U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 11, 2020

Hunter Wolcott

Bandon Trails

Quick Quotes

Q. What's it like playing in your first U.S. Amateur when you have a family that has played many U.S. Amateurs? Your dad played, your brother played, who's caddying for you.

HUNTER WOLCOTT: Yeah, a long time coming. I feel like I'm a good enough player to play in the events, just couldn't get through qualifying. With everything that happened, had the resume and the ranking to be here, so I just took all the appropriate steps, regulations, to make sure that I was in the field this year because definitely excited. I was very anxious to kind of get going.

Q. Obviously you got off to a good start yesterday, and today I wouldn't say it was all over the place, but a lot of things happened in your round today. What was it like out there?

HUNTER WOLCOTT: Definitely different. Definitely a mindset change. You have all morning to kind of think about it, think about where you are, what it's going to take. You're obviously never thinking about coming down, but just got off to a rough start and just knew that I was a good enough player to make enough birdies out here that I was going to shoot a good score at the end of the day and to not lose my composure and kind of walking with my caddie Ben, we just kind of kept talking about that, to just keep making about swings, and we kept making good swings and made some putts and just really relied a lot on my putting, and it kind of came through for me today.

Q. Obviously you rebounded late in the round with the birdie and the eagle. Tell me how you birdied 15 and eagled 16.

HUNTER WOLCOTT: Yeah, I hadn't hit the driver well all day, and then 15 I just wanted to hit the best drive I hit all day, and I hit a really good one up the left, had about 125 and hit a good wedge shot in there to about eight feet, made that.

Then 16, pounded a drive, didn't really know how far I had, but I knew it wasn't a 3-wood and I knew it wasn't a 4-iron, so I hit a 3-iron as hard as I could, and it got up there to the back left side of the green and then from that point I was just lagging it, and it happened to go in.

Q. How far do you think that was?

HUNTER WOLCOTT: I'd say 45 feet.

Q. Obviously it's your first Amateur and now you're in match play. What's your mindset now?

HUNTER WOLCOTT: I like the Dunes course a lot. Played it really well yesterday. I feel like I've got a great strategy for the course. I think it fits my game pretty well, so nothing is really going to change. Obviously you're playing a person instead of the golf course, but I'm still just going to continue with my game plan, and I feel like I'm good enough that I can make a run.

Q. You've got your brother on the bag; how much does he help you forget about even shot selection, does he help you mentally, too?

HUNTER WOLCOTT: Oh, all across the board. Kind of grew up trying to model my game after him, so he knows a lot about my game. We've played a lot together. Helps me a lot with shot selection and then mentally on the side, he just kind of -- I feel relaxed out there. You've got big bro on the bag, and it feels like we're taking a walk in the park. It doesn't feel like it's a U.S. Amateur.