U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2022

Stewart Hagestad

The Ridgewood Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Quarterfinals, second time. How does it feel?

STEWART HAGESTAD: Great. Really great. I'm a little tired. But yeah, feels great. Excited to be playing golf tomorrow.

Q. This one wasn't easy --

STEWART HAGESTAD: None of them are. They're all good. All the kids are good.

Yeah, he played great and putts the lights out of it. Obviously I played great this morning. You look at the card and it's tough to back up rounds like that and to have kind of a quick turnaround. I'm really proud of the way that I was able to kind of have a light reprieve at lunch and then go back out there and go play well.

Q. Do you feel like you played just as well this afternoon as you did this morning?

STEWART HAGESTAD: What did I make this morning, eight birdies and an eagle? Golf was really easy, so I think it would be kind of irresponsible to say I did or didn't, but I hit a lot of good shots coming down the stretch. There on 17, hit a great drive, hit a great second shot when I really needed to. A win is a win, and that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Q. What's it tell you about yourself to keep beating these young kids?

STEWART HAGESTAD: The dumb answer here is nothing. But for the sake of answering the question in a more polite way, I feel very lucky and fortunate to have qualified for a handful of USGA events, then obviously to have been exempt and to have played a bunch of USGA events. I'm not saying I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination. You're certainly continually surprised by how good the college players, juniors, amateurs are. Look at Andrew from yesterday; he took down Mike, and until yesterday, until the playoff, outside of Spokane, his close friends, I hadn't heard of him, but apparently he was an Old Hickory champion. The point is there's great players everywhere.

To kind of roll that back to your original question of having played in a lot of USGA events, I think I know how to prepare a little bit better. I kind of know what to expect a little bit better. I know what it feels like to be in those pressure situations.

But then I also think part of being older is obviously if I play great this week, that would be amazing. That would be an incredible accomplishment. To even get to the quarters is a pretty impressive accomplishment.

But for lack of a better term, I don't think my life changes that much, right, so like -- that's like the most arrogant if you want to read it that way in print thing you could say, but I think it's nice to maybe not be like a younger side where like it's not a product of like what I don't know. I've played in the Masters. I've played in the U.S. Open. Of course I would like to play it again. It would be an amazing, amazing accomplishment, and I'd be blown away. But you've got to beat one kid tomorrow and we've got to beat a kid on Saturday if we get that far and so on.

I think it's an honor to have made it this far and to keep playing, but I don't think we at this point in the game need to read much more into it than that. There's a lot there to try to put something that my mom would be proud of for saying.

Q. You've spent a lot of time in this area. You're kind of back to this area at some point, right?

STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, in April of 2023 until October of 2023, yeah.

Q. And obviously in 2020 at Bandon you made the quarters, but it was COVID, kind of a bubble, there weren't that many people here --

STEWART HAGESTAD: What are you trying to say, man?

Q. Is it going to feel a little different and maybe a little bit more special tomorrow just because of where you are and who's going to be watching you?

STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, no, I think I give a lot of credit to Jay Mottola before Brian Mahoney and now Brian Mahoney with the MGA. I owe a tremendous amount of credit to my growth as both a player and person just across the board to everything that they've done for me. I kind of harken back to a lot of things that I learned in this area, and I feel very -- I wouldn't say comfortable is the right word, but I feel very at home in this area and a lot of my really close friends are here and I'm staying with some friends this week, this McBrides. Every time I get a chance to come back, it's always a welcome event.

Q. Tomorrow you're going to see Sam Bennett --

STEWART HAGESTAD: I'm playing Sam tomorrow?

Q. He's gone through kind of a tough draw himself.

STEWART HAGESTAD: Oh, really? Hold on, let's run through --

Q. You're adding to his draw is what I'm saying.

STEWART HAGESTAD: Adding to his draw? I've had a tough draw. I played the No. 1 kid in Great Britain and Ireland, then I played the No. 1 junior in the country. I thought we were going to get Sargent. Hayden was great. Yeah, it's all about Sam. I don't want to hear it. I'm 31. I'm old.

Q. Tell me what you know about Sam, though.

STEWART HAGESTAD: He's the second ranked American -- no, he's the first ranked American. I think he's third in the world. He's coming back to Texas A&M. I told him at the U.S. Open that what I really liked about him that you probably can't put in print, but he's got a lot of piss and vinegar in him. He's got a lot of -- if anyone remembers Dylan Meyer, he's got a lot of Dylan Meyer.

Q. So you're expecting a feisty match?

STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, I don't think we'll talk very much. But I respect the hell out of him. He's really, really good. I hope that's mutual.