U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 12, 2021

Devon Bling

Oakmont Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You had a battle there a little bit on the back nine.

DEVON BLING: Yeah, no, it was a grind all day. Khavish played great. I think both of us were under par, and this is difficult golf course where there is only like 5- or 6-under par scores total over stroke play.

So it was battle and it was a grind, and I played really well. I'm pretty proud of myself closing it out there.

Q. Tell me about the eagle at 12.

DEVON BLING: I just hit a good drive and it ends up into the first cut; 2-iron came out perfectly from 288 and hit it to the back right of the green and ended up holing the 30-footer for eagle.

Yeah, it just played out perfectly.

Q. At that point did you feel like you were in control?

DEVON BLING: It's Oakmont. You know, anything can happen out here. You have one lapse in concentration and you're losing the hole. I know I made eagle on 12, but I knew the job wasn't finished. It wasn't going to be done until it's done.

I know how match play works.

Q. What carried you through today? Was there a certain aspect of your game that got you over the hump?

DEVON BLING: I just enjoy the grinding and I enjoy the difficulty of this golf course. I think I'm playing a round against the golf course, and if I play a good round, I'll take the result, whatever it may be.

So what got me through today was just being out here and enjoying it really.

Q. You said earlier in the week this was a big boy golf course. Expand upon that. What do you mean?

DEVON BLING: It requires good shots. You can't hit a bad shot. In certain parts of the golf course, I know a lot other golf courses, Oh, I can miss it here, I can miss it there.

Over here sometimes you just have to sit there and say, I got to hit a golf shot here. I've got to hit this down the left side of the fairway. You got to hit spots on fairways. You can't even hit it down the right side because it'll kick into the rough.

It's just a golf course where you got to piece your way around, and I'm really proud of the way I've done it so far.

Q. Was the golf course a little softer than it was the last couple days?

DEVON BLING: Much softer, yeah. You could slap it out of the rough within a couple feet and it never seemed to be an issue of getting one tumbling over the green.

It played really soft, but I guess that's because of rain we've got in the last couple days.