THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 20, 2023

Caolan Rafferty

Quick Quotes

Q. Great day at the office, comfortably in to match play. Pleased with your efforts?

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: Yeah, I was happy. Played well all day. Tidied up well when I had to and kept plodding along. I knew roughly what I had to do today. So I got off to a nice start with a couple of early birdies and then just kept going. The course suits; I like the course, so set up well for me.

Q. You know this format pretty well, as well, don't you, just get the job done and move on?

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: Just get into that 64 and see what happens. Doesn't matter if you're first in or last in. It's often the case that last in beats first in.

Q. How has the form overall been like? Nice to see you playing well again.

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: Yeah, whenever I do play it's pretty good at the minute. Couple of good results this season so far from what I've played, and just really comfortable with my game at the minute.

Playing a lot, not playing a lot, but playing nine holes and stuff at home and going under par regularly is a big help as well, because you're not afraid to do it anymore. Whereas over the years, you wouldn't have got a chance to do that as much, and it was always a bit of a struggle in competition golf because you're grinding every week, but definitely the more social, laid-back aspect has helped me a lot.

Q. So you can take that social side into the more elite stuff?

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: It's the game of golf still to me. I've done it for that long. It's more just enjoy these weeks and if things go well, then that's a bonus on top of it.

Yeah, just taking every shot as it comes to me and each round as it goes.

Q. Danger man. Nice and relaxed.

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: We don't know. We'll see. We'll see there's plenty of good golfers here, as well, to beat.

Q. I know you've been in the mix before at Walker Cup; seems to be a case of obviously if you're playing well, you're going to get in the mix. Does it get into your thoughts at all?

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: Look, Walker Cup was never even in my head when I made it that time back at Hoylake (in 2019). It wasn't something that I dreamt about at the time because I was a late bloomer on the scene. I just let the golf do the talking and if it was good enough, which it was that year to get me in. It was great. Probably the best experience I've ever had at amateur level.

So again I don't know whether I'm playing enough golf to even be in contention or not but whenever I do play, all I can do is keep competing well and beating the boys that are going to be getting picked ahead of me. If I can keep doing that, who knows what's going to happen.

Q. You talked about the differences before we started the interview about Southport to here. What's the key to success going into the match play at Hillside?

CAOLAN RAFFERTY: It gives plenty of chances here but also requires a lot of good shots; that if you get out of position, it's not that easy. The greens are unbelievable. So that's going to be a big factor, as well. I'd say this week will definitely come down to putting. There's a few good irons off the tee for positional play, so it's kind of a good plodder's golf course in that sense.