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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 16, 2019John AugensteinVillage of Pinehurst, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome our third semifinalist from Owensboro, Kentucky, John Augenstein, a 3 & 2 winner over Palmer Jackson of Murraysville, Pennsylvania. Well played. Congratulations on making it to the U.S. Amateur semifinals. JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Thank you. Q. How sweet does that sound to you? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: It sounds pretty good. You know, I think today and last night, when you get done, it's very easy to let your mind kind of race to the possibilities of what you have left, but I did a good job of just staying in the moment and understanding that there's still a lot of golf left to be played, and we've still got a match tomorrow hopefully a match on Sunday. You know, I think that helped me to stay in the moment and really grind it out today. Q. How much was the delay a distraction to you, if it was at all? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: You know, I didn't think it was in the moment, but I certainly came out much less -- just a little bit off my rhythm. Starting off, I got off to a really good start and was in really good rhythm, just hitting shots exactly where I wanted to, making some putts, also, and I came back out after and just kind of -- I don't know, the feel just kind of wasn't there as it was before. In hindsight, it kind of was a little bit of a distraction, but that's just something you have to adapt to that I didn't do a very good job of. Q. You're really a competitor, and you stressed that to us. So when he reduced the lead to 1-up, how much did your competitive instinct kick in again so you could get it back? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah, you know, I think more than anything, I was just trying to understand that this is -- he's got a lot of momentum, and I've got to halt that a little bit. And so all the holes that he won to get back to 1-up, they weren't really -- he didn't make birdies. I made bad swings, bad decisions. They just weren't well-played holes for me, and kind of something I said yesterday, you can't give any holes out here, or else you're going to get beat, and luckily I didn't today, but I have a feeling if I do that tomorrow, I will be. I just tried to get back to my process of what I've been doing at the beginning. Kane looked at me on 13, and he said, I want you to remember how you felt in the first six, not the last six, and let's replicate that on the next. And so that's kind of what we did to get back in our frame of mind. Q. I don't believe you've trailed in a match this week; is that true? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: That is true. Q. Was that a point of emphasis this week, to get out to a hot start, or how do you explain that run? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah, so I always -- in match play, I always try to win the first six holes. Brandt Snedeker, a Vandy alum, told Coach Limbaugh a couple years back, that I forget the exact statistic, but it was the guy in match play statistically, if you win the first six holes, you have an over 65 percent chance of winning the match. Of course there's many outlier cases, I've lost the first six many times and won the match, but I think when you make that little statement early on that your competitors normally feel like they're kind of behind the whole time. Q. You're not far from the championship match; when do you start -- if you have thought about that and the exemptions that come along with it. At what point does that become real for you, do you start thinking about it? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: I'm going to do my best not to think about it at all. I think it's great. Of course that's what we're all here to do is to try to win the golf tournament. But like I said, I just really want to focus on tomorrow's match, and if I'm fortunate enough to make it through that match, we still have another match. Just because you make it to the finals doesn't mean you've gotten it all done yet. You've still got to win another match. Nobody wants to make it that far and then lose, so you really want to try to put it down when you can. You know, I'm just going to focus on tomorrow and be ready to go. Q. 15th hole, second day, played to 3.7. It was the toughest hole on the golf course. I thought you hit a great shot today. Just your thought process of where the pin was today and where the tee was, how much the rain helped make your decision on club selection and so forth? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Absolutely. Yeah, if we had not had that rain, I most certainly probably would have tried to hit kind of a hard 7-iron, tried to land it on the front half and let it kind of roll back and take my chances with whatever happens. But because of the rain, I was able to kind of gain a little bit more control in chipping a 6-iron back there, and it stuck really nicely. That was one of the best shots of the day. Q. Do you know William Holcomb V? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Met him this morning on the range actually. He's a really nice guy. Q. What is it about your game that plays well for match play? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: I think that my short game is a really big strength of mine. I'll miss -- I tend to hit my irons very well, wedge it well and have a really good short game, and so you can only hit it so good around here because you will miss greens no matter what. You will miss fairways no matter what. So if you can kind of get up-and-down from some difficult spots or even some better spots to leave the ball, then I feel like I can always stay in the hole. If you're always kind of putting pressure on the guy to make birdies, especially out here, then you are going to be in good shape I feel like. Q. You've played No. 2 a bunch of times this week now. Do you feel comfortable out here yet? What are you still learning from the course? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: You're always learning something every day, but I feel pretty comfortable with how I've played it. I played it -- I didn't, I guess, play the course worse today, but I did not play my game as well. In the middle of the round I struggled pretty badly, and so that -- I'm not worried about it, but I didn't play -- it's just golf. You don't play as well every day. Q. Vandy boys, FOX had a graphic of Theo and Will making it to the quarterfinals the last couple years. Just curious to see how much your game progressed being at Vanderbilt playing with those guys and including Patrick Martin, as well, and any message from those quarterfinalists the past few years to you this week at all? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah, I've gotten a lot of texts from a lot of former teammates, and upcoming teammates and current ones. You know, those guys have run the races. They're older than I am, obviously, and they have a little bit more experience than me. And so I have received a lot of nice messages from Gordo and Patrick and also Theo and Matthias Schwab, as well. You know, they have helped. All of them are very just positive and kind of telling me good stuff and also helping me I'm sure -- because Theo a couple years ago made it to the semifinals, kind of knowing what was going through his head into the last round I think could possibly benefit me, so I'm sure I'll talk to him tonight. Q. Did you play any other sports growing up? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah, I played basketball and baseball, the normal sports. I love basketball. Baseball wasn't my true love, but I love basketball. I still love playing it and watching it for sure. Q. Were you as fiery on the court -- JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah. Q. -- as you are on the course, and how did you channel that when you were growing up? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Well, not very well. You know, it's a lot easier to channel your competitiveness when you're running up and down the floor and it's a contact sport and you can bump people, hit people as long as you don't foul them, of course. Kind of you almost run off the competitiveness and whatnot. It's different in golf. You know, obviously you have to keep your emotions a little bit more inside, a little bit more concealed, especially in match play. I think it just comes with maturity and understanding place and time and who you are and where you are. Q. Are you more mature now than you were as a freshman? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: Yeah. Q. In what ways? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: I just understand that you're always still learning. Everyone is. But I certainly understand golf a little bit better, the round a little bit better. I feel like I would get a little bit upset early on and let little things bother me when I was younger, but now you understand you make a mistake, you just kind of sit back and understand that you've got X many holes left and you have a lot more opportunities and you're still hitting good shots, and that's something actually that Kane has done a really good job with this week is even when I've made a bogey or even missed a putt or something like that, he's like, we played that hole perfect. That was four great shots, don't worry about it. It's a tough hole, that kind of stuff. When you sit back and you understand that you still hit really good shots, the result will just happen. Q. You've made it to this point, the semifinals. You're getting a lot of good advice from a lot of people. Who do you listen to most, or do you just say, I've got to figure this out myself? What's the balance there? JOHN AUGENSTEIN: A little bit of both. You know, I listen to Coach Limbaugh pretty much every time he says something. You'd better listen. And so I lean on him a lot. I talked to him this morning when I woke up, and not really about today. More so just talked to him, tell him kind of how I was feeling and how I was excited but also waking up this morning I was a little more anxious than I had been the last few days. Not nervous, just anxious. But as soon as I hit the first tee shot, I felt completely normal. I listen to Coach Limbaugh a lot, but I also kind of -- obviously talk to my parents every night, living with them this week. I think a lot of it is figuring it out for yourself, though, taking what you like and what you don't like and kind of fitting it to the mold of yourself, because you want to -- you don't want to be anyone else out there, you want to be yourself. Coach Limbaugh told me that early on. He said, I don't ever want you to play golf like Matthias Schwab -- well, maybe a little bit like Matthias Schwab. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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