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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 17, 2019Andy OgletreeVillage of Pinehurst, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We welcome Andy Ogletree of Little Rock, Mississippi, a 3 & 1 winner over Cohen Trolio in the U.S. Amateur semifinals, advances to the final match, 36 holes tomorrow. Andy, great playing. ANDY OGLETREE: Thank you. Q. This is obviously something you've been focusing on, you've been working on your short game to get to this point. What does it mean to get to this point for you as an amateur golfer? ANDY OGLETREE: It means a lot just to get to this point. There's a lot that comes with it, and can't help but think about that right now. But yeah, just since I was four years old, all the hard work that I've put in over the years, thinking about all the late-night range sessions, all the times me and my dad would drive to golf tournaments, fly to golf tournaments, it's all kind of come together, and it's unbelievable. Q. You had a great run and stretch, and then on 17 tee, there was some discussion about I guess what club. What was going on there? Obviously you hit a great shot in there to close the match out. ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, so I had 205, and it was into the wind. So that was right in between -- I thought it was playing about 212, and that's what Devin and I came up with. It was in between 5 and 6. Pretty juiced, so went ahead and hit the 6 hard, and I flushed it. Right when I hit it, I knew it was close. So that kind of sealed the deal and couldn't help but just smile after that. Q. This week we saw a lot of young players have success, but when it's all said and done, two college seniors with match play experience make it to the final. What did you take from your past match play experience? How important was that this week for your run here to the final? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, I just kind of trusted that the golf would take care of itself. I mean, you can't really think a match ahead. You just kind of have to take one match at a time, and I've done a really good job of that, one shot at a time, one match at a time. I actually looked at the -- I looked at the brackets and told Devin, I think we'll be playing John. So it's there, and we're ready. Q. You're pretty even keel out there, but there on 15 you got a little frustrated with the putter. What did it take to clear your mind going in there to 16? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, I love 16 tee shot. The wind is off the right and it's a little dogleg left. Every time I get there, I know I can kind of step on one, and I smoked it down the left. I had already forgot about the putt by then. If someone would have told me I was 1-up through 15 going into the day, I'd have probably said, okay, I feel pretty good about that. That was my thought process, and it worked out pretty good. Q. When did you look at the bracket and think that you'd be playing John? ANDY OGLETREE: After the round of 16. Q. What made you so confident? ANDY OGLETREE: I just thought we were the best two players left with the most experience. Q. Since you brought it up outside, can you describe your hometown and what it was like growing up there? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, so my hometown, it has less than 2,000 people, so it's not even considered a city. But it does have a streetlight. We have a little gas station that has a seafood buffet on Friday night. Yeah, food is incredible. (Laughter.) Oh, man, but yeah, growing up, golf was kind of -- it was hard because I didn't have a lot of people to play with. It was a 25-, 30-minute drive to a nice golf course every day. Once I got to the golf course, I mean, it was great, but going back and forth was tough. My parents were always taking me back and forth to the golf course. But it was cool. I have a huge yard with a golf green in the back, so I can hit up to 200-yard shots at my house. So I practice there a lot. We put a streetlight in over the green, and I can remember countless nights down there putting under the streetlight, and we had a bunker, so it was always kind of our chore as kids to cut the green. We had a greens mower and everything. It was a lot different than living in the city down in Atlanta, but I'll always call that place home. Q. Today the golf at times was a little bit ragged -- ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, terrible. Q. How did you try to compose yourself given obviously you weren't playing as well as you had perhaps earlier in the week? ANDY OGLETREE: I mean, there's not much you can do really. If you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it. But I kind of have a couple thoughts that I've gone back to all week that I've been working on all week, and finally hit one good on 15. That's kind of why I was so frustrated. I had 152 pin, I hit pitching wedge, it flew 162. That's kind of a fluke thing. I thought there was no way I got that ball past the pin, but flushed it. But that was kind of the turning point for me. I finally saw a shot do what I wanted it to do and just kept that swing thought for the last three holes, and I flushed every shot I hit. Even though I made bogey there, it was still a good hole. Q. You say you had a couple thoughts in your mind throughout the round. What were they? ANDY OGLETREE: Well, my tendency is to get on top of it and get a little steep and hit it off the heel, so just trying to really turn back into my right side, and when I do that, it allows me just to kind of go on through the ball, and it doesn't start left. That's what I've been thinking about. Q. As play progresses and the field narrows and shrinks, how much more of a mental grind is it as much as it already is a physical grind to try to get through to the championship? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, today was definitely tough. There was no one -- there was about a tenth of the crowd I'd say pulling for me. I heard some pretty crazy stuff out there. I'm not going to lie. I probably shouldn't repeat all the stuff that was said to me. Yeah, it was hard. I mean, when that many people is pulling against you, you just kind of have to be your own cheerleader and just keep telling yourself, look, you're meant to be here and just keep doing you, and it's all going to work out. Q. What was the craziest thing said to you? ANDY OGLETREE: Craziest thing that was done to me was I had about a four-footer, and the Masters ring tone went off, and I heard some people giggling. So yeah, I was not too happy about that and backed off and just gave them a stare. But nothing you can do about it. Q. You've talked about the short game difficulties that you had and the talk with Coach Heppler. ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah. Q. Curious, outside of that, what have been the biggest challenges for you that you've faced at Tech? ANDY OGLETREE: Biggest challenges? I'd say learning how to balance school and golf and just life in general, learning how to manage your time. That's what Georgia Tech does a great job of is teaching you how to get ready for the next chapter of your life, golf or business world, and yeah, learning how to be disciplined. We're almost like robots at school. It's just -- and we have workouts at 5:45 and then class from 8:00 to 12:00 and then practice until dark usually, and then you do schoolwork, then you go to bed, and it's the same thing for a whole year. Three years of that, you get pretty disciplined and pretty confident with yourself because you know you've done some hard stuff. Q. Is school hard? ANDY OGLETREE: Not that -- it's not that hard if you try. Q. You're going to play John tomorrow; what do you know about him? What head-to-head experience might you have had with him? ANDY OGLETREE: I've actually never played with John, which is crazy, because we've grown up playing the same tournaments forever, and we play Vanderbilt in a lot of tournaments. I've played with I feel like all of his teammates, but I've never played with him. I know he's a competitor. I know he's -- a lot of people say he's a bulldog, but I actually just saw a Tweet that said John is the only one with credentials here. That's kind of got me motivated and ready to go tomorrow. Q. Being a Georgia Tech guy, I'm guessing maybe you've gotten over to Augusta National -- ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah. Q. How much were you thinking about that today? What will that mean to you? ANDY OGLETREE: Well, it's hard not to. I was talking to Devin earlier, and I said, I literally woke up at 3:15 this morning just walking around my hotel room because I was so excited for today and so ready for today. It was like, Andy, man, you've got to go to sleep, it's 3:15. But yeah, it's hard not to think about it. I thought about it probably more than I should have, but once I got over the shot, I just really tried to commit to what I was doing. Q. Do you think you'll have the same sort of feelings tomorrow -- ANDY OGLETREE: No, I think tomorrow will be a lot easier. Q. With the Walker Cup? ANDY OGLETREE: Obviously the Walker Cup would mean -- the Walker Cup would be awesome. But I'm just trying to win a match, and I think today will probably be harder than tomorrow in my opinion. Q. You mentioned earlier, to get back to the point about the galleries, there was more of a crowd and people doing things that were a distraction. Would you prefer not to have people that close to you? They get to walk in the fairway -- ANDY OGLETREE: No, I think it's awesome. When they're cheering for you, it's great. But today was just a little much sometimes. But I think I did a good job of controlling my emotions and didn't really let it get under my skin too much and found a way. Q. Do you feel like you're the underdog tomorrow? ANDY OGLETREE: I feel like this tournament is looking at it that way, but I don't feel that way. Q. How big of a win was it to win in Monroe, in Rochester, and what did you learn about yourself from that event? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, so I've been close to winning for a long time and lost two college tournaments by one stroke, and we played a really strong schedule. Yeah, it was kind of disappointing after the year to not get a win, and won my first summer tournament, so that gave me a lot of confidence, showed I could do it under the gun, and just still kind of still rolling off of that. Q. After you won 16, what were your emotions and thoughts standing on the 17th tee and after you won that hole what were your emotions at that point? ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, at that point I knew 17 is pretty hard. If you hit a good shot, it's probably over. I just wanted to stuff it, and as soon as it left the club, I knew it was really good, and I felt like it was over then. Q. Who have you heard from so far, any texts or phone calls from people -- ANDY OGLETREE: Oh, my gosh, yeah, my phone has been going nuts. Right when I walked off the green I looked at my phone, and I had like 70 something text messages. I'm sure there's more now, but yeah, there's a lot of support back home and at school, and there's just -- it's just pretty cool. Q. Everyone in town has your number? ANDY OGLETREE: I guess. They're getting it somehow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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