U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 14, 2022

Brad Nurski

Erin Hills

Quick Quotes

Q. So you like playing in this championship.

BRAD NURSKI: Yeah. You know, I can't really hang with the kids anymore. I'm getting old. 43 is getting up there. But yeah, I love it. I love match play. It's just an honor to get to be able to even play in this championship, in a USGA event.

Yeah, I just love it. You can make an 8 and still have a chance to win. It's a great time.

Q. What is it about -- obviously you got to the final in '14, but do you still have that taste where you want to win it all?

BRAD NURSKI: Yeah. That's the reason why you come. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I had a chance to win or make a deep run. I've got a lot of people that helped me out back home, especially my wife and my buddies along with my other duties I've got now with being an assistant golf coach. It's a little bit more hectic, but I'm enjoying it.

Q. Where are you an assistant now?

BRAD NURSKI: At my hometown school. They're a DII school that's called Missouri Western State University. One of my great friends, Matt Thrasher, he's a head coach now, and he kind of picked me to be his assistant, and I'm enjoying it. We're men's and women's coach, so it's fun.

Q. Do you pick up any energy off the young kids, being around them that much?

BRAD NURSKI: Yeah. You know, Christian today, he kept talking like he was an oldest guy in his state amateur, and I said, Well, how old are you. He said, 28. I said, oh, boy, I'm 15 years older than you. I'm getting to be the old guy now, which is fine. As long as I can compete a little bit, I'll still give it a whirl.

Q. What's it like to be playing this on a U.S. Open course because that doesn't happen too often?

BRAD NURSKI: No, very rare. It's a U.S. Open test. Obviously you guys could move the tees back if you wanted, but I'm glad that you didn't.

It's difficult. You have to have your sight lines right and you've got to putt it, and if you miss a green, you're in trouble. You've got to obviously putt it really well and drive it real well, and I did that this afternoon.

Q. You got off to a great start, and you had 8, 9, 10 running where you pulled away. Tell me about some of those holes.

BRAD NURSKI: 8, I actually thought I hit the drive a little left and the guy said it just landed perfect in the left rough, and I hit it down there, hit a chip 8-iron from I think I had like 150 into the wind and hit it to about six feet. He was right side of the green, literally almost had no chance unless he made a long putt for par.

I hit a good shot to the back of the green on 9, two-putted, and he kind of gave me that one.

Then I hit it to two feet on 10. It was hanging on the lip on 11. I should have breathed on that one, too.

Then smoked a drive on 12, only had like 70 yards and hit it in there about eight feet and made that one, and then he kind of gave me the last hole.

Q. On 10, what was your club and distance in?

BRAD NURSKI: I had like 145 and hit a 9-iron in there. I was also going to ask you, with all these delays, how do you manage your time?

BRAD NURSKI: You know, Sunday the walls looked like they were kind of caving in on you, but thankfully we got to watch the Chiefs play in the afternoon. You know, just kind of me and my buddy there, Don, he's caddying for me this week, we found an outlet mall and we went shopping for an hour. Just drove around really a little bit, and just tried to stay up, active a little bit.

Then I didn't tee off until 6:28 on Monday, so I went over and had a little hour, hour and a half practice session at Blue Mound, which kind of got me loose a little bit, and then went back over there, and I don't know how many dinners I ate that day, but it was quite a few.