U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2024

Jackson Herrington

Hazeltine National Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Back and forth battle out there today. Just walk me through the round.

JACKSON HERRINGTON: Yeah, I was down through 1. I hit it dead center of the fairway, then hit a terrible shot, and it rolled. It wasn't all that bad, but it was just off the green and didn't hit a good chip, so I'm down early.

If I just stuck to my game plan, I knew I could make something happen with how much wind there was today, especially with some of the par-5s being into the wind and some of them pretty gettable downwind. So I didn't let that bad start get to me.

I played pretty good from there, and luckily he gave me some opportunities going forward. Then we kind of went back and forth, then got to 2-up through nine. I think I gave it back on 10. Me and Beau just really talked about it and not getting ahead of myself.

Then I think kind of the turning point was on 12 really. I didn't hit all that good of a 5-iron into the green, and I hit it in the bunker. He made double, and I made bogey. So it still wasn't a good hole for us, but then you get to 13, and 238 we're trying to play 255.

I told him, he always asks me what I'm doing, what my game plan is. I told him, I'm just trying to hit it somewhere on the green, just anywhere, then landed like 12 feet short of the hole and rolled right in. So that helped a lot.

Get to 14, trying to go for the green, and hit it to 20 feet on the next one to make the putt for par to tie.

Then you get to 15, hit driver, 5-iron to the front edge. I chipped it to 12 feet. He gave me a chance being in for par, and just made a 10-footer down the hill and birdied to go up. So it was a good day.

Q. Did you feel like being one of the bigger hitters out here having to hit into the wind, do you feel like that's an advantage for you?

JACKSON HERRINGTON: I think so. Some holes I was 30, 40 in front of him into the wind. I think that helped me having short bumps in. You still have to make the shots, doesn't really matter, but just being able to have shorter clubs in and being able to fly them, I think it's a big advantage.

Q. You mentioned that Chaska, that scorecard didn't reflect how you were playing. Come out here, make it into match play, win your first match. Talk about your confidence right now.

JACKSON HERRINGTON: It's pretty high coming out here and playing good, especially on a championship golf course like this. Me and my coach were talking, you don't often get to play a course like this, pretty close to U.S. Open conditions. It's pretty fun, or Ryder Cup conditions.

It's been a really good week, and confidence is definitely up. Looking forward to see what I can do.

Q. Any preparation plans, rest up for tomorrow?

JACKSON HERRINGTON: Not really. Try to go eat with them and try to get as much rest as possible and just go from there, see what I can do tomorrow.