U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 13, 2020

Aman Gupta

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Pretty tight match; how did you get yourself through it?

AMAN GUPTA: I just had to keep my head down, and whatever I just had to tell myself, whatever happened happened. I was 2-up pretty early, and he made a nice birdie on 8 and I hit a great shot into 9, and he hit it way -- he hit it to two feet from the rough. So I missed mine, made birdie, so then it was back to all square. Made a mistake on 10 and three-putted and he was back to 1-up. But I knew that I'm playing good, so I didn't really change my game plan. I didn't get down on myself. I was like, just keep doing what you're doing, if you lose, you lose. But if you do what you're supposed to do, you're going to make a comeback. He made a mistake on 14 and three-putted, and 15 hit it short of the green, made bogey and I made par, so I was 1-up. And then 16 was actually a crazy hole because I hit a good shot and I thought it was up on the green, and it took -- when I got out there, it took a horrible kick and kicked down in this little hole in the ground, and he hit it up on the green, and I hit probably the best shot I've hit all week to like five feet, and he ended up three-putting. But then I missed my putt.

So it just -- it was just kind of crazy. But 17 I chunked it off the tee into the rough, laid it up short, hit my wedge to 20 feet and made it to tie the hole. Just keeping my head down was just kind of the biggest thing and not letting anything outside of me affect me.

Q. Was that five-footer straight in?

AMAN GUPTA: No, it was outside the hole, which made it even worse. Wind off the left, you know it's breaking right, so yeah, it was pretty nerve-racking putt, but I just trusted my line, and again if it doesn't go in, just go to extra holes and try to beat him there.

Q. Obviously you picked up Coach Bratton here as a caddie later in the week. You know his record in the U.S. Amateur with the champions he's caddied for. How much is he helping you?

AMAN GUPTA: Oh, he's helping me a lot. He does a very good job on the bag, even at college tournaments when he walks with me. He's good at figuring out the number and helping you just commit to what you have because at the end of the day you know what you need to do and you know what you need to hit that shot. He does a really good job just keeping yourself stable and giving you some good numbers, and just go play.

Q. Is he a calm guy or once in a while does he try to fire you up?

AMAN GUPTA: Yeah, he's pretty calm but when you have a putt that can really switch the momentum on you, he'll let you know, hey, bury this putt, take the momentum and let's keep rolling. He'll fire you up at certain times, but otherwise he's pretty even keel. If you hit a bad shot, he'll probably be like, oh, that was bad or that was terrible, just move on and whatever you've got you've got. I think that personality fits really well with how I think through golf courses for sure.