U.S. MID-AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 25, 2024

Stephen Behr

Kinloch Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Let's first talk about the match. He jumped on you early there.

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: Yeah, a little shaky start for me coming out of the gates. Then he kind of gained some momentum and made a couple really good birdies. That's the thing when you play a player like Evan. You want to come out firing and get off to a good start, and I unfortunately didn't do that. I was a little off early and then he capitalized and kind of got on a roll. Before I knew it I was 4-down.

Played some good golf after that, but just couldn't get the 20-footers to roll in and just barely was edging -- burning the edges, and then we ran out of holes.

Q. Was there anything special that he was doing on his end today?

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: Evan is just -- he's super solid. He doesn't miss many shots. Even his misses are very solid, very good. So that's what makes him a great match play player is because you know he's not going to give you anything, so you feel like you've got to make something happen. I just unfortunately didn't make anything happen.

Q. Got to the semifinals for the first time in this championship. How will you evaluate your week overall when you finally look at it?

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: I'm proud. Yeah, it stings always to lose in this thing, but I made quarterfinals last year, I made semifinals this year. I've made round of 16 twice. Every year I'm picking up more confidence and feeling like I'm more able to do this, and I think this week will just give me even more belief next year.

Q. Is there anything at all that you see that might be the difference in holding on to a trophy as opposed to getting this far?

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: You can always nit-pick things that you can do better, but at this point in the tournament, it's all between the ears. You've just got to really be solid mentally and execute things mentally the way you want to.

At the end of the day, the ball sometimes just won't go in the hole and sometimes it will, but if you can execute mentally the way you want to, you usually have a good chance.

I think I could have been a little bit sharper this afternoon.

Q. When you get this far, do you envision your work schedule or anything, playing more golf, less golf? How do you see your schedule as you move forward?

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: I played a good bit this year. I hit it pretty hard as far as I played in more tournaments this year. I don't know if that's sustainable for me. Honestly, I think I like a little fewer tournaments and just feeling like I'm well-rested and excited for each because at times this year it felt like a little much.

Everyone is different in that, but I feel like I just need to play the amount of tournaments that will give me -- that I'll be excited for and I'll be full focus for, but at the same time I don't feel like I'm wearing myself out.

Q. Is this the one that you play for or a bunch of them you look at?

STEPHEN BEHR JR.: I always think the Crump Cup and the U.S. Mid-Am in September. I always tell work, in September I might be a little MIA. Those are my top two tournaments in my mind. I've won one of them now, so there's just one more for me to win, so I hope to hold the trophy at some point.