U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 30, 2021

Nick Maccario

Sankaty Head Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously it's tough to sum up the week as a whole, but you got off to a rough start this morning. Can you talk to me a little bit about how the day started?

NICK MACCARIO: Yeah, the second hole didn't hit a great shot. Mark was already in there two feet, so I pretty much conceded he was going to make birdie, so I kind of tried to get frisky with a bunker shot. That wasn't too bad.

Fourth hole I got a bad lie and lipped it out, fifth hole lipped out a putt, sixth hole same thing. Hit a lot of good putts that I thought were going to go in that didn't go in, you know, and he played phenomenal. He made no bogeys and shot 4-under on the front nine.

Q. You've also got to be very proud about the way you battled back I would think because you got it to No. 17 and that's not necessarily a consolation, but you hung in there and you made it a competitive -- and gave yourself a chance, right?

NICK MACCARIO: Yeah, totally, and throughout the beginning of the back nine, I said, I have to do to him what he did to me more or less. I think I made two or three birdies on the back side, and he matched them for the most part.

Getting to 17, I thought we might get to 18, he made a good putt at the end, but when we were standing on 16, you've got to make birdie or go home. 17 you've got to at least make birdie or go home, and we did that. He matched it, and it was good playing.

Q. This week allows you to be in the next two U.S. Mid-Ams and also some other perks with it. Obviously it brings you on to the national stage where a lot of people might not have known of you before. Can you sum up the week as a whole?

NICK MACCARIO: Yeah, playing in your home state is huge. Being able to book at last two trips to the next two Mid-Ams is fantastic. I've got some family in Wisconsin, so that will be a fun week.

Yeah, when you come here -- I came here more than a week ago, I think nine days ago, and you don't plan on nine days, and you want to, but it's hard, so to be able to do it and figuratively make it to the last day, you've got to be happy.

For me, like you said, on the national stage, I've been to some tournaments this year that have been on the national stage, and it's not that I didn't feel like I was there, but I really hadn't competed at that point, and now we can erase that and go forward.

Q. You also mentioned seeing in preparation perhaps and also in competing with some other players, you learned a lot, too.

NICK MACCARIO: Totally, yeah. There's a bunch of guys who you have lunch with and you don't necessarily ask questions to, but you can just see how they go about things, how they like to practice, how they even play, too. Even if we're not playing or how they're hitting shots, and you've got to hit all different types of shots to win on all different golf courses. You can't bring one game to one golf course. No better description than this week with all the wind.

I think that's a nice concession for the week.

Q. And also just being in your home state, too, to have performed this well. You were kind of representing Massachusetts, New England, your college friends, et cetera. A lot of people where you could just feel that support?

NICK MACCARIO: Totally. Once we started to get to the back nine and some more people showed up and I made the putt on 11 that he matched but then made the putt on 13, you started to hear like come on, you can do this, and all of that, which is fantastic. We got to 15 and extended to match to 16 tee, there were obviously a fair amount of people there, but always the whole week, just Massachusetts is rooting for you. Even the superintendent and his guys were coming up to me this morning early saying it.

It's the only one that's been held here. The goal was to try to get to the Country Club next year. The goal still is to do that, but now have to do it a little bit harder of a way. But either way, to be able to play golf in your home state and have a couple hundred people be around is fantastic.