U.S JUNIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 2021

Jonathan Griz

The Country Club of North Carolina

Quick Quotes

Q. There's got to be some satisfaction in winning that match this afternoon.

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, definitely. Playing against Caleb, he's like a brother to me, and just being able to kind of compete against him, and he's been playing some unreal golf. He's arguably the No. 1 junior in the world right now, so to be able to take him down, it's unreal. It feels amazing.

Q. You had quite a stretch there on the back side where you won like four or five holes. Tell me about that stretch. There was a conceded eagle in there? Or was it a conceded birdie?

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yes, on 12, so 12 is a par-5. I got 1-down after 10, and then I won 11, got back to all square, and then I hit a 5-iron to about 12 feet on 12 for eagle, and my eagle putt was -- yeah, it was conceded. He kind of got into some trouble off the tee and he had to chip out and then it was kind of over after he hit his third shot and then he missed his putt for par, so he conceded my eagle. I went up 1-up there, and that kind of really gave a lot of -- momentum was completely back on my side after that eagle on 12.

Q. And then you got a birdie on 14?

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, so hit a great tee shot on 14. I had pitching wedge in. It was about 138 up the hill. I hit it to about 12 feet and just poured it right in and gave it a huge fist pump.

Q. What kind of emotion do you have at the end of a day like this because those double days are tough.

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, they are tough. Mostly you just have to keep eating, you have to keep drinking, and you just kind of have to understand that in match play every shot really does count. I mean, you can't -- the other thing, too, in match play, it's all about momentum. You've got to focus on not letting your guard down, and I really tried to focus on that today, just not trying to give any room of kind of weakness in there, and I feel like I did a pretty good job of that in the afternoon round with Caleb.

Q. You're the only guy in this field that's played in a Korn Ferry TOUR event to my knowledge. Obviously you qualified for it. What did you learn playing with those kind of guys that maybe helped you this week?

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, I definitely learned a lot. I learned -- I played with Trey Mullinax in the practice round, and he kind of showed me what he does with his yardage books and stuff in practice rounds. I learned definitely a good bit from him in the practice rounds. I just learned playing with those guys, they make every putt inside 10 feet pretty much. They rarely ever hit the ball out of bounds. It's not necessarily like oohing-and-aahing stuff, they're so consistent with what they do and they go through pretty much the same process, or at least the best players in the world, they go through the same process and they just stick to that. Even on days that it's not working they're still sticking to a process and committing to a golf shot. That's definitely the main thing I learned from that week.

Q. How much momentum do you have going into the quarterfinals tomorrow?

JONATHAN GRIZ: I've got a lot of momentum. There's still a lot of golf to play. These are the best players in the world. I'm grateful to be here, but I'm going to have to play amazing golf tomorrow, and I just thank the Lord I made it this far.

Q. The golf course Dogwood changed over the last two days from stroke play.

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, it did.

Q. Are you comfortable with the firm and fast conditions?

JONATHAN GRIZ: Yeah, I was amazed. I hit a wedge shot on 1 in the round-of-64 match. I landed this thing -- it was like 80 yards and I landed it 20 feet short of the pin probably and I was off the green. In stroke play it was like soft, it was like spinny, and it's a completely different golf course. You really have to adjust to that. It's a world-class golf course right now. The greens are unbelievably fast. You have to put yourself on the right side of the holes. Greens are firm. If you hit it in the rough you can't stop it in some areas. It's a world-class golf course right now for sure.