U.S JUNIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

July 27, 2022

Luke Clanton

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. In terms of the score, it was kind of an easy match; was it?

LUKE CLANTON: I wouldn't say nothing is easy ever. But he's a good kid. He's young, 15 years old. When I was 14 I got my bootie slapped 6 & 4. He was a good kid, and I just played really solid golf today. I didn't really do much wrong, and he had a couple mistakes and I took advantage of it.

Q. Tell me about your start. You're up five after eight holes.

LUKE CLANTON: Yeah, it was good. Again, I just didn't make any mistakes. There was a couple tough pins out there, and if you put it in the wrong position you can make bogey easy. I made a couple birdies, I think I shot 3 or 4 on the front and made a couple birdies on the back. Just a pretty good round. That's it.

Q. Tell me how you made the birdie at 8 and 12.

LUKE CLANTON: Birdie on 8, that was a pretty good birdie. I hit it right down the middle. I had 88 yards in and hit it to five feet, just kind of right up the hill, banged it in and went to 12 and that was a good birdie. That was 200 yards into the wind. Hit a 6-iron to a foot. That kind of really helped out the round a little bit.

Out there I was kind of -- really didn't even know what was happening. I didn't know how much I was up. I really didn't care that much. Just tried to play golf. When I heard it was dormie, it was kind of nice on the tee on the next one, just rip it. So pretty cool.

Q. Did you feel a sense of relief today because you had to hustle to get in the match yesterday.

LUKE CLANTON: Yeah, it was good. Again, everyone was texting me and calling me yesterday or two days ago asking me what happened. I really just said nothing. It was just one bad shot and put me a little bit behind. I knew my game was there and it's been there all summer. When it came back on the front nine, shot 5-under, I kind of knew, okay, let's just get into a good seed now.

Yeah, it was pretty nerve-racking yesterday to kind of come back and make match play. But I made it, and got advanced in the first round.

Q. Does that give you a sense of confidence when you know you can ramp it?

LUKE CLANTON: Yeah, for sure. Again, just made a couple dumb mistakes and that was it. Just junior golf mistakes, as you say. But I'm learning and keep learning through every single round, so this round I learned a little bit more about the course and the greens and I'm ready, man.

Q. Your experience last year in the Junior and even how far you went, how much is that helping you this time around?

LUKE CLANTON: Yeah, a lot. It just kind of helps me take it slower. You can get real a head of yourself out here. You've got a lot of matches, 36 holes tomorrow and 36 holes the next day. Just can't get ahead of yourself out here. There's a lot of good players, a lot of good matches, so we'll see what happens.

Q. For you what's the difference between stroke play and match play other than the obvious?

LUKE CLANTON: Match play is more mental. I feel like you've got to be mentally stronger and really just stay in it every single shot because you never know what can happen. One guy can make an eagle putt from 50 feet or make a bogey on the hole.

Today I just really expected him to play the best he could and shoot 5-under on the front, whatever it was, but I just played pretty well and he didn't play the best, so it worked out.

Q. The conditions were a little bit different today; we had a lot of wind the first couple of days and in the practice rounds, but today the wind laid down a little bit.

LUKE CLANTON: Well, yeah. I don't mind the wind. I'm from Miami, so it blows like 30 there all the time. I made it a little bit easier today. I knew they moved some tees around and moved a little bit further back on some holes, moved it a little bit shorter. Again, I have a good game plan set, so me and my caddie are ready to do it.