U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 21, 2003

Jerry Courville

PETE KOWALSKI: Jerry Courville, congratulations on making it to the quarterfinals. And you're an old hat at this so you know that you don't have to qualify for next year now that you're in the quarterfinals. Two wins today. If you can give us a little bit of a synopsis of both matches and maybe where they turned in your favor.

JERRY COURVILLE: Well, the morning match actually I didn't play that well. My back was really stiff and I was two down going into 15 and I was able to win 15 and 16 to get the match back to even.

And then 17, I step up and hit driver, knock it on the green. Billy knocked it on the green too. So we tied that hole with birdies.

And then I said to Sean, my caddie, I said, I got to hit it in the fairway on 18. And I hit it in the fairway and Billy hit it left. And then he just chipped it out in the fairway and I hit 6-iron in there about five or six feet from the hole and I was -- he made bogey on the hole. So I was able to just lag that one down there.

Afternoon, I played real well for myself. I made six birdies. I was four up. I went back to two and actually went to one. And then made birdie on 12. Hit it over the green in two and chipped it back. And then I had about a four-footer that was actually a cup outside the hole, and I made that one.

And then 14, I made the putt that probably would have gone about 10 feet off the green, if it didn't go in. So I had a little luck on my side.

Q. How far was that?

JERRY COURVILLE: About 25 feet or so.

PETE KOWALSKI: How much Oakmont experience do you have? How many times have you played the golf course prior to this year?

JERRY COURVILLE: Zero.

PETE KOWALSKI: Zero?

JERRY COURVILLE: Yeah.

Q. Do you remember how many times -- I know that it's 10 in a row now that you made match play. Do you know how many times you've made it up to the quarterfinals?

JERRY COURVILLE: This is my third time now to the quarters.

Q. When the guy who everybody feels is the favorite goes out, relatively early, does that change anything for players, maybe changes things for us or fans or whatever, but how about you guys?

JERRY COURVILLE: I don't think it affects the players at all. I mean you got to play the guy that is in front of you. Not worrying about anybody else, to be honest with you.

Q. How is your back in the afternoon? You said it was stiff in the morning?

JERRY COURVILLE: It's sore, but with it being warm, at least it loosens up a little bit. It actually hurts more bending over and every once in awhile it will grab and I'll hang on to the shot, leave it out to the right when the pain grabs me.

Q. A couple Mid Ams doing well. Looks like George has a shot to get in the quarters as well. Are you guys making a statement?

JERRY COURVILLE: I wouldn't say we're making a statement. I've always thought there was a bunch of good Mid Amateur players in this country. And I just think we're playing up to our potential, that's all.

Q. Do you think the course has something to do with that as well? Just Oakmont being the way that Oakmont is?

JERRY COURVILLE: I think it does. Because this golf course, par is a great score on the hole. And I think sometimes that college kids are so used to shooting low numbers on the golf courses they play that I think it flusters them just a little bit. And on this golf course no lead is ever safe. You can make bogey or worse on every hole out here.

PETE KOWALSKI: Thank you, Jerry.

JERRY COURVILLE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts....