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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 21, 2008Morgan HoffmannPINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA CRAIG SMITH: You are growing up before our eyes here at the U.S. Amateur. Two years ago 16 turned 17, you're in the -- your birthday comes in the middle of this, but each year as you play this you're getting more experienced and a little bit better results. Quarterfinalist, you are now exempt for next year. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Awesome. Thank you. CRAIG SMITH: How did you play? You won 2 & 1, the back nine seemed to be your friend. You pulled away a little bit. MORGAN HOFFMANN: The back nine, I mean, as a player I always seem to I guess come back when I'm down. I like having a little bit more pressure. And I've been putting well and finally hitting my driver good. And just trusted it today. And I really got it done. It felt good. CRAIG SMITH: Talk about your driver, because usually if it's not going well you don't stick around on course No. 2. But you were scraping it around pretty good. Tell us how it was going and what happened to have it go right for you today. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Well we found something on the range this morning before the what, third round, I guess? And just working with my coach, Gary Gilchrist, and we just, he just told me to feel it. And we started to see shots and shaping them and hitting them low, high. So on every tee we just looked at a shot before I even got the driver in my hand and saw it and hit it and didn't even bother about mechanics. CRAIG SMITH: That's kind of a mind thing? A mind over matter kind of thing. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Exactly. Yeah. CRAIG SMITH: Do you normally have to go through that mental routine? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I like to be swinging better, but right now you have to win every match out here. So I just have to do everything that I can, not think about mechanics and just get it in the fairway and just feel it, you know. CRAIG SMITH: Oklahoma State was well represented with four going into this morning, you're still here, and Kevin Tway is still out there on extra holes, that's quite a representation and I'm just wondering what it means to all of you and what it means to Oklahoma State. Obviously you have a rich tradition and you're doing something to keep it going. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah, well we're really excited about this year, Rickie, Peter, two of my really good friends, we're all three of us are going to push each other this year and the next four years or three years and it's just going to be awesome. Having teammates play with you, it's almost like the Canon Cup at the AJGA, that you're out there on other holes just pumping each other up, let's go, come on, let's go. CRAIG SMITH: It sort of jump started you two years ago you played the U.S. Amateur at age 16 at Merion, your favorite golf course and you said, gee, this is, I can play with these guys. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah, well that was an eye opener, I had a really good year that year. Made the cut in the British Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, that's when I, looking back on it, I used to feel everything, just not even worry about mechanics because I didn't, I was just starting with my coach, Gary, and he hasn't, he at that time he didn't teach me extensively, so I just went out there like a little kid and played golf. So now I'm trying to get back in a that. CRAIG SMITH: Sometimes it's better if you don't know what the bad parts are, especially on course No. 2. How about match play versus stroke play? You hit it a country mile, it's got to help you intimidating some of the people you play against. MORGAN HOFFMANN: I guess so, I just try to play my own game, not really intimidate anybody, just be myself and I mean it's definitely an advantage to have wedges into holes, especially on course No. 2. It's just really nice to have that advantage, I guess. If you would call it an advantage. CRAIG SMITH: I think so. Have you allowed yourself, it's just a short time that you won, but you're halfway there to probably what you have dreamt about sometimes. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Right. Definitely. CRAIG SMITH: Can you put it into words what a U.S. Amateur would mean to a top amateur player? MORGAN HOFFMANN: It means the world. Especially to me. Because all my life I've been the slow one getting better, I mean Peter Uihlein is like three years ahead of me. But now I'm slowly catching and to an amateur player, winning the U.S. Amateur, I think, to anyone, means the world. Especially getting exemptions to the Masters and I guess a couple other Majors, and that would just be the dream, living the dream. CRAIG SMITH: You are, outside of this, you're big enough and athletic enough that I'm sure an awful lot of folks wanted to see you play basketball or football, how did you get from other sports to golf? MORGAN HOFFMANN: My dad brought me up playing golf. He was a very good amateur player. He holds a few course records and all that. But he started me in diapers and I was out there just walking it with plastic clubs just having fun. But then I really started taking it serious when I started winning like county events in New Jersey. And I was just thinking, me and my dad were thinking that maybe we have something here, so just went with it. CRAIG SMITH: When did you start taking lessons as opposed to just walking it and using your God given athletic ability? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Probably around 13. With my coach Tom Flatt, who was an assistant pro in New Jersey now he's the head pro, and I went to Gary about when I was 15. CRAIG SMITH: And how did that get you from New Jersey to Oklahoma? MORGAN HOFFMANN: What, Gary? CRAIG SMITH: No, I mean for school, living in New Jersey and going to school down south. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Well, I just went to visit Oklahoma State I guess, and I totally fell in love with it, didn't even visit any other schools. It was my first visit and I didn't even bother to go anywhere else. CRAIG SMITH: Are you rooming with any of the folks that are out here? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Me and Peter are rooming together. We are in the athletic apartments, so it should be a fun year. CRAIG SMITH: Well best of luck and thank you for spending time. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Thank you, appreciate it. End of FastScripts |
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