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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 25, 2007Colt KnostSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA CRAIG SMITH: Colt, it's been a heck of a ride. Today wasn't quite as easy. You had to be a little patient when it wasn't going quite as well. But you were patient and it paid off. COLT KNOST: Yeah, I struggled pretty badly starting out. I got down two early. And then I got one back on 3 and then really gave one away on 5 and 7. I felt like. Had four footers going in on each hole and missed. Still only one down though so I just kept telling myself to stay patient. And when I turned in one down I knew I had a pretty good chance going to that back nine. CRAIG SMITH: What clicked in between 9 and 10? Starting on hole 10 you win four out of the next five and close the deal. COLT KNOST: Yeah, I've been, I've just been piping it on 10 every day. And I really hadn't had a good solid tee shot yet. And I got to 10 and said you've been hitting this great all week and do the same thing. And I smoked it right down the middle and I just really felt like that was the turning point. And then he hit a bad iron shot and I was able just to play safe and make par. And then I hit a great tee shot on 11. Pretty solid one on 12. And good iron shot into 13, good iron shot into 13, 14, and 15. And turned it around on the back nine. Q. You said you make a lot of pars and make your opponent make birdie. That's the way it unfolded, you made pars and he made some mistakes. COLT KNOST: I think for the day I made two birdies and two bogeys. With not making any birdies to the last two holes. Yeah, but I just, yeah, honestly, I knew a little bit about his game, I knew he hits it a long ways and he's not the most accurate driver. And I knew he would -- I didn't feel like he would go all day without missing a fairway. I knew that he would make a mistake if I would just stay patient and let it happen. And he started to there at the end finally. But he played pretty solid all day until the end. CRAIG SMITH: Do you think you put a little pressure on him? To do that or was he just he missed a chance to put you away a little bit in the middle there. Not put you away, but to increase his lead. COLT KNOST: Yeah, he did. I think he felt like he knew I was playing pretty bad. And he was only 1-up. And so I don't think things were looking that great. Because he knew I was struggling pretty badly but I was hanging around there still. Q. Were you worried the luck wasn't going your way when he hit that tree on 8 and it fell? COLT KNOST: Yeah, I didn't like that one too much. (Laughter.) I just missed a 4-footer on 7 to win the hole and get it all square. And then I hit, didn't hit a very good shot, but I knew I was putting. And he hits that shot and I said, oh, that's just dead. And then I thought it jumped in the bunker. And then everybody started clapping. I didn't know what happened. I was like if I lose this hole it's going to be a rough day. Q. He hit another tree later and it went in the bunker, right? COLT KNOST: Yeah, he got a really bad break there. So that made up for it. Q. How was it having Molinari on your bag with his knowledge of the course? COLT KNOST: It's great. He works very hard for me out there. We get along great. And he obviously knows this play as good as anybody. Q. How do you compare the U.S. with the Public Links similar or I mean obviously match play, but different fields and is one more prestigious, the fact the U.S. Amateur's been around longer? COLT KNOST: Oh, yeah definitely I think this is a lot more prestigious of an event. You look at the names that have won this, they're top players in the world, top players that ever played the game. The format's obviously the same. I would say the field a lot better here. But other than that, I mean that's about it. Q. Michael said that before the round today or whatever you went up to him and whatever told him keep it going, that you thought he deserved to be on the Walker Cup team. Now you're going to play him tomorrow. I mean just as a Walker Cupper, would you like to have him as your teammate this year? COLT KNOST: Yeah. Obviously. I think he's a real solid player. He's been playing great all summer. I think there's a lot of guys that I would like to have on that team, but I just went up to him before the round and told him hey, good luck today, you deserve it, I hope to be seeing you in the morning. And so I mean -- Q. What's your height and weight? COLT KNOST: Why? (Laughter.) Q. So we're accurate. Okay. Did you play lineman at all? COLT KNOST: No. Q. Did you play football? COLT KNOST: Yeah, I did. Q. What did you play? COLT KNOST: I played all over the place. A little bit. Q. Running back? COLT KNOST: No. Q. And obviously high school football is so big in Texas? COLT KNOST: Yeah. Q. Were you ever persuaded thinking that I would rather play football or were you a golfer from what age? COLT KNOST: I took started taking golf seriously around 15 or 16. And pretty much quit everything after that. But I didn't start until 12. I didn't pick up a club until 12. Q. Why did you give up team sports for golf? COLT KNOST: I just -- I mean, I really fell in love with golf pretty, once I started it and kind of realized that -- I always felt like I wanted to play professional sports for a living. And I knew NBA and NFL wasn't going to happen. (Laughter.) This seemed like the best way to go. Q. You talked obviously about a theoretical dilemma with the Masters and turning pro and whatnot. You got the U.S. Open here, how is that going to affect your decision making? COLT KNOST: It's not. I don't know how the U.S. Open deal works. I don't know if I can turn pro and play in the U.S. Open or not. Q. I think you still need to be an amateur. COLT KNOST: Still need to be an amateur? I don't think I'll be at the U.S. Open unless I qualify then. Honestly. But I'm going to have to think about it. But I don't think I can turn put off turning pro any longer than April. But I don't know. Q. What's the lure of turning professional? I mean it's, you can see the guys out there, you see guys that have gotten this far and then struggled, it's pretty hard to get, at least to the PGA Tuesday, even hard to get to the Nationwide Tour. Why do you love golf that much that you want to do it as a profession? COLT KNOST: Yeah, I need some money too. (Laughter.) I mean, I need a job. So, you know, I'm done with school. But, yeah, I love golf more than anything. I mean this is what I want to do. This is all I want to do. And I've been out there and played a PGA TOUR event and I know what it's like and I can't imagine having finding a better job than that. I know it's hard to get out there, but it's worth every bit of it once you do. Q. Have you thought about playing as an amateur in Q-School? COLT KNOST: Yeah, I have. I know once you make it to final stage then you have to turn pro, so that's gone through my mind and, I mean, like I said, I'm going to decide all this after Walker Cup. Q. So your mom and sister had a little trouble getting out here today, did you realize that they weren't in the crowd? COLT KNOST: I kind of figured it. Normally my mom will come find me. Even in the middle of the round. And so I didn't see her and then finally she came up after I finished out, so. Q. Can you talk about, I look back and in the APL and you had some struggles in the quarters and semis. Where you had kind of breezed through. And then you were in a similar situation as today, you were down for a long time before coming back. Is that a situational thing, is it more, is there a little more pressure in the semis, is it the players are better? COLT KNOST: No, I think obviously people are playing well to make it this far. But in the quarters and semis at the Public Links I know I was one down at the turn both times. And I got down early in both those. And I think it was just weird because everybody going into the quarters was like, you haven't ever been trailing. Same thing everybody has been telling me here. And I come out and lose the first two holes today. But I just told myself it's the same situation with the Public Links and you came out on top on those too. So we still got a lot of golf left and stay patient and it will be fine. Q. How much has that experience that you had in that situation helped today when you were down early? COLT KNOST: A lot. That's what I kept telling myself is that, you were in this situation at the Public Links, I mean, you can make three or four birdies in a row, win four holes in a row. And then I guess once I won No. 12, I said, all right, let's stick it to him here and let's try to win these next three and get out of here. Because my goal has been not to get to 16 every week. Because I can't play that hole very well. So I've been struggling on that hole a little bit, so I'm trying to get everything over with before then. Q. You have to play tomorrow for sure. COLT KNOST: I do. And I have only played 18 twice. Q. You haven't seen 18 in match play, have you? COLT KNOST: No. Q. That's kind of weird and good. COLT KNOST: It's good. I can go play it one time tomorrow. It's good. Q. It's a tough little hole as you know. COLT KNOST: It's tough. I made bogey on it in stroke play. Got to hit the fairway. Q. How many 3-putts have you had, your putter has been really pretty good have you 3-putted a couple? COLT KNOST: I had probably four or five in match play. I don't know. I've had a few. I made some good ones, but I missed a lot of short ones this week too. Q. Do you feel though when we talked last week this course seemed to match up well, your strength is keeping it in the fairway. COLT KNOST: I told you, I mean everybody's been telling me that. But I didn't know until I would see it. But I feel like it. But normally everybody coming into the week tells me this course is perfect for me and I play awful, so I was worried about that. Q. But now having seen it? COLT KNOST: I mean, it's ideal for me. You have to cut it a little more than I would like to, but you got to drive it so straight out here. That's the strength of my game. Q. Have you played Southern Hills? COLT KNOST: I have not. I was supposed to one day and got rained out. Q. Some people -- COLT KNOST: Compare these? Q. Thought the reverse camber and the curves were a little similar, not exactly, but a little similar to this golf course. COLT KNOST: Really? I have no idea. I never, I mean my buddy lives in Tulsa and I was going to play it one day and we got rained out. So I've never actually been on the grounds. CRAIG SMITH: Might you have room in your trophy case for an APL trophy and a U.S. Amateur trophy? COLT KNOST: Yeah, I think I can hold them both in one hand. Q. How significant is that for you. Obviously only one person has ever done it in the same year. COLT KNOST: No, not in the same year. Q. Only one. COLT KNOST: Yeah, I mean I thought about it. Y'all tell me all the time that how Ryan Moore's the only guy that's only done it the same year. And like I said, I mean, he's a great player, I'd love to be up there with him. But I mean, Public Links was nice, but I think a lot of people -- a lot of people said after the Public Links, I mean, no one was there, you were the best player in the field and all that. And I said, well you still got to win it. And I think this week has really solidified my win there and showed that I'm a player that belongs here. CRAIG SMITH: Tomorrow's 36. COLT KNOST: No problem. Q. Colt, any reason for your first name? Your parents? COLT KNOST: Ask them. I don't know. I never really heard. (Laughter.) Ask her. I don't think so. I don't know. Q. Quarterback at Hawaii as you know, who was a big -- COLT KNOST: Hawaii or Texas? Q. Texas? COLT KNOST: Texas. Colt McCoy. Q. And Hawaii too. COLT KNOST: Oh, I didn't know that. Q. A trend going here. COLT KNOST: Yeah. Good name. CRAIG SMITH: That's probably a good place to pull the plug on this. COLT KNOST: That would be great. End of FastScripts |
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