|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 24, 2008Danny LeePINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA CRAIG SMITH: I'm going to just say, congratulations U.S. Amateur Champion. You were the equivalent of 11-under par. What a show. DANNY LEE: Well, I played well. I played really, really well today. That's all I can say. CRAIG SMITH: Tell me, you said yesterday it was a dream. DANNY LEE: Yeah. Q. Tell me about the dream and the week. I want to hear you talk. DANNY LEE: This is my, like what should I say? This tournament, this is my third year trying this U.S. Amateur and I think I never felt -- I tried the tournament three times and I never felt like -- I don't know what to say -- I'm just so excited I don't know what else to say right now. I have no idea. CRAIG SMITH: That's okay. Q. Given the tournament that you just won, have you ever played any, can you play any better than how you performed today? DANNY LEE: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think I played incredibly well today and I don't think I can play better than this, I think I played perfect golf. I'm really happy with myself and how I played. Q. He cut it to two when he chipped in on eight, or seven. What were your thoughts then and then you proceeded it make two birdies in a row or three birdies in a row? DANNY LEE: No, I wasn't really surprised, I knew that it's going to come back some time and on some hole. And I knew he was a good player, because he made it into the finals here. He's a good player. I was expecting to get that, to have that happen, and since after he made that chip in, I was thinking like, I got to play well and I need to just keep focused on my game and just try and make birdies from there. Q. Did you watch Michael Campbell win the U.S. Open here on television? DANNY LEE: Yes, I did. Q. What was your reaction when he won the U.S. Open here and what is your relationship with him? DANNY LEE: Actually, we're just the same New Zealanders, and we won at the same golf course, which is really nice. And that's about it, I think. Q. Do you remember when he got back home after winning the U.S. Open? DANNY LEE: No, actually not. No. Sorry. Q. Can you talk about the putt to win the match. And just kind of what your thoughts were when you saw that go in? DANNY LEE: Yeah, it was an easy putt, just a little left-to-right break, you know. Uphill. Just aim at the left edge, hit it firm. I knew that it was going to go in. CRAIG SMITH: I guess there's a follow-up question here about your putting. You said it was good all week, today it seemed to be uncanny. If that's an easy putt, talk about your putting just a little bit. DANNY LEE: Oh, actually, I putted really well. I don't know why. Maybe because of the practice that I've done. I think that's what makes me putt really well, actually. CRAIG SMITH: Do you think when you get over a putt that you're going to make every one? DANNY LEE: Yeah, like when 15 foot away from the hole, I still have a feeling that it's going to drop. I was really comfortable out there. Q. Did you read your own putts this week? Who read them? DANNY LEE: Actually, we both read them and it was, we were discussing about like some holes it's breaking like opposite way, so I was listening to Boss and we were really discussing about those lies and we read it together. CRAIG SMITH: How about just for the record we put your caddie's name on the record. Your caddie's name is. DANNY LEE: Bob. And I don't know his last name. Sorry. CRAIG SMITH: We'll just call him Bob. Q. Have you been in touch with your parents at all? DANNY LEE: Just cell phone call every night. That's about it. Q. Were they following along? DANNY LEE: Yeah, actually they do. CRAIG SMITH: Tell them Uncle Rambo, how he was doing with the texting. DANNY LEE: Oh, yeah, actually my uncle called them or texted to them how I did that day or Danny hit it in the bunker and he shanked it from there, something like that. (Laughter.) Q. What time is it back there right now? DANNY LEE: It's 16 hour difference, so probably early morning. Maybe. Early morning right now? Probably. Q. Have you heard -- DANNY LEE: I don't know. Q. Have you heard from them yet about winning? DANNY LEE: Yeah. Q. What did they say? DANNY LEE: Just, Danny, I'm so proud of you and blah, blah, blah. (Laughter.) CRAIG SMITH: Yesterday you said you finally talked to your mom and she was happy, she was crying. Was she crying again she was so proud? DANNY LEE: No. Not today. I don't know why. (Laughter.) She supposed to be crying today. Q. After this you're going to go back to New Zealand. When are you going back to New Zealand? DANNY LEE: When? Q. Yeah. DANNY LEE: Next Tuesday. Q. How long are you going to stay there before you come back to the States? DANNY LEE: I think I'm going to stay over there for probably 20 days and then I'm going to come back here, I don't know why I'm coming back here, but I'm going to come back. Q. So you have to finish high school, is that right? In the next 20 days? DANNY LEE: Yes. Yes. Q. And then, and you don't know what your intentions are after that in terms of what you're going to do? DANNY LEE: Just get ready for the big Major tournaments. The U.S. Open, Masters. Q. Do you have any ideas about college or professional golf? DANNY LEE: I can't give you the hundred percent answer right now, I want to be a professional golfer, but I want to be a student of college as well, so. Q. It's a tough decision? DANNY LEE: Yeah. Q. Did you play in any of the pro-ams in Greensboro? So in other words, how many consecutive days of golf have you played now? Pretty tired? DANNY LEE: I think it's 13 or 14. Q. Are you tired or not? DANNY LEE: Yes, my leg is shaking right now. Yeah, I was tired. And mentally and physically I was a bit tired this afternoon. And I still played well. That's a good thing. Q. Had you ever been through a stretch of competitive golf, two week stretch like that at all? Do you ever remember anything like that? DANNY LEE: Yes, I have. After the Western Amateur, I played the Western Amateur and next day I played the U.S. Amateur qualifying, so I played 10 rounds in six days. That was tough. Q. I was going to ask if there was any nervousness during the round today or you seemed very comfortable out there, obviously. DANNY LEE: Actually, I wasn't really comfortable. Like the first nine holes this morning, the first nine holes then, I was 2-down, 1-down? CRAIG SMITH: You were 2-down after five. DANNY LEE: 2-down after five. And he was playing really really well. He kept making birdies and kept hitting good shots. He kept putting the pressure on me on the first nine. But the back nine I played really well. CRAIG SMITH: Just throw a couple of things here. You had 13 birdies, two bogeys, and if you could, think back to the morning when you made the run, you won a bunch of holes, seven out of nine to go five up. One of those on the 14th was when you hit out of the fairway bunker. Can you take me through that? That must have -- I mean it amazed us and we were watching it. DANNY LEE: That was an easy shot, actually. It wasn't that hard, you know. (Laughter.) You can just swing the club and the ball goes straight to the flag, you know. (Laughter.) Everyone knows that. (Laughter.) CRAIG SMITH: I give up. (Laughter.) Q. What was it like playing Pinehurst No. 2 in match play and just your whole experience here this week? DANNY LEE: You know, it's really tough. If you miss your tee shot into the rough, it's really hard to get, make birdies from there. And around the greens and especially the greens it's, it looked like a turtle back, so it's, you just got to be really consistent with your iron game. It was a great experience for me. Q. You did something that not many people can do, you topped Tiger Woods. You're now the youngest champion. What are your thoughts about that? DANNY LEE: I don't know. Actually, it's a special thing that I'm the youngest U.S. Amateur champion, but I don't think that -- it's not a big deal, I think. CRAIG SMITH: It is a big deal, however, if we do traditional parings next year. DANNY LEE: No, not for me. (Laughter.) CRAIG SMITH: I feel like Ed McMahon. We do traditional parings and you've got one with Tiger Woods next year at the first two rounds of the U.S. Open. DANNY LEE: Oh, my God. (Laughter.) Q. Is that a big deal? DANNY LEE: Yeah. That's a -- oh -- that's a special thing for me. CRAIG SMITH: Finally. DANNY LEE: Wow. (Laughter.) I'm going to beat him. (Laughter.) Q. You made a lot of new fans this week. Could you just talk about having so many little kids come up to you? DANNY LEE: Yeah, all the kids they just like me. I don't know why. But I do like kids. And am I a kid? CRAIG SMITH: To me you are. (Laughter.) DANNY LEE: Yeah. I made a lot of friends out there and those crowds, they were real loud and, you know, it was fun. Q. Since we're talking about Tiger Woods, do you think your game at all compares to him at his age when he was 18? You hit the ball extremely high with your irons. Do you have anything you think you're close to with him? DANNY LEE: I don't know. That's a good question. We'll see next year at the U.S. Open. (Laughter.) That's all I can say, I think. Q. When you look back at this entire week, this entire experience, just what will you think about? DANNY LEE: All the good shots I hit and all the good putts I made. Q. This is the first time you had seen Drew play, the first time he had seen you play, but just how would, what, how do you assess Drew's game? What impressed you about him? DANNY LEE: You know, just he's real like, he's good at everything. He hits it really really far. He's one of the longest hitters that I have seen and his putting is really good too. Sometimes his iron shots get real close very often and I think he's good at everything. CRAIG SMITH: When you get back to school and the teacher says, what did you do in your summer vacation? DANNY LEE: I won the U.S. Amateur. (Laughter.) And I'm going to play in the U.S. Open and the Masters and the British Open. CRAIG SMITH: So you had a pretty good summer. DANNY LEE: Yeah. Q. Are you still planning on going to Q-School? You talked about that before about going through as an amateur. DANNY LEE: Maybe not. (Laughter.) No, I got to play those Major tournaments before I die. (Laughter.) Q. How old are you? Seriously, talk about the pressures of turning pro, do you think there are going to be any coming in the next few weeks? What are you going to say to them when they come? DANNY LEE: I don't know. It is my parents' choice, it's not my choice. I don't have that many choices. But I don't real want to turn pro next year, I just want to play -- I want to play in those big events and maybe after that I'll discuss turning pro then. CRAIG SMITH: When it comes to instruction, I know you said your mother's involved, talk about the instruction. Do you have any one over here overseeing your instruction or is it just mom and how do you get it done? DANNY LEE: I record my swing with camera and send it by e-mail to my mom. And they watch me, how I hit the ball and how I putt. And my mom thinks what's wrong with that and something's wrong or something and we just discuss it just like that. CRAIG SMITH: You pick up shots and techniques quickly. Yes? I mean, if somebody shows you a shot you try it and it works. DANNY LEE: Yeah. Pretty much. Just swing the club. CRAIG SMITH: Just swing the club and hit it. Q. What will you do to celebrate? DANNY LEE: Going to drink a beer. (Laughter.) No. I'm kidding guys. Kidding. (Laughter.) I don't know. Just I'm going to go to the theater and watch two movies tonight. Q. Tonight? DANNY LEE: Yeah. And I'm going to go to the army place tomorrow and throw some bombs and shoot some guns. (Laughter.) I'm definitely going to try that. CRAIG SMITH: Are you impressed at all that you might get your picture with the trophy replica, a couple of flags, you're going to be in the hallway out here. DANNY LEE: Wow. I don't know. I don't know what to say about that. CRAIG SMITH: Well, it's quite an honor. DANNY LEE: Yeah. It is really, it is. Q. What movies are you going to see? DANNY LEE: Maybe comedy, and Hellboy II. Q. Where are you going? What's this army thing you're going to do? DANNY LEE: It's just right there. Q. Fort Bragg? DANNY LEE: Yeah. Fort Bragg. My friends actually are from there. CRAIG SMITH: And tell me about your dog -- we don't know much about home, we know mom teaches, you have a dog waiting for you at home you haven't seen in four months, Birdie. DANNY LEE: Yeah, I really miss him. I don't think he's going to remember me. That's a sad thing though. Q. What kind of dog is it? DANNY LEE: I don't actually know. (Laughter.) Sorry. Q. You forgot him? CRAIG SMITH: It's been awhile. DANNY LEE: It was a baby dog and that's about it. Now it's going to be a, like seeing a huge dog. I'm pretty sure that he's grown up pretty quickly. Q. Have you ever shot a gun before? DANNY LEE: No. Q. Are you going to go shoot tomorrow? DANNY LEE: Um-hum. Q. Are you looking forward to that? DANNY LEE: Yeah. CRAIG SMITH: That ought to be good for your shoulder. DANNY LEE: Yeah. Like this (Indicating) bang, ow. (Laughter.) End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|