U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 17, 2023

Parker Bell

Cherry Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You jumped on him pretty good early. What did you do well to get the lead?

PARKER BELL: Just hitting fairways and hitting greens and just putting the pressure on him. I lost the first hole, and then from there I just hit a lot of greens, and he was hitting -- it was blowing pretty hard, and I knew if I just kept hitting greens and kept forcing him to make those five-, six-, seven-footers for par, it was going to be tough for me to get beat.

Q. Why are you playing so well this week? What are you doing well?

PARKER BELL: Honestly, I'm just really hitting the ball really good. I'm driving it -- obviously Colorado, the ball goes really far. I'm hitting it far and straight and playing really smart golf into the greens. Just putting good enough. I wouldn't say I'm putting great or good but just good enough to get the job done and making the big putts when they matter. Just putting the pressure on the other guy a lot. That happened the first match against Bryce. He had to make a lot of those savers and eventually you're not going to make every single one, and today against Maxwell, almost every single hole he was 10 feet for par and trying to tie the hole, and eventually you're going to miss some of those.

Q. Playing that first year of college golf, how has that helped you?

PARKER BELL: Well, I actually didn't play a lot my freshman year. I played a couple events and qualified early on in the fall, but I struggled a lot in the spring and missed the most season lineup. This summer I've kind of put my head down and really made -- I want to be in that lineup the rest of my three years. I didn't come to a good golf school like that just to ride the bench. This whole summer has just been a lot of improvement, and I'm glad that it's showing here, and just looking forward to carrying it into the season.

Q. What would you say are the one or two things that you've shown the improvement in that's got you going this summer?

PARKER BELL: It's definitely off the tee. It's 100 percent off the tee and a little bit with the putter. Really overall everything, but mainly off the tee. I've always been a long hitter but before I couldn't hit it on the golf course. Obviously especially on a course like this, if you can't find these fairways then you've got no chance. Just been hitting it long and straight, and it's usually a pretty good recipe for success.

Q. How tough was this wind?

PARKER BELL: Yeah, every day it had been pretty calm, but today was kind of fortunate because a couple holes were really downwind, and like hole 1 ended up being drivable with the wind. 3 was drivable with an iron. I actually put it up by the green on 4. 5 was straight downwind. A lot of scorable holes were downwind, which definitely helps because you end up putting it up there near the green and you're chipping for eagle.

Those holes, I played them well, and the tough holes I played just as well. So that was the key. On those ones into the wind and playing super long, just putting the pressure on the other guy and making him have to make those pars.

Q. If it's going to blow the next couple of days and having played in Florida most of your life, do you think you'll handle it well?

PARKER BELL: I do. I think I like my chances if it blows. Obviously you never know what the conditions are going to be, but regardless of what it is, I think I'll be up for the task.

Q. Where would you rank this achievement of making the quarterfinals?

PARKER BELL: Probably the best achievement, honestly. I haven't done a whole lot in my golf career, and this definitely is probably number one so far.