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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 26, 2005

Austin Eaton, III

ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

CRAIG SMITH: Austin Eaton, Mid Amateur Champion. You told me early in the week that you were in uncharted territory, that that you usually play against guys that have jobs, but here you are.

AUSTIN EATON III: This is definitely uncharted territory. I just feel like I've actually stuck with all of those cliches of playing hard and not giving up and one shot at a time and all that junk. It's been so much fun. My caddie has kept me loose. I've never gotten to the point where I've been so tense I can't do anything. It's been a great time so far.

CRAIG SMITH: Tell me about your match. You had a lot of different things going on.

AUSTIN EATON III: Oh, yeah. I came out of the chute great. Birdied 1 and 2. Made about an 8 or 10 footer on 1. And.

Then he gave me the birdie on 2.

Then made a nice 6 footer for par on 3, so I was still moving right along.

4, hit a poor third shot and hit it in the bunker left and he ended up winning the hole with par.

It's all a blur this week. I'm trying to remember the match.

Q. He chipped in on 5.

AUSTIN EATON III: Oh, that's right. Okay. That was awesome. I figured, you know, 5 is not a bad score here. Where he was, he wasn't going to get it up and down half the time, and he knocked it right in. So, got to take your hat off at that point.

It was match play. That's what good players do. I wasn't very surprised at all that he hit great shots. And I was I just stuck with it. He hit a shot on 7 that bounced right over the green after I had made a really did good up and down on 6. So I won that with a 2 putt par on 7.

8, had to make another had to make another four, 5 footer for par there, I think. This all runs together. (Laughing).

Then 9, we both hit really good shots in there and didn't make very good putts. Both had gimmie pars on 9.

10, I hit the ball in the best position I had all week. Decided since the pin was all the way back left, if I got the ball up as far as I could, I would have a clear shot at the green, or a clear shot right down the green to the pin. Then I was really in great shape. Then Anthony canned it, and it was exciting. To have a guy in the first ten holes sink two from off the green and not just barely off the green, but way off the green, it was I figured it was going to turn sometime, and it turned on the next hole.

CRAIG SMITH: You won 11, 13, 15, 16 with pars. When did you allow yourself to think, "I can win this"?

AUSTIN EATON III: I didn't think about winning it, or at least didn't feel positively about winning it, until I hit my tee shot on 15. It's a real tough it's a real tough tee shot, and I ended up just hitting a great little fade, and it was a low driving fade and ended up way down there. And I don't think that hole fits Anthony's game all that well and he ended up hitting 2 iron. He hits this really good sinker 2 iron, but he was a good 35, 40 yards behind me and pulled it in the left bunker. He's pulled it in the left bunker; I realized this match could be mine. I hit a really good approach shot there and had about almost 20 feet for birdie, which I gunned by, wasn't real bright. But the putt kind of went off of my hands and had about a 3 footer. It was a tough 3 footer, and I don't think I've ever fist pumped after a 3 footer, but I was pretty happy about that one.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your business, and what are your tricks or how do you create time to practice and maintain the kind of level of play that you have?

AUSTIN EATON III: We have a home building business. My father and I are partners. We build between eight and 12 houses a year, semi custom homes where our customers. We sell them the lots, and then we end up building one of four floor plans for them and they can change all throughout the house.

My father handles all of the office and permitting and development type duties, cash flow type things, and I'm the on site supervisor. I make sure all of the contractors, subcontractors, get there on time. I order all of the products yeah, that's not the easiest thing in the world. I order all of the products and make sure everything on site runs as smoothly as it can.

Q. So you've got to be a real burden on your father away a week like this, doing double duty.

AUSTIN EATON III: Well, we have some great subcontractors. What I do when I leave for a week like this, hopefully a full week, but sometimes it's just a couple of days, I make sure I leave a task list with each guy, or at least the guys who I know need to do a few different things during the week.

Q. When do you typically practice or how do you fit that in?

AUSTIN EATON III: Well, I'm on site just after 7:00 in the morning, somewhere right around there every day. Most of the time, the sites clear by 4:00 in the afternoon. During the summer you can get some practice in after that. So I'll go out and hit balls between 5:00 and 7:00, something like that. My wife works a lot, so we'll have dinner after that.

Q. Tell us a little bit about the family. Dad came down here to visit you today.

AUSTIN EATON III: Mom and dad.

Q. You were lone ranger. And now does Pam come?

AUSTIN EATON III: Pamela is getting on a flight here at 8:00. She'll be here at 9:30. I'm looking forward to seeing her; haven't seen her in a week. So I'm very happy she was able to make it. She had a couple of deadlines at work she needed to meet today, so she wasn't able to come down today. I hope she gets some work done today after checking the Internet.

She works for Diageo, which is the largest liquor come company in the world. She actually is an analyst for them in their Wal Mart business.

Q. Is this the most confident you've felt with your game this week, and how would you rate your game today specifically?

AUSTIN EATON III: I was very steady today and confident in what I could do. I think it's tough to say I've ever been more confident in my game. I know last year at the Mid Am, I could do a lot of things right, and this week feels very much the same. I'm relaxed, I'm letting the club go. I'm not worried about where the ball is going. I know that if I make a good swing and release the club, it's going to go where I want.

Q. When he chipped in the first time, you clapped. When he chipped in the second time, you picked his ball out of the cup; wondering how you felt at the time. And then 11, you're in the bunker, he's on the green and you wind up winning the hole. Is that what swayed it back to you?

AUSTIN EATON III: That was the turning point, right there on 11.

First of all, you've got to cheer great shots. He hit fantastic shots both times. Each time he would not have been more than a foot away from the hole if it had not hit the hole. You have to cheer for that kind of stuff. It was good golf. Then we got to 11 and he hit well, I led off from the fairway and I pulled it in the left bunker, hit it pretty solidly, right distance, just pulled it in the left bunker which is no place to be.

Q. Did you get lucky on your third shot?

AUSTIN EATON III: Oh, my gosh, did I get lucky. I'm going to tell you about that in a second.

He had about 25 feet for birdie, and he was away, actually. I had to hit the ball straight up from the bunker. He actually hit it about eight or nine feet by.

Then I had my shot, and I didn't have a great lie and was a little worried about a lump of sand behind my ball, so I figured I would try to get real steep coming into it and I hit it dead in the middle of the ball. It would have gone 125 yards if it had not hit the bank, and it was only a ten foot shot. It hit right into the face of the bank, popped straight up in the air and ended up about six feet from the hole. It was the best break I've ever had on the golf course.

He missed his putt, and at that point I realized, "Okay, here is where you win a match." If you miss this putt, you don't gain any momentum and you don't end up taking it. He may have been more resilient than he was, but at least I had to make the putt and make him perform, and I did. It was a great turn.

From there, I don't think I think he pressed a lot from there.

Q. You mentioned in your opening remarks that you had a lot of fun out there, you and your caddie were kidding around a lot. It looked like you mentioned you were clapping; on 15 it looked like your caddie could you just elaborate on all of the fun you're having out there and you're smiling all the time, it's almost like you're just playing like a regular round of golf.

AUSTIN EATON III: My caddie is a guy named Brian Prescott. He is the local veterinarian in my town in New London well, actually the next town over. We are Twilight League partners on Tuesday nights. We go drink a few beers and give away a bunch of shots to everybody in the field.

Brian is a good player. He won the New Hampshire mid am several years ago and he is known at Dr. Dog. He is a funny dude. I have so much fun with him out there. Just to give you an example of the kind of things he keeps me going with. In the medal play portion, I splashed a ball in the water on 11. And then next hole, I've got a 9 iron in my hand I think and I hit it fairly close to the hole and he looks at me and goes, "Hey, it didn't splash."

He keeps me loose. When you saw me on 15 there with him, he looks at me and just goes, "Hey, idiot, nice putt." And basically just he mimed that the putter was too hot to handle at that point, like it was burning up and I hit it too darned hard, which I did. That was a tough little putt I had there to win the hole. I was glad it went in.

Q. We've got two guys in the final four with the long putter. What's your story and how did you get to using it?

AUSTIN EATON III: I think this is my eighth or ninth season with it. I actually had the yips with long putts, and I was pretty good from ten feet and in, but I was putting cross handed at the time and I couldn't get it within ten feet of the hole from 20 feet away.

As soon as I got in close, I was fine. But I decided it was time to try something different, and in the Met section back in the late 90s, there were a bunch of guys, Jeff Thomas, Kenny Basch (ph), several of the pros who were rolling it great with long putters, and beating my brains out and I realized, I ought to try it.

From the moment I tried it, it was really natural. I can't imagine why more people don't do it. It's a very simple motion.

Q. Can you give us any anecdote or talk about this Twilight League? Is this a local muni?

AUSTIN EATON III: No. Brian and I are both members at Lake Sunapee Country Club, which is an old Donald Ross track. It's a great place. It's been restored and it's just it's a super club. It's a private club. It's about 100 guys go tee it up on Tuesday nights at 5:00, and you've got twosomes, full handicap. There was one week I gave 23 shots on the front nine and Brian had to give I think 18. So we don't have much of a chance of winning. We are middle to back of the pack even when we go out and shoot 30. (Laughter).

But we have so much fun, drink a bunch of beers and right around in a cart and make fun of people, including ourselves. It's a great evening every week.

Q. Anybody who has ever had a house built knows what a nightmare it can be dealing with subcontractors, contractors, this that and the other thing. I would have think that weighs particularly heavy on you not so much this week, but other tournaments you're out playing. Do you come back after a round and there's two or three phone calls and things you have to deal with?

AUSTIN EATON III: 12 or 13 sometimes.

Last year, during the summer, which is one of the reasons I had a tough summer playing, I had seven we had seven houses going at the same time. And I was essentially trying to schedule and run all of those, and all of the details and make sure everything was right. I frankly didn't do a good job at that, and I didn't do a good job playing golf.

So right now I think we have four we've got five houses going right now, and that makes a big difference. I guess we just closed on one; so it's four houses, and it's just infinitely more handleable that way. I think my customers also understand how cool this is, and they have at times been frustrated and at times been very, very understanding.

Q. Do you really want those people in those seven houses to know that you didn't do a good job

AUSTIN EATON III: They well know that. There were times when they would scratch their heads and say, what's going on here, and I would miss a detail here or a detail there. So that weighs on your golf game when you know you're missing things because you're not at work.

Q. Have you heard anything this week or are they keeping that away from you?

AUSTIN EATON III: I haven't gotten a message that pressing all week. It's been really nice. I mean, I get a call from the guy who wants to hang a mirror in lot 20, wants to know what size the holes need to be for the light fixtures and I return the call and that's it. It's not somebody screaming and wanting something now. So I've been checking my messages every morning and afternoon and getting back to people when I need to.

Q. Is it extra satisfying to play against the college kids and do what you've just done?

AUSTIN EATON III: Oh, yeah. They really are so tough now. Back when I was their age, I didn't know how to play golf. Compared to my understanding of the game now, they play so much more competitive golf through the AJGA and other organizations, and on the national stage, that they are as tough now as mid ams are from a competitive understanding standpoint.

Q. You had a chance this past April to play at The Masters, was it enough fun that you might like to go back?

AUSTIN EATON III: What an incentive. The first time I was there, I went for several practice rounds this winter, and said to my wife when I got back, "I've got to win something again. I've got to go back to this thing." I mean, The Masters is unbelievable.

So I thought that my best avenue was to go play well in the Mid Am again, and this was beyond something that I was capable of doing. Now I've got to go win at least one more match. But it's within reach. I don't think I'm going to feel any extra pressure; and last year, the thought of The Masters came right to the front of my mind as I was trying to complete the match in the finals.

I'm sure it will cross my mind a couple of times tomorrow but I've been there. I'll think about it I'm sure. But I have a little more peace of mind knowing that I've done that; I've walked those grounds, I've played with the great players. I've love to do it again but I hope that I don't feel the gravity of it.

Q. College golf and junior golf would have been that way when you were that age, do you think you would have had a different career path?

AUSTIN EATON III: Yeah, I may have. If I had learned the ins and outs of tournament golf as well as some of these kids have, I probably would have turned pro, because there are great opportunities out there to do that.

But, I played pretty well in junior golf and through the ranks, but it's a different world now, it really is.

End of FastScripts.

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