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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 15, 2019Cohen TrolioVillage of Pinehurst, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome the first of our 2019 U.S. Amateur quarterfinalists Cohen Trolio from West Point, Mississippi. He was a 5 & 4 winner over Alex Fitzpatrick, who advanced to the quarterfinals last year. Cohen, a great win for you. Tell us probably in a quick snippet what was the difference in you making the win? What did you do well? COHEN TROLIO: Okay, well, I did a good job of sticking to my expectations and not letting the whole, this is a big USGA event kind of take over my brain. So I kind of stuck to what I did. I hit some good putts. I gave it a sense of like picking up out of a hole at times, so that was good, and I didn't really let anything bother me. Q. Did you get any good advice from your dad who was a golf coach for you in high school and a teaching pro before you started today? COHEN TROLIO: Well, he just said, let's go get it, stick to your own expectations, and that's what we did, and it's seemed to work so far. Q. I'm curious when you got to the third hole, both of you guys hit drivers. I think you were first to play if I remember correctly. Tell me about the thought strategy; did you ever think about iron or was it always a driver? COHEN TROLIO: Well, this morning we kind of saw -- I hit driver and hit it out left a little bit. Still got it up-and-down, but it was a very hard up-and-down. And then this afternoon, we kind of -- there's an overhanging tree branch, and there was a guy standing back there, like start at him and just cut it off him. We kind of knew the front bunker, you're going to hit it in the front bunker, and so I hit it and it went in the front bunker, and it was a very easy up-and-down from there. It's kind of just the closer you get it to the hole, the easier golf is. Q. All three matches so far you've got off to pretty solid starts, getting up early in your match. On this course in particular is that an increased advantage to be up early? COHEN TROLIO: For sure, I think so. I think that if you get up early out here, that hole about 7 through 13 is brutal. So if you can kind of get 3- or 4-up through about eight, nine holes, you can't just act lazy, but you can kind of -- you can kind of chill a little bit. Q. Is it good to be the first guy in, finished for the day after a day like today, a long day like today? COHEN TROLIO: I think that it's definitely a relief to not have to play 36 holes. But I think we'll all sleep, so we'll be good. Q. I'm just going through your resume on the AJGA, just curious to see your expectations coming into this event playing with the big boys and college players. What are your goals prior to the stroke play, and also, how fulfilling is it earning a spot in the match play and then getting your name in the World Amateur Golf Ranking? COHEN TROLIO: Well, I think that you can kind of look at the Rolex or AJGA rankings, and I don't know if that's very true or not because some of that stuff gets iffy. But you know, I'm at home always doing what I know is good enough to beat anybody I play. If I step on the tee with anybody, I'm not scared of them. I think that -- I didn't come in here to look at these guys and be like, ooh. I'm here to beat on them, and they know that, I think. Q. Which of the groups or players are you that Jay Bilas talked about? Did you go to the players' dinner where Jay Bilas spoke? COHEN TROLIO: Oh, no, I didn't. Q. Cohen, we were out there for about 45 minutes before, and it was ridiculously hot. With regards to 36 holes, what's your nutrition intake like out there, your water intake? How much has it differed to a typical round of golf? COHEN TROLIO: Well, I think I've always eaten -- I make two peanut butter honey sandwiches, and I cut them into squares of four, and so I eat a square every four holes. Q. Are you tempted to take a bite out of the other one? COHEN TROLIO: That's right, yeah. It's not that different; being from Mississippi, it gets brutal. It gets hot. It's not any different. It doesn't really change, besides the fact of more water. A lot of water. Q. At moss I o'clock where I believe you play quite a bit, a lot of run-off areas. I'm curious if it helps you here for the pitching and imagery for shot shapes and different selections around the greens. COHEN TROLIO: For sure. Mossy Oak is a great golf course. It's a lot like No. 4 in the fact of like how long it is. It's a lot like it. There's a couple greens like this out here. We practice on them a good bit. We just don't -- I don't hit a lot of 60 degrees. I never have. I use a 54 or 56 a bunch. A 56 I can kind of bump it up there, so it's not that much different. Q. You mentioned about your father, instructor, Old Waverley. Just curious to see how much of his role as a caddie and also a father, percentage-wise, helps you go through match play, long days like this? COHEN TROLIO: Yeah, well, me and him have a -- me and Dad have a great relationship, especially we have a big difference between a golf coach and a dad. There's a big difference, and I think a lot of people get that mixed up that have dads that are coaches. He helps me a bunch. I trust him. He's my man. So I know that he's got my back. As long as you separate the difference between being a dad and a caddie and a swing coach, you're all good. Q. It takes a healthy confidence to know that you can come out here and play with the big boys even though you haven't done this in the past. Do you work with anybody mentally or do you have -- COHEN TROLIO: I've worked for about two years with Brett McCabe in Birmingham. Yeah, he's helped me a bunch. Q. What's the biggest thing you've learned from that experience? COHEN TROLIO: Well, he told me to eat like those four squares -- cut them into four. He told me to do that. We've had a lot of conversations about what to do when things go wrong and then what to do when things go right, and that's helped me a lot to just put some blinders on and do me and do my own thing. Q. Has there been an experience this week where something went wrong where you had to draw upon that? COHEN TROLIO: Well, I have been -- I've been basically 2- or 3-up going into 11 every day, and normally I've gone -- I've been 1-up going into about 16, 1- or 2-up going into 16, so that whole stretch has kind of gotten tight. I've gotten close to losing the lead. But I keep -- I know that these players are good, and I know that that's going to happen. So it's not just going to be perfect golf all the time. I know everybody makes mistakes. So I don't really let -- when they start getting close, I still play my own expectations. I don't narrow anything up. It's kind of been working out. Q. You're the class of 2021, that makes you 10th grade coming up -- COHEN TROLIO: 11th grade. Q. Sorry. I know there's a mixture of junior events and amateur events. COHEN TROLIO: For sure. Q. As far as considering bigger amateur events, what have you competed up to this point? COHEN TROLIO: Oh, man. To be honest with you, this is the first time I tried to qualify for the U.S. Am. I can't think of any off the top of my head. Now, there's some -- like the Western Junior, there's some big junior events, the golf courses don't get much longer and much harder from there to here. There might be -- the field is definitely deeper, but it's not that much different. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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