U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2022

Beau Brushert

Chambers Bay

Quick Quotes

Q. What do you make of her game? Pretty good, right?

BEAU BRUSHERT: Yeah, it's really good. First practice rounds were last weekend, and the first day, Saturday, I knew she was something special. I mean, she hits it a long ways off the tee, and watched her hit approach shots all day and got dialed in on her yardage, and I think what was the most exceptional thing was just watching her around the greens. You saw that chip-in today on 5. She takes that little 58-degree wedge anywhere off the green and just every time it's got a chance to go in. You think it might go in.

It was her putting. Like I said earlier, I don't think she had one three-putt all week, which is amazing on these greens. They're so undulated. They're fast. But her putting won it for her. She just putted great all week.

I think Thursday came along, and that's kind of really when we meshed, and the trust factor kicked in, and she started making a lot of putts on Thursday morning, and she's been making them ever since, and here we are.

Q. She kind of has this quiet confidence it seems like but cracks a few smiles with you every once in a while. What do you think of her demeanor?

BEAU BRUSHERT: Well, I loved her demeanor. I tried -- there's a little bit of a language barrier, but I could tell if she got a little quiet I tried to give her a little smile and just get her mind off stuff. But her poise and her composure is amazing.

What was impressive about her, if she made a mistake on a hole or lost a hole, like you saw kind of she missed that putt on 3 earlier in the second 18, and that just woke her up. She birdied five of the next six holes. That's kind of what she did all week. If she made a mistake, lost a hole, it woke her up and she bounced right back. She didn't let it get her down. She's amazing. She's a lot of fun to watch.

Q. She had that kind of stretch against Lauren I think in the quarters where she had the four birdies to end the nine and then the eagle on 12. Seems like it gets hot, she gets red hot.

BEAU BRUSHERT: Yeah, and she goes. She's a lot of fun to watch. I had a lot of fun this week. We just kind of got paired up by chance, and it sort of worked out, didn't it.

Q. How many times did she hole out this week? She had the chip on 7, the chip today on 12 --

BEAU BRUSHERT: And 12. I think those were the three. But I'll tell you, that little 58-degree wedge, she burned a lot of lips. She got up-and-down from a lot of different places. That 58-degree wedge and her putter won her this tournament.

Q. What's better, the short game or the iron game?

BEAU BRUSHERT: Well, I was telling Kay earlier, there's some times I told her, when she was up in some matches, hey, we've got to miss right. We've got to be five, six, eight yards right of that flag. That's the safe play. That's where we're going to good, we'll two-putt and get out of it, and then I look up and she's firing right at the flagstick.

But like I said, she has no fear, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Q. Was the fairway bunker shot on 5 this morning one of those where she goes right next to the pot bunker and --

BEAU BRUSHERT: And then makes the putt. That's just -- yeah, she just does stuff like that. As soon as you think she's in a little bit of trouble, she just does something like that, and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Q. I don't know that she missed an iron shot today, like the middle of the face. It seemed like she was just flushing it all day.

BEAU BRUSHERT: Yeah, she hits it on the button. I think the 7-iron that she hit on 7, she flared it a little bit, but she's back there and two-putted. That's just what she does. Yeah, she's pretty amazing. 17 years old, I can't believe it. It's unbelievable.

Q. Last weekend during the practice rounds and even when you said you'd caddied in the Women's Am, did you have other plans this week? Did you expect to be caddying like all the way through the weekend?

BEAU BRUSHERT: Well, I mean, you see you have somebody that's talented, so your mind wakes up. I've been here 13 seasons, and a lot of loops under my belt. I'd better know these greens pretty good. So yeah, you get somebody that's really talented and you really focus and go, okay, let's do this. I know after we beat Jennifer Cleary Wednesday round of 64 was a tough match that went back and forth, nobody got more than 1-up and we had to go all the way to 18 to win 1-up, but after that, she was ready and started playing, making putts, and she got her confidence in her putting, and here we are.

Q. What's the experience been like for you? I've seen people -- the NoLayingUp guys on Twitter were giving you a shout-out. There's guys over the last 13 years who you've caddied for --

BEAU BRUSHERT: Yeah, some guys down at Pebble, some buddies at Pebble, Streamsong have shouted out. The last week, 150 text messages every night after the round. It's fun. Just sit there, try to watch a little bit of the clips of the coverage and just answering text messages back, thanks for the shout, thanks for the load of confidence. Yeah, and just lots of people I've caddied here over the years that see me regularly just hitting me up, too. Yeah, it was nice. It was a lot of fun.