U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL

May 18, 2022

Chad Wilfong

Davis Womble

Country Club of Birmingham

Quick Quotes

Davis Womble and Chad Wilfong.

Q. First off, congratulations. You guys are USGA champions. Just put that into words what that means.

CHAD WILFONG: Oh, there are no words. You know, that's kind of the pinnacle of what you strive to achieve in this game. I tried my hand at the professional level, so had other kind of goals and objectives, but there's nothing bigger than a USGA championship.

I think we always believed that we could do it. You just have to go get it done, and it's hard to get it done.

Q. Same question to you. When I say USGA champion, what kind of thoughts enter your mind?

DAVIS WOMBLE: Yeah, I think I'll echo Chad's sentiment. You wouldn't be here if you didn't think you couldn't win. At least that's my intention. This event is special because you get to -- it's frankly more fun than the other ones just because you get to lean on a partner and if you have a hole he'll bail you out.

So it's not quite as grueling, although the number of holes we played together, we'd beg to differ. But it's certainly special.

Q. You guys went 7 & 5 this morning. You got a chance to rest. Did that have any factor in going in 19 holes in the afternoon?

DAVIS WOMBLE: I think what does it for me, I know Chad may have a different answer, we didn't get to see the last several holes, either, so that was tricky.

You get to see the putts roll around the holes. These guys got all the way to 17 in their match against Dan and Evan. That was a disadvantage, but Chad made a wonderful putt on the last hole when we needed it the most and held us through.

Q. What's going through your mind? I guess it's about eight feet, it's either make it or --

CHAD WILFONG: You just have to make it. You have to step up there and make the putt.

We were talking about going up the fairway there. You know, there were three or four other holes on the back side coming down the stretch that I had a putt just like that and I didn't make it.

And I made a good one on 17. I fully believe Davis would have made his.

But you just have to make it. You have to step up there and do what you've practiced your whole life and just have the guts to go up and make the stroke. And if it doesn't go in, I get to go home to a great family, good kids, great wife. It's not bad.

Q. You guys started out a little slow. You made your first bogey in 56 holes on No. 2 today, and you made a couple other -- I think you made two others or at least one other. Is that just fatigue?

DAVIS WOMBLE: Maybe a little bit. I mean, mental fatigue more than anything. I had a three-footer, frankly a relatively easy putt; I just overthought it and missed it on 2.

But you know, those things happen, and we stayed with it and we grinded, which you have to do in these. You're not going to be leading every match. That's just not how it goes. He made a huge putt on 18, like you said, on 18 to come back, and we both made big putts at some point this week, so it was special.

CHAD WILFONG: If you look at our rounds, we were always 5-, 6-, 7-under as we got to 14 and 15, and that was pretty consistent throughout the week.

I felt like we were playing as well as anybody, and we just didn't have that this afternoon. And a lot of it was course conditions. It got firmer, it got crispy out there, the way the USGA loves it, which is great. It's what you want in a final round in a championship match.

But there was some tiredness. There was some tired legs and some tired swings. All that together made it really tough. We may have been even or 1-under when we got to that point.

It wasn't just us. They were grinding out tough pars, too. I think it was impressive the character and the grit that all four people in the group had. It was not easy at all out there, and I know it probably didn't look like spectacular golf on some of the holes, but it was very difficult out there.

Q. You guys now get some nice perks. You're in the Amateur and the Mid-Am. I know qualifying for these things is not easy.

DAVIS WOMBLE: I hate qualifying. Qualifying is harder than making match play at these events?

Q. Your thoughts on playing those two events in August and September?

DAVIS WOMBLE: I just need to clear my schedule. That's all I know. Those are going to be long weeks, too, and we'll make sure we're there.

Q. How long were you a pro for?

CHAD WILFONG: Too long. Can we just go with that? About 10 years.

Q. How far did you get?

CHAD WILFONG: I made it to what was then the Nationwide Tour, which is the Korn Ferry Tour, so I got to the finals of TOUR school in '04 and I kept my card out there for a while and then lost it.

As my wife and I decided to have kids, that was kind of when I hung it up. I don't regret it at all. But yeah, to your point, it's interesting. Growing up I went, I think, seven years -- you guys may have the records on this -- either missing the U.S. Junior, the U.S. Am, or the U.S. Open either in a playoff or by a shot.

It's kind of been a lifelong goal to play one U.S. Amateur.

Q. Is this your first one?

CHAD WILFONG: First --

Q. USGA championship?

CHAD WILFONG: No. This is like my sixth or seventh. I've played several Mid-Ams, and we've played this before, but I've never played a U.S. Am. That was always one of my goals --

DAVIS WOMBLE: Took you 41 years.

CHAD WILFONG: -- in my life, and I'm running out of time to play one. That means more than you think.

Q. You guys are the first medalists to win this championship.

CHAD WILFONG: Really?

Q. We've never even had one get to the final.

CHAD WILFONG: How about that.

DAVIS WOMBLE: That's cool. We'll take it.

We were the 3 seed, though, so we were the underdog of the medalists.

Q. Still the medalists. Still counts. You guys beat a pretty good team this morning, too. Those guys were --

DAVIS WOMBLE: We were rolling this morning. We really were. I played really nicely, and Chad complemented me well and then the opposite.

CHAD WILFONG: I'll say this: There's no bad teams that make match play. They're all good, and any one of them can get hot and run you right off the golf course if you're not careful.

We just happened to be that team for a couple of our matches.