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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2008

Rickie Fowler

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

CRAIG SMITH: I don't know that three birdies and three bogeys makes you all that happy, but you certainly got the job done pretty easily winning 4 & 2.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it was better than my stroke play round yesterday, so I feel like I'm getting to know the course a little better and hopefully carry it over into the week.
CRAIG SMITH: You know how you do this, you would like to not play your very best right off the bat, but get better every day. What do you feel like, where do you feel you're at after practice rounds and stroke play and your first match?
RICKIE FOWLER: I didn't get a practice round. So that was a little tough yesterday. I saw the course blind. We got to walk it, but for the most part we didn't know what we were looking at and never played the course.
So I felt like I knew the course a little better today and going into tomorrow I know it a lot more, so looking forward to the week.
CRAIG SMITH: And you're done for awhile, but you spent some good time on the range. What are you working on?
RICKIE FOWLER: Getting a little quick and a little anxious out there, so trying to slow it down and play steady. I need to play my own game and stay within the moment.
And I spent some time on the course watching Josh Anderson, he played on a high school team with me. And I was out there watching Morgan come in. He won two of his last three and won 1-up, so that was kind of cool.

Q. How does it feel to have all these Oklahoma State guys from the second round?
RICKIE FOWLER: We're representing. We knew the best we could do was have four. So, I mean, we are here with four and it was a little rough to see Trent go. It would have been nice to see all five guys get a shot at getting to the 32, but hopefully keep the four going.
CRAIG SMITH: We know where you want to be at the end of the week, how hard is it to not think ahead and just play each match?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's tough because you want to make it to Sunday and be in the 36 hole final and have a chance or make it to the finals. If you make it to the finals you're in the Masters, I think that's the biggest thing out here, everyone wants to get into the finals, I know everyone wants to win, but everyone thinks about the invitation to the Masters, everyone likes that Masters invite.
So it makes it a little tough, but I'm just trying to go one match at a time and just worry about playing tomorrow morning.

Q. Billy said the other day that if you shoot 70, on No. 2, throughout match play you're probably going to win the majority of your matches.
RICKIE FOWLER: I think so. You might run into someone who might beat you if you shoot 70, but I shot 70 today and came out ahead and he can't conceded the last hole, but I was 3-up, so. But, yeah, I mean you shoot even, one, maybe 2-under, you should be able to walk away with most of your matches.

Q. Is the course harder today?
RICKIE FOWLER: Starting to firm up a little bit. I like it. I would like to see these greens start to dry out and hopefully you don't get any rain, but it's looking like we're going to, so it's definitely playing a lot easier than I know that they want it to, they want it get to pretty firm. And it's definitely what I would have liked to have seen, so firm and fast greens, and I guess we get to keep firing at pins and, you know, it's still tough around the greens if you miss them.

Q. The condition of the green on number 10? Is that, how bad is that?
RICKIE FOWLER: It looks a lot worse than it is. They're going to put the pins in certain spots to where it's not going to be as big of a deal if you're within 15, 20 feet.
So it kind of takes out a good chunk of the green because it runs right up the middle and to the back left. So they're going to have to use -- they used the front left today and they were on the right yesterday, so probably going to be on the right for most of the time because that's the biggest part of the green that they have left.
CRAIG SMITH: It's not very often that you get to go any place in an amateur event or walk a little bit below the radar, but you have so far this week, haven't you, or do you feel like you have?
RICKIE FOWLER: A little bit. I haven't had the greatest summer, I won Sunnehanna, did get in the U.S. Open, played, made the cut there. Played good in stroke play at Public Links and then lost third round. Didn't make it to match play at the Western Amateur. And came here and two so so rounds and snuck my way into match play and won my first match and hopefully I can keep it going.
CRAIG SMITH: How about there were eight or so guys here that played in the U.S. Open, after playing something of that caliber, which you've done, what does it do to confidence level when you come here knowing that everyone wants to say, well, this is really difficult golf course, it's No. 2, it's this, it's that, but you've seen it before.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah. This actually kind of is pretty close to how Torrey Pines was. The fairway widths, the rough was a little worse once you got on the third cut at the U.S. Open. You had to chop out there. And not much you could do.
And the greens, they're definitely firmer, but they're about the same size. And you had to be pretty precise with iron shots and here if you fire at the pins you can get the ball stopped a little, but there's some similarities and it's definitely helped, but definitely helped playing in the U.S. Open earlier this summer and making the cut. That gives you a little extra confidence knowing that you played with the big boys.

Q. From the time you made the quarters at Hazeltine to now, how has your game evolved?
RICKIE FOWLER: That was kind of a jump start. Just because it kind of showed that I could hang with a lot of the amateurs, the college players, and went on after that and set my sights on making the Walker Cup and played in the practice and had a great summer the next year and got to go to Ireland and represent.

Q. Is your game different though or is it just your confidence level different or from then to now?
RICKIE FOWLER: No, it's, I don't think anything's really changed. It's just kind of still trying to hit it hard and try and go at every pin.
CRAIG SMITH: You've got a year between Walker Cup and everything else, school and all the college championships, what are you setting your sights on now? Where is the next goal for you?
RICKIE FOWLER: Winning my match tomorrow.

Q. Being there Sunday?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah.

End of FastScripts

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