U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 1996

Joel Kribel

JOEL KRIBEL: I was all square going into 17 and I hit actually probably my best drive of the week on that hole. So I know I had just a wedge in or something. And he's back there 15 yards behind me and he one-hops it. And that reminded me of another tournament this year that happened to me on 17 also. But I knew that coming into 18 that I could reach it in two, and I wasn't sure that he could. I was just hoping to use my length advantage over him. Not that I have a length advantage over a lot of people, that I could get there in 2, because I reached it earlier in the week in my second round match. I hit almost the exact two same shots I did in that second round match up there at about 10 feet. And he conceded that.

JOEL KRIBEL: 3-wood.

JOEL KRIBEL: 253. A little bit against the wind. I was really pumped up at that time. The adrenaline was running through me, and I knew I could get there with a 3-wood pretty comfortablely. I got a good bounce and ended up real close. And then obviously the momentum swung a little bit after 18 as it did on 17. But now it's in my favor. And 18 I didn't exactly hit the drive where I wanted to. I was trying to hit it left of the bunkers but I hit it right at them but it carried the right bunker and got it right in the middle of the fairway and kind of let adrenaline take over, I hit a 7-iron from 183, I guess, and it came pretty close to going in. I couldn't see from the shadows, but somebody said it was about an inch away and rolled by. But I was pretty nervous over that last putt.

JOEL KRIBEL: Probably about four feet.

JOEL KRIBEL: No. Never played him in another tournament or anything. But we've had plenty of little money games, I guess you could say. So we're used to playing against each other a little bit. I mean obviously we haven't been playing the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur when we were doing that. But we have a feeling what it's going to be like tomorrow and I just have to go out there and play as well as I can and see what happens.

JOEL KRIBEL: Not very good. I probably owe him a little bit of money. But I don't know. I guess anything can happen and I'm just going to go out and give it my all.

JOEL KRIBEL: I don't even consider myself one of the longer hitters out here by any stretch. I just had some adrenaline going, and hit a couple of big shots. Tiger probably hits it on average 30 by me and if he really tries to crank one up he can hit 40 or 50 by me. I'm starting to get used to it, though. I try to just play my own game when I can, because there's not a whole lot about how far he hits it, I can just control myself. So just do what I do best. I've got to not pay attention to his length.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah. Speaking from experience this year it makes it a lot easier. I had to fly back the night after the Western was over with and I got in at 1 o'clock, had to get up for 5:30 to qualify for this thing all the way back in California. It's a big relief not having to qualify next year.

JOEL KRIBEL: There's nothing really comes to mind as a favorite hole or stretch of holes, it's just -- I can't say that there's one point that's been a turning point for me, just going out there and playing, whatever hole it happens to be that day is great.

JOEL KRIBEL: I started out a little shaky, a little slow, but I started to find my swing, my putting stroke probably around 7 or so. And from there on out I thought I played pretty solid.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yes, that's correct. I lost the second hole and then -- I lost the 2nd and 3rd hole and I was two down for a while and got it back to one. And I squared it up on 14, I think, par 5, squared it up there. And then I guess I went one down on 17, tied it up on 18 and one up on the 19th.

JOEL KRIBEL: Three of them. I could probably reach 11 if I hit two good shots, but I've yet to do that on that hole.