U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 28, 2021

Drew Kittleson

Sankaty Head Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You jumped on this one quick, 4-up through 8. What were you doing well?

DREW KITTLESON: You know, I hit so many greens that in this wind, it's tough, so it just kind of wears on people if you're hitting a bunch of greens. It was good. Hit it great. Conditions are brutal. I'm very pleased with how everything went.

Q. Is there anything you do to make adjustments in the wind? Do you widen your stance putting or do you do anything special?

DREW KITTLESON: Well, this amount of wind, it's like shot by shot. Normally I don't do anything, but this amount of wind, yeah, whatever feels right is what I do.

Q. How much of a drain is it mentally with the wind?

DREW KITTLESON: A lot. Just you can't take like one second off. Most of the time you can play like a par-4 and hit it in the fairway and have 100 yards in and hit like a little wedge on the green, no big deal, but this is just every shot. Whoever is the last man standing will have a really nice night's sleep that night.

Q. You got your first taste of this particular championship bark at Colorado Golf Club and made match play. Did you reset your goals for this one?

DREW KITTLESON: I mean, for me, wife, kid, work, I was runner-up in the Am in college, and so to go back to the Masters would be an all-time treat. As much or as little golf as I play, I mean, this is the only one that really matters. If you finish second, nobody really cares. It's win or go home.

Q. How do you gear up for this practice-wise and all that?

DREW KITTLESON: Honestly, I just -- life is too busy for me, personally anyway, work and family and travel and COVID and all the stuff with work. So you just show up and see what you've got.

Q. How much time do you have to put into your job? It's home remodeling?

DREW KITTLESON: Yeah, we remodel bathrooms. Rebath is the company, and we do all Home Depot's bathrooms, all of Lowe's' bathrooms. We're doing close to 200 bathrooms a month. It just takes a lot of time, and golf is not a priority like it once was. Not because I don't love it, it's just life dictates what's a priority for you.

Q. Can you practice twice a week or three times a week?

DREW KITTLESON: You know what I probably do is I never practice ever. I haven't practiced since I stopped playing. But I'll go play. I would say I go in spurts. I'll play like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then I won't play for three weeks, and then I'll play Friday and Saturday and then won't play for two weeks. So I try to get out on Fridays. I don't like playing on Saturday and Sunday. It's kind of family time. But Friday afternoons is kind of my thing. If I can do it, I do it. If not, I stay enough busy at Whisper Rock where I play at in Phoenix, they've got all the money games and all the TOUR players and all these different amateur stuff and pro scratches, so I stay plenty busy, but I more just kind of show up and see what I have.