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U.S. JUNIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

July 20, 2019

Boyd Summerhays

Toledo, Ohio

Q. So he's grown a lot in the last year physically I know.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah.

Q. Just what can you say about him without getting too...
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah. I mean, obviously I'm so proud of him. He's a great kid. If you watch him play through the ups and downs, that's what I'm No. 1 proud of.

He's a polite kid. Makes us proud off the course. But the cool thing to me is for people to see the fire he has inside. You saw how bad he wanted it. You want him to be, you know, a good kid off the course, and obviously he's a fierce competitor.

For me to watch that and see his confidence build and game continue to build, he tends to take failure and turn it into something positive. Couple weeks ago when he played the Korn Ferry event, he just wasn't as sharp as he needed to be. He made the adjustments and won the next week at the State Am; parlayed that coming here playing great.

And then when he played Akshay, and Akshay is the fourth best amateur in the world and he's going to be a special player on tour, and Preston, they both had a great match.

I think it's just fun to see what my son has been able to do. I couldn't ask for a better son as far as staying out of trouble, being a good kid, humble, and he works his tail off.

So to see it, be able to witness it, is something I'll never forget. He's on TV and the coverage, I think that'll be something he'll be able to look back on. He's in the moment. When he has a chance to watch that in the next couple days, he'll realize how special that was.

Just what people have inside allows them to do special things. That's what I love about him. When push comes to shove, he does believe he can pull off the shot or make the putt. I've seen it a lot on different levels, right? Local tournaments, State Amateurs. And to do it on the biggest stage, the biggest tournament, he knew what was on the line. That's just going to fill him up with more confidence. I'm excited for him being able to accomplish his goal of winning the U.S. Junior.

Q. Yeah. (Indiscernible) I was following and got to be hard.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah.

Q. You know, you were rooting for him, rooting for Bo. You want to see them both play well.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: No doubt. I'm sensitive to Bo being out here. I think my son is a good kid because we're trying to raise him right. I truly believe that it's whoever plays best wins. It's not Preston against Bo in a negative sense. They both were just appreciating each other's quality play and both played great.

Honestly, when it's all said and done, they can say Hey, great playing to each other, that's great. My hat is off to Bo. He played phenomenal. I mean, Preston just won. The putts he made on the back nine and the shots he hit, Bo was right there.

Loses it by two holes is all. If Preston doesn't make two of those putts it's going to extra holes. I gained a lot of respect for Bo and his game and his attitude. He didn't back off. Preston, sometimes when he starts making those putts and doing things to other guys they get impatient and frustrated and kind of fold on him. Bo did not have any back up in him. He kept coming and kept coming. I think obviously Preston put an immense amount of pressure on him to get that on shot close on 17, and that changed Bo's shot. But Bo was game. He was there to play.

We knew that early. At lunch we were just like, Wow, Bo just shot 2-under at Inverness Club in the wind and they firmed out the greens and sped them up. I mean, that's game.

Q. Obviously FOX showed you guys at lunch together and made a deal about it. I think that's a wonderful thing.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Oh, Bo and all of us just eating there? Yeah.

Q. They were like, Wow, this is not...
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: It's not like that. I don't want my kids to compete like that. I want them to just throw everything out on the line and whoever wins, wins. I mean, don't make it personal. Don't try to do gamesmanship. My son doesn't do that. You try to win with your clubs.

I appreciate that Bo -- I mean, was pumping fists; Preston was, too. It was nothing personal. It was in the moment. They were both into it and passionate about it. In the end they can both be happy and proud of themselves.

Q. Yeah, nobody was showing anybody up.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: No, no.

Q. Just tell me about that shot on 17. What did you see?
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: I mean, I didn't see a lot. He honestly isn't -- we had to practice rough play at the start of this week. He made a triple bogey on 6 out of a lie -- wasn't a good lie, but he doesn't hit it in the rough a lot and has never played rough this thick.

U.S. Amateur last year was thick. This was real U.S. Open rough. He hit some good shots throughout the week, but still just he saw it the right way. You know, 186 and he ended up hitting pitching wedge. He learned from some of the other things that went wrong earlier in the week. He knew, Hey, pitching wedge out of the rough; all I got to do is cover the front and it'll go all the way back.

I mean, TV won't do it justice, but I was right there. You see it and you're like, that's just a shot of a lifetime at the right time in the biggest tournament. He'll never forget that and it'll give him confidence when he's in a tough spot in bigger tournaments when he's on tour and doing over things. He'll look back and say, Hey, I'm not out of this. Keep grinding. Keep grinding.

Yeah, that shot he'll never forget. That was the greatest shot of his life. When he hit it, I filmed it from a distance and text ed my wife and said that was the greatest shot of his life. Even before he won. I knew it could be for the U.S. Junior.

Q. Tony Finau texted him good luck today.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah.

Q. What can you say about Preston's work ethic and the fact -- sounds like he must be like a sponge.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: No, he is. I mean, we have a saying. It's like it's all about skillset. Whoever is the most skilled. Hard work gives you the best chance to gain those skills.

So there is a lot of days we're sun up to sun down. Not every day because we know you can't do that every day. I do think the long days -- he played an amateur championship last week the same format - two rounds of stroke play, six matches, with a 36-hole final. He flew in on a red eye, one practice round, and did it all over again.

That's a credit to his work ethic. He's built up a lot of stamina for golf. I'm super proud of him and I will tell him that later. There is no chance he wins this thing coming in on fumes and still being able to get it done this week if he hadn't developed that endurance golf-wise.

Q. 15, 16, 17. Seeing some shots.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah.

Q. You can get in your own way a little bit and start thinking about the result. And they're tired, too.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, and I don't even think that way. I'm a swing coach and I play for a living, but we don't look at it that way. I'm not looking at him and saying, Oh, my gosh. He did this technically. I've played. I know how hard it is. He just got it done. That's what it's about.

You hit bad shots and he's very, very good about getting over things fast. That's his gift. You look at what he did in the bunker on 13. Leaves it in the bunker and hit it 15 feet by. That's really sloppy, but he hits a great drive on the next one and forgets about it.

Hits a terrible wedge shot on 16, but he's already back there trying to figure out how he's going to make 4. When he couldn't make 4, he's trying to figure out how he's going to make 5. That's his gift. He's done that in a lot of tournaments.

I was talking into my phone, and when he left that putt on 15, he you must've left that 10, 12 feet short. That was a terrible lag putt. I just said, Hey, does this all the time. Just gets over it and just putts a good stroke on it.

Now, did I know he was going to make it? No, but I knew he was already over it. That's his gift. He just plays. He gets over the negative stuff really fast.

Q. Saw evidence of that all day today, too.
BOYD SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, in all these matches, too.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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