U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 26, 2000

David Eger

DAVID EGER: Well, compared to how I felt after about nine holes when I was worried about getting beat 7 and 6, I feel pretty good now only getting beat, what was it, 3 and 1. He played a very good round of golf today. He started a little bit slowly, but then on the -- I guess he one-putted six out of the next seven holes. I think four of those -- five of those were for birdie -- or four of them were for birdies. But he played a wonderful round of golf. He was 4-under par through 17. I was only 1-under. I had my problems putting, I guess was the main problem today. I had an opportunity to birdie the first hole, missed it from eight feet. And from there, it didn't seem to get any better until I made a side-hiller on the -- I missed very makeable putts from inside of 10 feet on 1, 3, three-putted 4, missed the short birdie putt at 5, missed a short birdie putt at 10. Finally made a real swing putt that you would never think would be makeable with the way I've been putting today on 11. So it -- I just got too far behind too good a player.

DAVID EGER: More exciting than that, Les. (Laughter.) Well, after Jeff hit it a foot from the hole on 15 to go dormie, I've got nothing to lose. I hit a tee shot in the left rough, a second shot over the green, and had some kind of flop shot out of long grass behind. It was better than Doug Flutie's Hail Mary. Only thing is I didn't win like Boston College did. I just hit this thing up there and it mattered, but I didn't -- I wasn't expecting to make that shot any more than I was expecting to make something 120 yards out in the fairway.

DAVID EGER: I wouldn't say it was best. It was maybe the luckiest -- one of the luckiest shots I've had. The skill was getting the ball up in the air, I guess, or picking the right club. There was no -- it was all luck. I mean it was a good shot, but looking where the hole was set, my ball could have run off the green, too, had it missed the hole, missed the flagstick.

DAVID EGER: My stamina was great. I feel great. As I've said in here before, the format of going only 18 holes in the quarter and semifinal matches per day is very easy, and I guess television dictates that, but I could see going back to the way it used to be and make it more of a stamina contest, too.

DAVID EGER: Yeah. And I hit a good tee shot at 17. Unfortunately it kicked in the rough and I was 207 -- I hit my ball 207 yards to get to the front edge of the green, I didn't even go for 17. I hit a 5-wood to lay up. I had a pretty good yardage there. But still I had -- knowing where he played his second shot on 17, he -- the way he was playing today, he was better than 50-50 shot, I figured he was gonna make a four. So it was, you know -- there was some light, but there wasn't much light at the end of the tunnel for me by then. I would have thought he might have given me my putt and then just seen if he could make his there on 17, like Phil Mickelson would have. Get out of the way, old man, let's go.

DAVID EGER: Yeah, that's getting redundant. I didn't think about that until after the match. They've obviously had some very good players and it looks like Jeff is of the same mold that Phil is.

DAVID EGER: I hit a 9-iron, it was a 145-yard shot. While it was downhill, I still didn't think that I could hit a 9-iron over the green. I wasn't worried about that. But I knew that I had to hit it reasonably close to make a two to prolong the match. It's kind of like when you play your round, you say, "Well, I'm the guinea pig on a par 3." I was the guinea pig. He hit the same club but obviously with a little more finesse after that. He hit a heck of a shot after seeing my ball go over the green -- I may be fooled that he could hit a 9-iron back that far when he may not have been trying to do so. He knew I was dead when he saw my ball go over the green.

DAVID EGER: I really thought that was going to be pretty good.

DAVID EGER: He's very solid. What I saw today, he only played two poor tee shots, hit a lot of very good iron shots, and good short game, very good putter. I would think that he should feel very good about going into tomorrow. If he plays the same type of game, anyone would have a difficult time beating him.

DAVID EGER: It's been a good year. I had a goal of making the World Amateur Team. When I was selected to play on it a few weeks ago, that, you know, let me know that I had done well and so I'm proud of it. I would have obviously liked to have done better this week, but I did better than, what, 308, tied for 310. I had a good year. I'm pleased. And it's not over yet.

DAVID EGER: It really would be nice next week to win the Eisenhower Trophy back for the United States, though. We haven't had it since 1994.

DAVID EGER: That would be great, or if it's James, that would be great, too. They're both very good players, and they're obviously playing very well this week. So either one, that's not my call. But --

DAVID EGER: I'll play with either one. I hope they'd be proud to play with me also. It's too bad that we can't take five over there.

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