back home and work. Q. Do you have just one of those leather carry bags, too? RUSTY MOSLEY: No, no, it's a Titleist bag. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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