THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2024

Conor Gough

Quick Quotes

Q. Was it a bit tighter than you thought at the end?

CONOR GOUGH: It was. It started blowing a hell of a lot toward the end and was an absolute grind. Get in the fairway, somewhere up by the green and grind out a par because pars are going to be good enough on the last few holes.

Unfortunately I bogeyed 16 but I played 17 pretty well, so that's nice to finish it off there.

Q. You built a lead fairly early on.

CONOR GOUGH: Yeah, I was 2-up early and then I kind of slipped back a little bit unfortunately. A few errors from me. But then had a few good holes coming in on the end of the front nine and start of the back nine that kind of put me ahead, and then I was just coasting in from there making sure I made no mistakes.

Q. You have a good pedigree in the match-play format, Boys' Champion a few years ago, Walker Cup. Everything is kind of right up your street, is it?

CONOR GOUGH: I really enjoy match play. It's one of those things that no matter who you are playing on the day, anybody can win, and that's what I enjoy about it. You're just out there fighting until the very end until the match it over, and you know, that's what we play golf for is for things like this. Definitely gives me a little extra step in the stride.

Q. Your big brother, he was in the semifinal a couple years ago.

CONOR GOUGH: Yes, he was.

Q. A wee bit of sibling rivalry there?

CONOR GOUGH: Yeah, for sure. It's kind of hard following his amateur career but I'll try my best, and any time I can get one up on him, I do like that.

Q. Your season so far this year, been pretty decent?

CONOR GOUGH: In America, yeah, I actually started to play a little bit better in America. I had a solid season. Came back. Kind of struggled with the ball flight a little bit. Missed out on St Andrews Links. Came over here a week early and just started playing links courses, and it's kind of worked out and paid off. So I'm playing good and feeling confident. So hopefully have a good run.

Q. You've been here for over a week?

CONOR GOUGH: My grandma lives in Urris, and we were down there, got to play Portrush, a few courses down in County Down.

Q. Some pretty good preparation.

CONOR GOUGH: So we've played, funny enough, this is nothing to what the weather was last week down in County Down. It was awful. So I got used to the bad weather.