THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 20, 2024

Laurenz Schiergen

Quick Quotes

Q. That was a tough match in the end there. You had to go the extra holes. How are you feeling?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah, I'm very happy I made it through. I was 2-up, three to go. Kind of had a good feeling, had a good tee shot on 16, but then he hit an awesome shot from way back there and made birdie.

And then I hit a bad tee shot on 17 and lost 17 as well, and then suddenly I was going all-square. Hit a bad tee shot on the 18 as well and was kind of, yeah, not in the pole position anymore, but then had a great recovery, made it to 19 and then someone made it through.

Q. When you have to have that mentality switch, as you say, you were in pole position, and then suddenly you're not, what do you have to do to try and really quickly turn that around because it does need to be fast in match play, doesn't it?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah, it does. Everything, like one shot, you feel like you're in the better position, and suddenly he hits an awesome shot, or the other way around. So it's really important to stay level-headed.

I have a great, great caddie this week, a friend of mine, Luke O'Neill, and he's really helping me to just stay level-headed all the time and just try to do my own stuff and hit good shots, and that hopefully takes care of itself.

Q. Did you say your caddie's name is Luke?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah.

Q. A little bit about him. Is he a great golfer too?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah, Luke played in the tournament as well. Unfortunately he didn't make match play. But we used to be teammates in the U.S. at my old university, at Kansas State. And we've been really good friends. And, yeah, since he didn't make, he was asking kindly if he could be my caddie, and I was obviously more than happy, and it's been working great so far.

Q. Nice little dream team.

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yep.

Q. Talk to us about your match this morning. Give us a little summary of how that went for you.

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Kind of had a little rough start, or we both did. We made one bogey pretty early on, but then I kind of had a good switch, and from then on I played probably definitely by best match of all the three. I hit it really solid, gave me a lot of good chances and made quite a few putts too. And when I missed a green, I holed my par putts.

So I think I couldn't really have played a lot better, especially in these conditions all the time, just making a few birdies, not a lot of bogeys. It was very good.

Q. You just touched on the conditions. What are your feelings of Ballyliffin and links golf and playing in some tough conditions like this?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: I do like links golf a lot. I like to come over every year and play a couple tournaments. And I haven't heard of Ballyliffin before, but it's awesome. It's really good. It's every day a different wind. I think we feel like it's a lot of wind, but it's probably the normal wind around here. It's always windy coming straight off the coast.

And it's been a great challenge. The wind kind of switches every day or turns by a couple degrees, so you always kind of get a new course. And it's definitely a fun challenge.

Q. And you've played the Amateur before?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah.

Q. Is this the best you've done?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Actually made quarterfinals two years ago. So got that again. So maybe can go a little further this year. I think it's actually my fifth time of -- I've been here a couple times, but I'm always happy to come back and have a good time.

Q. You've made the quarterfinals before, so you know what it's like to get deep in this championship. So do you kind of -- do you know, then, what it feels like to not try and get too far ahead of yourself and start thinking about what's an offer for the champion?

LAURENZ SCHIERGEN: Yeah, I remember last year I was maybe thinking a little bit too far ahead, what could be or could happen. At the end of the day, I can only control what I can control. If I play well, I maybe win the match, maybe I'll still lose. But that's the most important thing, just stay by myself, have a good time, enjoy. Have a good time with my caddie as well. It's been great so far. And, yeah, see what's coming out.