U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 1999

Josh McCumber

Tracey McCumber

TRACEY McCUMBER: Since May 1st.

JOSH McCUMBER: It was 3-up after four holes. He missed the green on 1. He did not get up-and-down from the bunker. We both halved 2. We both played that hole really well. He got up-and-down from the right rough. And 3 was a pillow fight, in a way. We were slapping it around, and he made 6 and I made 5 and won the hole. And I birdied 4 to go 3-up, and felt very, very good. And then we get to the 5th hole and hit a gorgeous 7-iron, and went to about 30 feet. And he hits a shot that's looking great, and it's in the rough and almost goes in for 1, and gets back to being 2-down. And eagles 6 to go 1-down. At this point, I hit as well as I could do; let's just keep playing and see what happens. We halved 7. I won 8. Got up-and-down from the bunker. He won 9 with a par. And I won 10 to go 2-up. At this point, I felt pretty good. I was in good position on 11. He was in the rough. I hit an iron shot, the right club; I pitched it. I should have run it up the green, and I was plugged, and I hit a great shot 10 feet above the hole. And I'm thinking now: Wow, this shows how hard this hole is. He hits it by 30 feet, and he's got 2-and-a-half footer for a 6. At this point, I'm like: How in the world can I -- this putt was so fast, and we halved the hole with 6's, and I'm only 2-up still. Had hit me pretty hard, it was tough to take, because I was right there in great position. And you give him one like that, a good player on a tough golf course, it's not what you want to do. He won the next hole, and I'm only 1-up and feeling uncomfortable, like a low blow, hit in the stomach. But tried to stay confident, and Tracey was keeping me up and positive. And the next hole was a huge, huge key, because he was in there at about 12 feet, and I had hit just over the green to the left. This is No. 13 now, and I'm just over the green in the little first cut of rough. And I hit this chip that I thought was pretty good, but it didn't go, and I had about 8 feet left, and he misses his putt barely. I knocked it in, and that really felt good. I felt at that point I took control of the match again; it was in my favor. I really felt good about that. And then 14, again, we both were in the rough and hacking up the fairway. And I made one of the best 5s I ever made. I hit this gorgeous little lob shot to about six feet and made the putt. So I felt good there being 2-up, and drove it great on the next hole. And then again, match play is so funny how quickly it can change. He's in the left rough, and I'm thinking: He can't get to the green. And he does, and hits it to about 20 feet. I hit this shot that I'm thinking is pretty good. It comes up short; it's in the long, long rough, I've got hardly any green to work with. And Tracey looks at me; I can see it going on, and I said: There's no chance to hit it close to the hole. No matter how good I hit it, I didn't think I could get it close. I hit this gorgeous shot and it just landed soft. I was shocked it didn't land super hard. It went to about two feet. And that had to take the wind out of his sails, and so I stayed 2-up. And we get to 16. I had a 2-iron off the tee to get it in the fairway. And I get to the iron shot, and I had 164 to the front of the green; 183 yards to the pin, downwind, downhill. I hit an 8-iron, and it went to about three feet, four feet. He hits it in the left rough, which is the thickest rough on the golf course. I looked at Tracey and said: "I bet he holes this." I've got to be prepared to make this. I don't want to be caught. I prepared myself to have to make it. He hits a gorgeous shot for a gimmee. And I felt pretty nervous for the putt. It was pretty good uphill, and you had to hit it pretty solid. I still thought I made it, but the last roll went to the left. That was a little frustrating, but I thought I'm still fine. I got to 17 and looked at my yards. I felt pretty good, because I'd really been swinging well. I got my yardage. I had 212 to carry the left side -- no, 208 to carry the left side over the bunker, and another 12 to the pin. And I just felt like it was a 4-iron, something felt like a 4-iron; the wind was helping. I hit this iron shot that was great. It went to about two and a half feet above the hole. At that point it felt good. I said: He's got to make a 2 to tie me, and it's almost impossible. And he hit a shot to the right; and again, he got it up-and-down. So I'm two and a half feet above the hole, but he made me putt it, and I knocked it in. So it really felt good to do that at Pebble Beach with all the history here, to finish that way, and to move on to tomorrow.

JOSH McCUMBER: Mark is my uncle. There's four brothers,, Mark's got three brothers. My dad is the oldest. And there's Gary and Tim is the youngest. And Tim is out here to watch and give us support. And my dad and Mark are in business together, designing golf courses all over the world. My dad is the president of McCumber Golf, and Mark is the president of the design part of the company. We own and operate a golf course in Jacksonville. And that's their relation. I've been working in the company since I've been done with school, learning about the business, while getting to play a lot of golf.

JOSH McCUMBER: Definitely. That was one of the biggest things happened to me.

TRACEY McCUMBER: I've played a lot, but not seriously. I took it up when I was at college at the University of Florida, and just played a lot at the University course, but just for fun. But I knew a lot about it because my dad and brother played, and my family is a golf family; so it wasn't anything new for me.

TRACEY McCUMBER: Well, I just kept telling him to have good tempo and smooth swings, and don't get anxious over anything and try not to feel like the pressure -- I was noticing towards the end, I felt maybe he felt the pressure, but he was 1-up. It's hard not to feel the pressure when you're up. But really, it doesn't make any sense. You shouldn't have the pressure when you're the one winning. So he calmed down a little bit, and made that putt on 17 and finished it off; so it was nice.

TRACEY McCUMBER: This whole summer I've caddied for him. This is the 4th or 5th time. Fourth big tournament. And caddied down in Miami for some Nike event qualifying.

TRACEY McCUMBER: Not money. But I always get little kisses and dinners. So it's great. No, I love it. It's way worth it.

JOSH McCUMBER: In '97, I made it to the playoff to get to the match play and lost. This is my third Amateur. I played at Pumpkin Ridge in '96 and here. This is the farthest I've gotten.

JOSH McCUMBER: 13, the putt was about eight feet.

JOSH McCUMBER: Yes. He had about two and a half feet, he was basically to half the hole. And it was kind of a little bit of a downhill putt with the ocean behind me. The ocean plays such a factor that it's not really a downhill as much as it looks. And I really locked in on the putt and hit a pretty good putt. When I hit it, I thought the ocean was going to take it right, but it went right in the middle. And that really felt good. For about two holes, I kind of felt this match was in good control. And all of a sudden, I felt like he felt he was going to get right back where he wanted to; so that was a big putt.

TRACEY McCUMBER: This was in November, and he called me. And I lived at the beach and he lived in Middleburg. He said: "Come out and play golf." This was a Monday, and I said okay. It was the afternoon. I had no clue about anything. We had played the Gator Invitational. I watched him. I didn't caddy for him. So I just had no idea, and Monday, I drive to Middleburg. It takes me about 45 minutes. And we started on 12, is that it?

JOSH McCUMBER: We started on 10.

TRACEY McCUMBER: Then again, I had just gone running before, I had sweated. And I was just wearing -- I put clothes on over the sweat; so I had no clue (laughter.) We start playing, and he was paying a little bit more attention to my game, which I thought was fun. I was excited. Not that he ignores me, but he was watching me a lot. We're playing with his sister, Beth, also. We continued on, and they grew up on the 14th hole at the Ravines Golf Course. That was where we were playing; that's a par-3. Beth, around the 12th hole says: Okay, I've got to go, I've got to go to the bathroom, I don't know; she had to leave, and I said good-bye. Meanwhile, what he was doing was she was going to the 14th hole to plant the note that Josh had made that said, "Will you marry me, question mark." So she was doing all this while we were playing. Unfortunately, there was another group that was ahead of us; so we had to figure out a way to stall before we could get to 14, and then she could quickly get the note in and so on and so forth. We have a putting contest on 13. 14 was way up the hill and down; so I couldn't see anything that was going on. We have a putting contest. And it was a par-3. My first one goes in the water, and the second one goes on the green. We drive down there, and still I'm not thinking anything, obviously. And I went to chip up and got close to the hole. And at this point, he was watching me a lot, and I didn't think anything of it, until I went to putt and I got close. And I saw this blue note that was angled at me, and said, "Will you marry me, question mark," and my first thought was: Somebody left it in the hole. That was my first thought, because it was unexpected. He kept saying that whole month, "Maybe in a couple of years," I think just to get me worked up. So I saw that, and all of a sudden, I looked up and he was down on the knee, and he had the ring in his pocket and he pulled it out. And it was great.

TRACEY McCUMBER: He kept saying take your glove off, I was spaced out. But it was neat.

TRACEY McCUMBER: He said, well? And I said yes, and I grabbed him and hugged him.

JOSH McCUMBER: It was a special moment. It was an 8-iron, par-3 and I remember -- (laughter) and I remember on the tee shot being as nervous as I felt on 17 today. Water to the right, and once I hit it on the green, it was like: Now we're here and this is going to unfold. I'm hoping Beth did everything according to plan, everything goes right. And so it was funny how I felt. Once I got on the green, it was like I can watch her and see -- let this unfold. That was fun.