THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 2022

Alex Maguire

Quick Quotes

Q. Through to the quarterfinals. Tell us about your day?

ALEX MAGUIRE: : It started off great. Well, playing against Mark Power, one of the best amateurs in the world, you want to have your game, and luckily I played well this morning. It was a great match against Mark. It's sort of tough to beat one of your friends. I know he wanted to win this so much.

But it was nice to get through that round and then played quite well in the afternoon and struggled on the back nine. I think a bit of fatigue sort of crept in. And then I had a neck injury on the very first hole today that sort of was creeping back in today and it was quite sore to move to my right.

But yeah, I'm just lucky to get over the line today.

Q. What about your game is playing well just now? Because you came off the back of the East Ireland as well.

ALEX MAGUIRE: : Yeah, I managed to win that last week. I'm coming with a good bit of form. I'm driving it quite well and I feel it's a very intimidating golf course to drive.

The bunkers are not really -- there's no really where to hit it. You just sort of hope it doesn't get into a bunker. I'm driving it quite well, and that means I'm not in too much trouble. I found a few bunkers in the afternoon but that's going to happen no matter how long you play here.

Q. We saw your dad this morning. He was very nervous. What was it like to be around? And tomorrow will be live. How many people will be tuning in to watch you?

ALEX MAGUIRE: : I hope there's a good bit of people. He came over Sunday, him and my mother came over. Yeah, he doesn't really deal well with the nerves. He's very, very nervous. He's not quite nervous but at a huge event like this, you know how much it means to me and how much it would mean to win. So I think he's just anxious for the result every time.

Q. What have you thought of the golf course this week?

ALEX MAGUIRE: : It is sensational. Not that I didn't like it but I didn't think how I could shoot less than 80 in a practise round. It was ver windy and extremely hard.

Then when I played it, I realised, yeah, it's tough like but if you hit it on the fairway, it doesn't back as tough as it's made out to be. It's still extremely challenging and every single shot, you've got to be on point and you've got to focus. Can't even think of any easy shot out there that you can't really let your guard down but it's in such good condition and it's an absolute joy to play every day.

Q. Few matches get to play in the 150th Open at St Andrews. When does that start to creep into the mind?

ALEX MAGUIRE: : Started creeping in last week when I was coming to play. A lot of my friends and my parents friends are texting me saying, it's only like six rounds to The Open. But I know I've done half of those.

Look, you never know what happens the next couple days. I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself. Sort of thinking of St Andrews and Augusta and all that sort of stuff but I have two matches tomorrow, one match in the morning and that's my main priority to win that one.

Q. Would this be the biggest week of your life?

ALEX MAGUIRE: : Absolutely, yeah. It's probably the biggest week of anyone's life if you win this. I've won a few tournaments at home and one over in the States but nothing the size of this. I mean, again, any amateur in the world really wants to win this and obviously the stuff that comes with it. Yeah, it definitely would be the biggest week.