U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2022

Michael Thorbjornsen

The Ridgewood Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Coming down the stretch, you're in control of at least being medalist. What happened on the 18th hole?

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: I haven't really been hitting my driver well the whole day, some left, some right. Basically every single one has been pure in the center of the face, just haven't really been in the gym in a while. My upper body is probably -- I have no muscle awareness up there, so who knows where the ball is going at that point. At least I'm making good contact. Hit into the bunker, kind of was in between clubs, took the longer club, and I had maybe -- 56-degree wedge and like 113, 114. Should have taken the lob, I think, given a full swing because whenever you take off a little bit from the bunker, you have to be so on it that -- anyway, I kind of fatted it and had like 40, 50 yards, hit a pretty good pitch to eight feet, and three-putted from there.

Q. Is there any disappointment in not being solo medalist? Is that something that you wanted?

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: Yeah. I mean, medalist, solo medalist, same thing, but it's also match play tomorrow. It doesn't really matter. Kind of just more disappointed in myself for just doubling the last hole, whether it's for nothing or for the whole tournament to win the U.S. Amateur or win medalist or whatever. I just don't like playing bad golf.

Q. Nice stretch where you birdied three in a row. Tell me how that went.

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: Yeah. Hit finally a good drive, my first good drive of the day. I hit a good one on 1, but first good drive after that on hole 8. Had maybe I think 190, hit an 8-iron to like four feet. That was a nice knock-in there.

9 is a pretty short par-5, went driver, hit a pretty bad 5-iron left of the green, had to bump it up in the hill, made like a nice 12-footer there.

Then hit a good drive again on 10, good 56-degree wedge to maybe like 12-ish feet, 15 feet there, and poured that one in, as well.

Whenever birdies come in bunches like that, you kind of forget how many you made. It definitely felt nice after definitely a really shaky start. I had to grind a lot those first six, seven holes.

Q. Do you have the kind of momentum you need for match play?

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: Yeah, I'd say so. Kind of just going to forget about this last hole here, sort out my driver tomorrow morning or whenever I'm seeing off, maybe hit the gym or something, I don't know, because it's unacceptable the way I'm hitting my driver right now, especially at Ridgewood.

Q. You've played in so many U.S. Amateurs and gotten to match play and gotten far. All that experience, how is that going to help you the next couple days?

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: I hope it helps. Yeah, it's definitely going to help. Just playing all these match play events, I think this is my fifth U.S. Am, I kind of know how it's going to go. I'm really happy that we're playing Ridgewood as a match play course. Very tough, have to hit the ball well. I played well there yesterday. Felt like I can play well again there tomorrow and this upcoming week.

Yeah, it's completely new tomorrow. Who cares about what happened today? I'm going to try and forget about it.

Q. You've had success in a PGA TOUR event this year; what did you learn in just that event alone about yourself that maybe you didn't know before?

MICHAEL THORBJORNSEN: That I can still take it pretty low out there with the best guys in the world. I can still compete with those guys. It shows that I'm on the right path. Also learned that I think I led that week in strokes gained putting, so that definitely gave me a lot of confidence because the greens were rolling so well over there, and I think some of the TOUR players were complaining how they were bumpy, and I'm like, this is nothing compared to college. This is the best greens I've putted on this summer.

Then just coming to the U.S. Am, you know the conditions are going to be perfect, just like a TOUR event. Yeah, I feel very confident with my putter out here, and it showed. I made a couple putts today and a couple putts yesterday, as well.