U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 13, 2023

Parker Edens

Sleepy Hollow Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Emotional right now?

PARKER EDENS: Yeah. It's just a lot. A lot has been put into this.

One of my best friends and I, we've talked about this for a long time. I qualified this year, and I had never played in a Mid-Am, but I knew my stuff was good enough to win. If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best, and just didn't beat the best today. Putter let me down and had a lot of really good looks, just didn't hit really quality putts.

Q. You birdied two holes in a row there to tie the match. What were you thinking at that point?

PARKER EDENS: Yeah, that was big. It's not really part of my game to go for it on whatever that is, 13, and hit a good one up there, hit a nice pitch up there, missed a short one, and it seemed like all the wind was out of my sails, and that felt like it could be it. But just stuck with it and hit in a really good one on 14, finally saw one go in.

Q. How long do you think that was?

PARKER EDENS: That was probably six, seven feet. Just nice to see something go in.

Then got lucky, Stew gave me one on 15, three-putted. That was kind of a gift. He made a great putt on 16 and then just the putter let me down on 17 there.

Q. What does it mean to you to battle this far because before you came here, maybe a lot of folks didn't know your name in terms of the amateur circles, and here you are in the quarterfinals.

PARKER EDENS: Yeah, I think I've done a lot of really good stuff this summer. I played probably my best golf I've ever played even when I was playing professionally this summer. I just have kind of found a good routine, good process. I've really worked at it.

I knew I belonged out here, and I think this summer kind of showed me before I got here that it was good enough. But this week just even further shows me that this is just kind of going to be a part of it now. It just proves to me that I'm doing all the right things to get better and keep improving and being able to be out here and belong.

Q. How much does coaching young people help you as a player?

PARKER EDENS: It definitely helps. I think just kind of definitely shows how hard it is. I get to see it from a different side. I learn a lot from my guys, from the teams we play with, from just college players in general, just getting to see the best play, best amateurs in the world play the best golf courses and how they go about it each week. I get to learn a lot every week for sure.

Q. How fast will you get back into your regular job, and what message will you give your team that maybe you learned from this experience?

PARKER EDENS: Yeah, the team leaves Friday. We've got to fly back home tomorrow, get back. The team leaves right away. They were preparing to leave without me, but they're going to be stuck with me.

Just kind of -- we have a lot of local kids, a lot of small-town kids, kind of like myself that I -- just a regular guy that likes to play golf. I just want them to -- I walked off 9-over here the other day, Sunday, whatever it was, and thought I didn't have a chance. It just kind of slowly got better and better.

Our circle, our team was kind of just pretty low at that point, and the morale kind of changed on Monday morning as the scores kept coming in, and our circle just kept saying, these guys are going to be disappointed they gave me a second chance.

For my guys to learn to just never give up, never throw the towel in, just like today, you miss a short one on 13 and that's a point where you could throw it in. You're playing one of the best in the world and could have easily been done, but you've just got to stick with it and keep fighting. You've got it in you, and just see what happens.