U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 2002

Dustin Bray

CRAIG SMITH: Well, you never trailed and here you are in the semifinals.

DUSTIN BRAY: Yes, it's nice. I don't know if it's a surprise. It is a surprise to tell you the truth. It's been kind of an awkward summer. One week I play good, next week I play kind of off. But the last several weeks have been fairly solid and throughout the week my confidence has grown a tremendous amount. So I'm feeling good about things now and looking forward to going into tomorrow.

CRAIG SMITH: Did you get away with any matches this week. Sometimes, you have to get away with one and then you try and play better as the week goes on.

DUSTIN BRAY: Really a couple, you know. Jerry Courville was a great competitor. That was an unbelievable match. It took a lot out of me, it really did. I was kind of concerned going into the afternoon match against Camilo because he's a great player and kind of grown up the last couple years playing with him in college and seeing how great a player he really is. And so kind of nervous going into yesterday's afternoon match. And it kind of showed with the driver on the match. But I got away with a couple holes and ended up actually going one up, I think, on him fairly early. I can't even remember. But that kind of calmed my nerves a little bit. And I just told myself to settle down, play the best I could and if I did that, I couldn't be ashamed.

CRAIG SMITH: Have you somewhat exceeded your expectations coming into this week.

DUSTIN BRAY: I don't know. Not really because you always come to win. Not particularly. I'm happy to be where I'm at. Hopefully I'll keep going but I'm not going to be pleased until I get to the finals.

Q. Dustin, what has clicked and enabled you to get as far as you've gotten so far this week?

DUSTIN BRAY: I've hit a lot of good putts. I feel great when I get over every single putt that I hit. I feel like I'm going to make it. I'm seeing the lines on the putts a lot better and I'm giving myself a lot of opportunities. That's the main thing on this course, is to hit the fairways, greens and then you hope you're in a good spot to make a putt.

Q. A lot of people talked about how difficult these greens can be. You haven't been stymied or confused by them at all this week, have you been felt comfortable?

DUSTIN BRAY: I have at times. Earlier in the week I was definitely concerned about reading the greens. Because they are very difficult to read. But it's gotten better and better. I think I'm starting to adjust a little bit more now and I'm just not worrying about the putts that I miss, and that's one thing that I really thought about today in the round. I usually don't think about those things, it kind of started me. But coming off 10, I hit a good putt there and it didn't go in. And I lost the hole. Then Ryan made that putt off the back of the green for par on 11, so I had to make mine to win the hole and I got over it and 10 didn't even run through my mind and that's when I know I'm playing well is when I've forgotten about the bad shots I've hit and all I'm thinking about is the shot that I'm getting ready to hit.

Q. When you saw what Ryan did out here yesterday, do you take heed of that? Does that kind of intimidate you?

DUSTIN BRAY: Oh, yeah, I mean when somebody gets hot you also notice it. And that's, I definitely thought about that. But it's like I said, in an interview earlier, I got some great advice from my teacher, and he told me just to go out there and play the golf course because this is one of those golf courses that if you do start thinking about the player you're playing against, the golf course is going to jump up and bite you. So I try to play one hole and one shot at a time and I'm just trying to play my game. Trying to make a good score because I know if I beat the golf course and a lot of times I'm going to beat the player as well.

Q. Did you get any sense early in the match at all that Ryan was not playing the way he had yesterday?

DUSTIN BRAY: Not really.

Q. That he was off his game at all? He wound up making a lot of bogeys there.

DUSTIN BRAY: Yeah. Well, it was kind of a stressful day out there. There were some tricky pins. It was one of those things. And but, I really didn't -- early in the round, I certainly didn't. I hit a pretty good shot on the first hole and he turned around and stuck one. It looked like it was right at the pin too. You couldn't tell where it was in relation to the hole. But it was right at the hole. And then he birdied two on me. So early on in the match I really, I didn't see any difference. I thought he was going to go out there and play great golf and late in the round, I think, he did make a couple bogeys. And probably could have gone better than that.

Q. What was kind of the turning point in the round?

DUSTIN BRAY: That's a great question. I would say 11. I think 11 kind of startled him and it startled me all the same. He won 10, made a good nice little five -, six-footer for par. I made bogey. So got back to one down. And then on 11, he made that great par putt off the back of the green and I knew that was going to be a big point in the match right there. And I could get that putt to drop that knew that, I didn't think it was going to seal the deal but I just kind of showed him, you know what, I'm not going anywhere or I was just going to try to take it away from him.

Q. How long was that putt?

DUSTIN BRAY: Golly, it was probably, I don't know. It was about a 12, 15-foot putt.

CRAIG SMITH: Where does this rank.

Q. How far was his par putt on 11?

DUSTIN BRAY: He hit a chip from behind the green and actually left it on the fringe so it was back left fringe or back right fringe, excuse me. So it was probably, I don't know, 20, 25 feet.

Q. This the first time you qualified, I think, for match play in the USGA Championship event, is that right? You played in the Junior Amateur?

DUSTIN BRAY: I played in the USGA Junior and I qualified for match play there, but I lost in the first round and this is the first amateur I've ever played in.

Q. What year was that?

DUSTIN BRAY: I want to say 1998. It was when -- it was in Conway Farms up in north of Chicago.

Q. What's your thoughts on playing Hunter Mahan? Do you know anything about him?

DUSTIN BRAY: I'm worried about the golf course. I'm not, I'm not thinking about the player I'm playing against. He's a great player. His resume speaks for itself. I played with him at the Western earlier this year in qualifying. And like I said, if I can go out there and I can concentrate on the golf course, I think I can play with anybody. There's some guys that are playing still playing some spectacular golfers out there. And so I'm just trying not to think about that. I'm just trying to think about if I can go out there and I can shoot 66 or so on this golf course, if they beat me, more power to them. They deserve to win.

Q. What did you think when you heard about Haas shooting 28 on the front nine?

DUSTIN BRAY: I'm glad I wasn't playing him.

(Laughter.) Hopefully he's got it out of his system now. No, he's a great player. That's spectacular playing. I couldn't imagine that. But that's the great thing about match play is you kind of get lucky in the draws you get too. I don't think I've had any weak draws this week, don't get me wrong or anything, but you get that guy that gets hot, there's nothing you can do about it. That's the beauty of this game as well.

Q. Do you get a lot of momentum out of the situation you faced yesterday where you have to go extra holes? And just surviving that. Do you get anything from that?

DUSTIN BRAY: Yeah, I did. I wish I would have had to play my second match today rather than yesterday afternoon. Like I said, I was just exhausted. But, yeah, definitely because you're going to have that one match. And you never know who it's going to be. Sometimes you have it two and three times in match play. But you hope it's only once. And I hope it's the only time I have to worry about it. But he gave me all he had and I gave him all I had. And fortunately I came out and hit one more chip shot a little closer than he did.

CRAIG SMITH: Your resume is not a slouch though. You just won the Cardinal.

DUSTIN BRAY: Yeah, I'm not complaining. I won ACC and the Cardinal this year, so I'm feeling good about things.

CRAIG SMITH: Where does this one rank.

DUSTIN BRAY: Oh, gosh, there ain't nothing that compares with this on my resume. At least so far. Maybe in the future, but right now, like I said I'm not trying to think about that either. I'm just trying to play like I'm playing every day back at home with my buddies. And just trying to have a good time while I'm out there and as long as I do that I'm going to play what I feel like is good golf. And just take things as they go.

CRAIG SMITH: Have they called in and gave you trouble?

DUSTIN BRAY: They said they got a cruise coming up now. If I got through today they told me. So it will be interesting to see who shows up if anybody. But if not I have a great support here. My family's here and my grandparents and my aunt and uncle, so I wish my brother could be here but he's not. But he's watching me at home. So nice to know it that everybody's watching me and it's going to, it's, definitely, momentum just knowing that they're there to support me.

Q. You're coming off shooting a career low I think a 63 a couple weeks ago. Where was that?

DUSTIN BRAY: That was to get into the Amateur. That was the morning round of the Amateur qualifier. I played pretty bad. The golf course wasn't that difficult and I believe 6-under was leading and there were several guys at 5-under. And I knew I would have to go out there and shoot super low. And I just got things going. And it worked out great. And that was a lot of momentum to go into the Cardinal. And one of my main goals in the Cardinal was to go play well there so that I had momentum coming into this week. So everything is just kind of compounding and it's worked out beautifully so far.

Q. It says in your bio that you have many superstitions. You keep on changing. Talk about that. What do you mean?

DUSTIN BRAY: I don't know. It's kind of hard to explain. They change constantly. It could be the littlest thing, some day it's the quarter I'm marking the ball with sometimes it's the ball marker repairer I'm carrying.

Q. What is it this week or today?

DUSTIN BRAY: I'll tell you when the tournament's over. I can't tell you during the tournament. That's a superstition, I can't tell anybody my superstitions during the tournament.

CRAIG SMITH: What do you think? Good shape. All right. Thank you very much.

DUSTIN BRAY: Thank you.

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