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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2004

Andy Svoboda

MAMARONECK, NEW YORK

PETE KOWALSKI: Andy, thanks for joining us. If you could go through the significant holes in the match, where you won and if there might have been a point in the match where you maybe took control. Detail that for us, please.

ANDY SVOBODA: I think one of the early turning points in the round was on 5. I knocked it in there like five feet past in three and he knocked it on the green in two and he hit his lag putt up about two and a half, three feet. My putt lipped out and I made par. He had like a 3-footer for the win and he lips it out. He comes around and it goes about six feet by and he misses that. So, that was a big hole.

Let's see, I made a great up-and-down on 9 and so did he. That was a big hole.

10 was good. I made birdie on 10. And then 11 was not -- 11, I hit a real bad tee shot left. Hit it out-of-bounds but then after that, I played great. I made par on 12 for a win, par on 13 for a win. We both made great up-and-downs on 14.

15, he hit a great shot in there about a 5-iron off a downhill lie and that's the toughest pin spot on that green, by far. Hit a 9-iron, hit a great shot in there like three feet. He made a great 12-footer, and I made that, was a big putt to stay 2-up, or 3-up. []

Then 16, I had 186. Hit a 5-iron, a great shot, just a little long. Made a good two-putt for the win.

PETE KOWALSKI: We've been seeing the crowds go a little bit when your starting time is announced. What does that do for and you how many folks do you think were watching you today?

ANDY SVOBODA: I'd say there was about a 100, maybe 150 people out there watching which is incredible. It's the experience of a lifetime to play the U.S. Amateur at your home golf course. I think it's tough on my opponents because they are rooting pretty hard for me. It's just quite an experience and it's nice to have them out there.

Q. Did you find that the local knowledge helps you in match-play?

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, I misread a lot of putts today. I misread a putt on 7. Misread a putt on 8. Some of the pin placements are different than, you know, I'm used to. But obviously, there's a lot of local knowledge with grain on the greens. Just certain pin placements where you can miss it and have an easier chip, things like that.

Q. Are you by any chance relative or relation to Rob Swoboda?

ANDY SVOBODA: No. His is with a W.

Q. Did you say you were fighting it down the front nine a little bit, more so than yesterday?

ANDY SVOBODA: What do you mean?

Q. Were you not as crisp or as sharp.

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, my iron play was not good on the front nine. I didn't hitÃ‚Â -- I hit a lot of bad iron shots. I hit a real bad iron shot on 4. Had 7-iron from the middle of the fairway and missed the green right.

6, I had sand wedge and flew it over the green, which is a big mistake there but I was fortunate to get it up-and-down.

7, I didn't hit a good iron shot. 8, I didn't hit a good iron shot. But played well coming in on the back.

Q. Just curious if you are not as sharp as you had been, to still be up at that point, you have to have a ton of confidence because you probably figured you've got to turn it around at some point?

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, I think 5 and 6 were big early, keeping the lead, very easily could have lost both of those holes and get away with a win on 5 was just unbelievable. To get it up-and-down on 6, I made about a 15-footer for par, so just to stay ahead and keep the momentum was big.

Q. How would you evaluate the way you played overall and the feeling you have now of breaking through beyond the first round.

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, it's great. I played and made The Match Play twice at East Lake and played a good match there against Robert Hamilton, the kid who lost to Bubba Dickerson (ph) in the finals. He was making everything, making 30-footers, not much I could have done about that match.

Last year at Oakmont, I was 1-up it and two to play and I missed 17 with a lob-wedge on the middle of the fairway, so to go and lose the match I was really disappointed. It's just great to come through and win.

Q. How would you evaluate your performance overall today?

ANDY SVOBODA: It was pretty good. I'd like to putt a little bit better, but I think on the back nine, I played really strong. My up-and-down on 14, my birdie on 15 were key.

I played well. This is a tough golf course, I was a couple over par which isn't anything great, but, you know, pars are good out there. Pars are a good score on this course.

Q. Do you have any preference, match-play, medal play?

ANDY SVOBODA: Well, I'm pretty consistent and most people say I'm better at medal-play, but I like match-play. I enjoy playing match-play. I think it's a different animal. It's a different type of golf. But I like it. It's fun.

Q. Do you think of any unusual shots or unusual turns in a match that you've been involved in?

ANDY SVOBODA: Today or any?

Q. At any point.

ANDY SVOBODA: Any point? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Q. Was there anything unusual in your round today, turning point?

ANDY SVOBODA: I don't think so. There wasn't any holed shots or chip-ins or anything crazy.

Q. You won the club championship four times?

ANDY SVOBODA: Yes, sir.

Q. Playing this golf course, so you must know it; you must know every nook and cranny in there.

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, I've started off playing here when I was 10 years old.

Q. What's the best you've ever shot?

ANDY SVOBODA: I shot 65 on the West. That's my lowest.

Q. Is it at all weird to be playing your home course, a course that you've played constantly and have crowds following you, TV camera on you, was it at all strange feeling?

ANDY SVOBODA: It was strange like in the beginning of the week. I was like, what are all of these people doing here? I'm like, "oh, yeah, it's the U.S. Amateur."

It's definitely different. I knew that there this obviously was going to be here, but I'm getting used to it by now. It was great having the big gallery yesterday and playing so well. I was expecting it yesterday and I wasn't as nervous today. I'm much more calmer and more relaxed. Yesterday was a lot harder for me.

Q. How often do you play this course?

ANDY SVOBODA: See, I don't seenÃ‚Â -- I play practice and play here, I play at night a lot, nine holes. I don't really play 18 holes here that often plus I'm traveling and playing other events. I haven't been playing here much leading up to this. I was playing in the Mid-Amateur for a week at Stanwich, before that I was up at the Porter Cup for a while. It's not like I'm playing here every single day.

Q. Any change for tomorrow? Is there anything that you can do to kind of prepare more or do you just go out and play?

ANDY SVOBODA: I think the key is just get comfortable early out there. Just manage my emotions out there and stay calm and drive the ball well. If you don't drive the ball well out here, you don't have much chance. And short game, you've got to get it up-and-down when you've got the opportunity. You've got to make 10- and 6-footers for par out here.

Q. How about your mental approach?

ANDY SVOBODA: Mental approach?

Q. Do you change anything at all?

ANDY SVOBODA: I'm not going to change anything. I think I just need[] to obviously, driving the ball on the fairway I think is so big here. You're just going to put so much pressure on the other guy if you're in the fairway and they have to deal with the rough. It's just the way the rough is, I can'tÃ‚Â -- some of these guys, maybe some of these stronger players can, but I can't muscle it out of there and get it on the green. It's a big key to hit it in the fairway.

Q. Who is your teacher? Have you worked with anybody here or in the area?

ANDY SVOBODA: I haven't had lessons for quite a while. But I used work with Frank Benzel, he's an assistant pro at Century.

Q. What happens to this golf course if the winds come up and we get some rain?

ANDY SVOBODA: Well, this golf course with wind, it will be brutal. It's hard as it is. With wind, it will be really, par will be a real premium out there. You won't be seeing too many birdies. The way the course is set up, the par 4s are so long that to play them into the wind would just beÃ‚Â -- to play 9 into the wind, you can't get there now without wind. Drive it in the fairway you've got about 235 into that green.

So it's playing long. Hopefully we don't get anymore rain so we can get a little roll.

Q. Obviously Winged Foot has a reputation as a very difficult course, just look at the major that is have been playing here but from talking to some of the other players, that it almost has taken them by surprise at how difficult it is playing?

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, I mean, this course, it couldn't play any harder. When you're getting 30 yards of roll, you're playing a 370-yard hole it's not so bad, you've got maybe 6-irons, 7-irons, 8-irons. But when it's so soft like this, you're hitting long irons into these greens. And with some of the pin placements out there, it just makes it so much more difficult.

Q. You had not won a match in match-play in the U.S. Am?

ANDY SVOBODA: Right.

Q. Just that alone, you probably have bigger goals for this week, or maybe you don't, but how big of that alone as a hurdle, just colleague that one thing that you had not done before?

ANDY SVOBODA: Well, I don't think of it like that. It's obviously a big step to get by the first round. I'm hoping to go deeper into this week. Just got to take it one match at a time and I'm excited that I won my first round. The kid I played was a good player and it was a tough match.

PETE KOWALSKI: Going back a little bit more to local knowledge, who is your caddie and did you have to have a lottery in order to pick somebody because there were a budge how did you do.

ANDY SVOBODA: This kid his name is Ilya Falkovich, he's a Russian kid. We've been friends since the fourth grade and he's caddied in every other Amateur that I've played in. He caddied for me in the qualifier. He's more there for emotional and like personal support. I know this course pretty well.

Q. He's not clubbing you?

ANDY SVOBODA: No.

Q. Do you ever use him?

ANDY SVOBODA: Yeah, I'll ask him for a few reads out there, but if I don't know it by now, I shouldn't be out here. (Laughter.)

PETE KOWALSKI: Andy, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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