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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 26, 2007Michael ThompsonSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA KEN KLAVON: We're with Michael Thompson, the 2007 U.S. Amateur runner-up. Michael, long day of golf, can you gauge your emotions right now? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Almost just kind of relieved the week is over. I'm not terribly disappointed that I lost. Runner-up still sounds pretty darn good. Of course the champion would be nice, but I still get to play in the Masters and the U.S. Open. So this has been a great week. Like I've been saying ever since I've made it this far, all through the week, I'm just enjoying the experience and just trying to have as much fun as I can. I get to skip school for this, so it's, that's always nice. And I can't complain. KEN KLAVON: He makes a chip in, basically that was the crucial point of the match. What's going through your head at that point? MICHAEL THOMPSON: At that point I'm thinking that I've got to give myself birdie opportunities. I've got to give myself a chance to win a couple holes. I hit the shot on 15 real good. And it just kicked. And then I birdied 16, which was great. I played that hole exactly the way I wanted to, the way I've been playing it all week. I just stuck to my game plan. And then 17 coming in, just I had so far in it's almost you're just thinking par and he's been playing that hole well and he hits his woods well. So I knew he would play good. It was tough. We were playing neck and neck all day long. It was a lot of fun. Q. When you hit that approach on 16 how much did that sort of send some adrenaline flowing to get you back in it? MICHAEL THOMPSON: That pumped me up a little bit. I knew that I had to make birdie, because he wasn't going to make bogey. He just hadn't been doing that for the last five or six holes. It was a perfect distance. It was the 118 to the hole and it was perfect distance for a gap wedge. And I just hit it normal and it hopped up there and stopped. So it was, it couldn't have been in a better place. Q. Is he a tough guy to come back against in the sense like you said he doesn't make bogeys very often? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Yeah, he is. And he's been playing well all week. He hasn't made a whole lot of bogeys all week. And so I knew that I was going to have to make some birdies and I made some birdies this morning. I just couldn't ever get more than a 1-up or all square situation with him. So it's tough. I didn't give up. I'm proud of that. And hopefully I can play with him come a couple weeks. So. Q. Can you talk about the chip in or the chip, not the chip in, but chip at 3 when you hit the lady, what was, what were you thinking there, how close do you think you could get the shot? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Did I hit someone there? Q. Yeah. MICHAEL THOMPSON: Oh. I might have to apologize for that. Q. I think she was okay. MICHAEL THOMPSON: Okay. I was thinking that if I would, if I hit it perfect it might go 12, 15 feet past the hole of the maybe even just on the fringe. I couldn't have landed that in a better spot. I think I got a great break there. It landed in that first cut of rough. Where the fringe is or whatever, just over that bunker. And that was just awesome. That was just awesome. I don't know what to say about that. Everything went right. Q. How much of a momentum shift was that, did you think, in the match, at least at that point? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I thought it was pretty good. I was interested to see what he was going to do, because I noticed that he was kind of upset at that. When you're a player that that happens to, you kind of just like, what can I do? What can I do to battle against that. So it was -- I felt good after that. I knew that I, that I had a chance after that if I kept playing solid then it would hopefully go my way. But it didn't. Q. What about the putt on number 5? How far would you estimate that one? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Oh, man, that was, God, I would say that had to be at least 45, 50 feet. And that was just awesome. Especially to hear the roar of the crowd. That was intense. I had never experienced anything like that before. So that was really, really cool. Q. You said that you felt like after that the third hole you had a chance to win. Did you feel like you had lost some of the momentum after what happened late after the first 18? MICHAEL THOMPSON: No. There was plenty of holes left to go. And I've been playing well. So I knew that if I just kept going out and being aggressive and playing my game, my game plan, then things might go my way. They might not. But I didn't give up any hope after the first 18. KEN KLAVON: What did you take away from this week, going back to the very start? What did you prove to yourself? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I proved to myself, the biggest thing I think is that I have the stamina to play over a long period of time. This is a lot of golf in a week. So I've learned to kind of maintain my game over a long period of time. Which is important, especially professionally you're going three, four, five weeks stretches of tournaments. So you got to play well. So that's important for me. And I just am learning how to play smart and I'm constantly learning how to do that. And thinking out on the golf course and playing in a championship setting in a front of a lot of people and in front of the media, doing these interviews and learning how to interview better, so that's -- everything that I've experienced here is a positive. And I'm going to use that for the future to help me prepare better for the Majors and playing professionally week in and week out. Q. Obviously Colt's game would be fine for stroke play. But is his style particularly -- I mean he's won now obviously the Public Links and this -- I mean is his style particularly suited for match play, do you think? MICHAEL THOMPSON: No. I don't think so. I think he's just -- he's just a tough competitor. He wants to win so bad. You can see that. And I think in match play that's a huge help. That's a big part of match play. I don't know. He just played great. Q. You said you can see that. How so? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Just really intense. Especially when he hits poor shots or when he's hitting great shots, he's really focused. You can see that. And for me personally, I was trying to work on being focused out there. It was hard, it's kind of hard to, being the first time playing in front of a lot of people you're kind of taking everything in, you're looking around and stuff. So I was trying to focus in as best I could and I thought I did pretty well. He just did it a little bit better. Q. Can you describe the chip on 17? I couldn't tell where, how close -- MICHAEL THOMPSON: Down on the right? Q. Yeah. What kind of lie? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I had to hit that almost like I did on 3, just perfect. And I had a little -- ball was sitting up a little bit in a clump of grass and it was easy to get under it. And I was just hoping that I could make solid contact and get it on the green. Q. Trees in the way? MICHAEL THOMPSON: A little bit. I had to play to the right of it. But the green all sloped to the left anyway, so it, I mean the ball would have trickled toward the hole. KEN KLAVON: At the end you two shared a hug. What was said between you two? MICHAEL THOMPSON: He said that he hopes that I can, that I'm picked for the Walker Cup team. He said, and he also said, "Great playing. That was a fun match." So he, I think he enjoyed it out there. I think that -- I don't know, there's definitely not any hard feelings between either of us, so I think he was a little caught up in the emotion of winning. He's a great guy, a great competitor, and I hopefully look forward to playing with him. Q. There were a few times out there when it was, he was very clearly frustrated at some shots and missing some putts and things. Did it ever enter into your mind that maybe I got a little momentum here because of that? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely. Every time he did that I said, come on, I told myself, okay, you can compose yourself better than that. Let's get going. But the reason why he's so good is that he can snap out of that real quick. He almost uses that anger and emotion to get him going. And that's the difference between him and I is that I don't show very much emotion out on the course, except when I make a putt or do something great. But I'm pretty even keel and that's the way I play my game and he plays his game that way, so it's -- that's just the way we both attack the game of golf. Q. Coming in here what were your expectations? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I said earlier in the week the first, my first goal was to make the cut. And then from then on I would play as well as I can in every match and see what happens. I didn't really think about making it all the way to the finals, I think in the back of my mind I knew that I could, I knew that I was good enough, it was just a matter of everything going my way during the matches and getting lucky here and there, hitting good shots. So I really didn't have high expectations, I just had expectations I knew I could meet. Q. Putting today aside, were there any of the matches that you felt like you didn't play your best but still got through? MICHAEL THOMPSON: The first round of on the 36 hole day on Thursday, I think when I played Bryce. I wasn't putting well that day. And I got, I think I got a little lucky and a little fortunate that he wasn't playing well enough to take advantage of the opportunities that he had. I felt like that was my worst round of the week. Q. As meaningful as it would have been to win this, how did the feeling compare coming down the stretch to yesterday when you know you're playing for a Masters and a U.S. Open spot? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Yesterday was definitely more stressful. Today I was just mostly enjoying it. And I wanted to make it, make it a good match. I wanted to go out there and play my hardest. I wasn't going to let him have it, obviously. But it was definitely a little bit more stressful yesterday and a little bit more emotional yesterday because you're playing for that Masters or U.S. Open and you want to win, so today I was just enjoying the ride. KEN KLAVON: Were you at all nervous coming out? MICHAEL THOMPSON: A little bit the first few holes. I don't know. It wasn't that bad, it wasn't a whole lot different from yesterday. I felt pretty calm. A few times I was nervous maybe on a couple tee boxes here and there. But overall, I felt like I held my composure real well. I still have a lot to learn, but I felt like I was doing pretty well with my nerves. Q. Like you said earlier, you have opportunity to play in the Masters, and the U.S. Open, can you kind of touch on what that means to you? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Oh, that's my dream come true. Ever since I was started playing golf I wanted to play professionally and then I used to tell people when I was younger that the only time that I'm going to play Augusta National is playing in the tournament, the Masters. And I'm just absolutely thrilled that that's going to come true. So I don't want to get ahead of myself or get too excited, but come that time, I'm going to practice real hard and try to do as best as I can and really enjoy it. Because it's, it will be my first Masters, hopefully not my last, but that's definitely the most exciting part about this week, I think. Q. What's your plan? What do you do now? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I fly back to Tuscaloosa tonight. Q. Red eye? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Yeah. I leave at 10. Q. Do you have classes tomorrow? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Yes. I got a 1 o'clock and maybe like a 5 or something like that. Q. What are they? MICHAEL THOMPSON: Some accounting classes. I don't know yet. I'm not mentally prepared for school right now. Sorry. (Laughter.) Q. Do you think you would have had to have played your best today to win? MICHAEL THOMPSON: No. No. I played pretty good. It just -- I just didn't play well enough, I don't think. If I would have played perfect and then, yeah, I would have won, but that's so hard to do and especially on a course like this. So a couple things could have gone my way a little bit more, I would have liked them to go my way a little bit more, but you know, it was a great match and I knew it was going to be pretty close. Q. Given how well you played all week, how disappointed would you be if you didn't make the Walker Cup team? MICHAEL THOMPSON: I would be surprised more than disappointed. It's hard for me to be disappointed because Alabama golf team, we're going to Japan. They leave for Japan Saturday. So if I don't have Walker Cup, then I go to Japan. It's kind of hard. Q. Japan, that's not bad. MICHAEL THOMPSON: You know, it's kind of a win/win situation for me. But I would really, really, really like to play on the Walker Cup team. I really would. KEN KLAVON: Michael, fortunately, there has to be a winner and a loser and you came out on the end short end of the stick, but you had a great week. MICHAEL THOMPSON: The game's all about losing, golf is all about losing. It teaches you to lose. And you only win so many times and you just got to take it in stride and be as happy as you can and live in the moment and believe that there's a tomorrow and there's plenty of golf left in my life, I know that for sure, so it's no big deal. KEN KLAVON: Thanks for taking the time. MICHAEL THOMPSON: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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