THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18, 2024

Jose Luis Ballester Barrio

Quick Quotes

Q. Talk us through that putt on 18?

JOSE LUIS BALLESTER BARRIO: I don't even know what to say. I talked with my caddie. He told me that maybe 4-over was going to go into a playoff. 17 really good putts today, made none of them. So I feel like maybe that was the one, and so I'm happy with it. It was a really, really tough and stressful round since hole two, and all the emotions came out when I made that putt.

Q. We welcome that celebration for sure. It's a bit of a waiting game but you must feel like you've got good momentum and vibes, should you need it, in a playoff.

JOSE LUIS BALLESTER BARRIO: Yeah, I mean, like an hour ago, I was thinking when I was going to book my flight back to Spain. Right now, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to make the cut. Especially with a good round yesterday and today, the way that I started and how my game was feeling, that wasn't bad, actually. Just nothing really going my way, missing short putts. Yeah, at the end, I was like, okay, let's just finish in a couple birdies just to keep my morale up.

Those three late birdies are maybe going to help me to go to the match play.

Q. Can you talk us through the three late birdies there from tee-to-green what you did on each?

JOSE LUIS BALLESTER BARRIO: Yeah, hole 15, I had to start on 15 because 15 I plugged it right. It was playing tough and I hit an amazing shot out of the rough. Probably the shot of the day. Then I had a really long putt, as well and almost made it and then had a 5-footer coming back that I made.

Yeah, I mean, I went into 16, I played it in the practice round and we talked that it was going to be an iron short of the bunker. But going down, I needed to go full 7 and see what happened. Hit a good driver. Then I ended up right of the green on 16 and made a nice 2-putt there.

17 I hit another good drive. Nice shot into the green. I had like a 25-footer for eagle and again almost made it. I had so many of those today.

18 was playing really tough, crosswind and I hit a decent driver just in the first cut to the right side.

I hit a nice pitching wedge. I didn't know how the ball was going to come out of the rough. It's hard to judge, sometimes the ball jumps and sometimes it doesn't. The ball came perfectly, so I gave myself like a 30-footer. It was a tricky putt, left-to-right, a little downhill, and also the wind blowing, which made it tougher.

Yeah, I hit a good stroke and I was talking to my caddie, okay, if the ball passes over this pitch mark, I have a chance. And like ten feet short, like I had not made a putt today, but this has to be the one, and it went in. That was an amazing feeling.

Q. This championship is all about match play. It doesn't matter how you get there as long as you do. Is that a format that you like and are keen to see?

JOSE LUIS BALLESTER BARRIO: Yeah, I love match play. So many weird and amazing things happen in match play, unusual things. As you said, it doesn't really matter the way you get into match play. It's a new tournament tomorrow, and again, hope I don't go into a playoff and I can tee it up in the morning and play my first match play.