U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 21, 1997

Randy Leen

RANDY LEEN: Yep, definitely.

RANDY LEEN: I think it was tougher. I didn't play real well today. Luckily my short game was on. My putting was definitely on. I was very fortunate that the guys I played didn't have their A game today. But, yeah, today was definitely a lot harder than I thought, you know, it was going to be or I would have liked it to have been.

RANDY LEEN: Well, I mean, I was hitting the ball okay, but every once in a while, I was hitting shots that I don't normally hit. Like, I was hitting a lot of shots heavy like 30-, 40-yards short. So, I mean, overall, I hit the ball pretty well, but just a few shots here and there that I wouldn't expect to usually hit. But, I mean, it was just kind of a borderline day.

RANDY LEEN: Well, it's tough. You're exactly right, it creeps into your head. You have to do the best job you can and think about some of the good shots you hit and try to focus on those and try to forget about the bad ones.

RANDY LEEN: Yeah. Let's see, I birdied 9, hit a good shot in there about 4, 5 feet. Let's see, 11 --

RANDY LEEN: Yeah, 10. 10, I got it up-and-down in the bunker and Donny, you know, he didn't get it up-and-down from the front of the green, so I was lucky there. 13, I had a real good shot in there about 20, 25 feet. That was -- I think that hole was a big key for me. I played a real solid first match. I hit a 5-iron about 20 feet, and the guy I was playing, Donny, hit it in the hazard. And then this afternoon, I hit a 4-iron about 5 feet. Both times I hit first, so that puts a lot of pressure on who I'm playing against.

RANDY LEEN: Oh, we were both -- I was in the bunker, and he was just in the little grass area right between the bunker. He chipped his up probably 3, 4 feet. And I hit my bunker shot probably, you know, hit a good bunker shot, never checked up and went about 10 feet behind. I missed it. He made his.

RANDY LEEN: I think you play a course better the more comfortable you feel playing it. Especially if you're winning, you're going to get more confident. I think today was definitely key for me. I wasn't playing real well, but my short game held up under pressure. I was able to tie a few holes that I really needed to tie. So I think that's going to be big if I want to make it to Sunday.

RANDY LEEN: It's been pretty interesting. The Walker Cup was unbelievable. It was a lot more -- I was expecting a lot, and it was even more than I thought. I think that's played a big role in the way I've played this week. I played really well at the Walker Cup and got some more experience playing match play. But, you know, the last couple weeks have just been pretty exciting for me. But I think playing in the Walker Cup kept me playing well. It took a lot of pressure off me going into this week, because that was -- I was really, you know, I've been thinking about the Walker Cup for so long, and I responded well and I played well. So I think I kind of went into this tournament a little more relaxed saying, hey, I played well last week, try to keep it up. If not, you know, we played well, so we did as much as we could.

RANDY LEEN: I think I had. This year, I have more expectations on myself maybe. But, you know, last year I was playing really well at the time. I think it was a pretty big letdown for me because I also went into that tournament coming off of playing in the U.S. Open and having won a couple other tournaments, so I was playing really well, and I felt like I played well. And I just caught a match where D.A. Points, he was like 5- or 6-under. It was kind of a letdown, but I think definitely this year, I was expecting a lot more, so, you know, and I've done -- you know, I've gotten to where I was expecting myself to get. Now it's just kind of go out and play and see what happens.

RANDY LEEN: They were tough. I don't know if there's any easy spots on those greens really. There's just so many undulations in the greens, and they're getting faster, too. So I think anywhere they put those pins, it's going to be tough. I think with the wind today, with them having a couple of the pins tucked right over bunkers, so those shots were right into the wind, so it's really easy to come up short and be in those bunkers, and then with the wet sand you have no shot. That caused a lot of bogeys from players today. But overall, I think the pins, they're going to be about the same, I would think, you know, all throughout the week.

RANDY LEEN: Yeah, it's still wet enough, you can take it at the pin. But the wind played such a big factor today, you really were shooting away from a lot of the pins.