U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 22, 1996

Joel Kribel

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah, I played really well this afternoon, I got a couple up and Paul was playing steady the whole time, but I was lucky enough to make a couple birdies, on 10, 12 and 14 to kind of keep him a distance away from me, because I know that he's a real good player and dangerous at any time.

JOEL KRIBEL: I don't know if it's far superior. I think it's a lot better than it was in college, because it was adjustment period for me in college. I didn't really know what to expect coming in. And it was a lot harder to adjust to all the schoolwork than I thought. So I'm definitely playing a lot better than I did during school. But usually the summers is when I play my best golf every year. But it's coming around really strong these last couple of weeks. I want to focus really heavily on the Western Amateur and the U.S. Amateur and I took some time off before each of those, and it's paying off with the amount of work I put in.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yes.

JOEL KRIBEL: The Pacific Northwest, up in Washington.

JOEL KRIBEL: Loomis Trail Golf Course in Blaine, Washington. That was a match play event, pretty similar to this, just a lot of players from the Western states. And that one I played one of my teammates in the semifinals, so I'm hoping to maybe do that again here.

JOEL KRIBEL: Jerry Chang.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah, I think speaking for just about everybody on the team that's about the first question we hear, once somebody finds out that we are a Stanford golf team member. But we're getting used to it and I sure wish Tiger would make up his mind so people would quit asking me that question. But that's to be expected. I guess a lot of people don't really want to go up and ask him, so they ask people who are close to him. Who knows? From what I hear he decided to play in the -- committed to the World team -- World Amateur team, so he's got to stay amateur until November. Which is good news at least for a little while. I'm hoping he stays all four.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah. From what I hear from the guys that this last year the team got along a lot better than it had in the past. Not that there were problems, but we kind of molded together very well last year. And I hope that we can keep him around. And I think we'll have a chance to be really good the next two years.

JOEL KRIBEL: No, I'm not going to. I think I'm here for all four, if I can get out that quick.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yes.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah, I think it would be a little different. Obviously I'm going in thinking the same thing everybody else is that I'm playing the best amateur in the world. But since I've gotten to know him on a more personal level I think that some of the intimidation factor that's involved with playing Tiger Woods won't be quite as heavy as it is with a lot of other guys who don't know him quite as well.

JOEL KRIBEL: Just the name in general, because being a legend at age 20, that's intimidating enough. There's no weakness in his game. When he's hot nobody -- I don't think anybody in amateur golf can beat him, no matter who they are. But like I said, every part of his game is strong, so in order for him to actually have a bad hole he has to do a couple of things wrong, because he can get away with some bad drives, he's going to have a short iron in, he's a good putter and has a good short game, it's just solid all the way around. Sometimes you just wonder how he ever does lose a hole. But I guess it's possible. We'll see.

JOEL KRIBEL: Yeah, especially when the pressure is on he gets kind of a look in his eyes that a lot of really good players get and just really intense look and you know he's concentrating really hard. And when he does that he's really dangerous, because you've seen what he's done in the past in some of these tournaments, it's just incredible, once he gets down or needs a big shot, he comes up with it.

JOEL KRIBEL: I think you can learn it to a point, but a lot of it with him is just natural talent. Some guys have it and some don't. He definitely has that.

JOEL KRIBEL: No.

JOEL KRIBEL: I don't think it was quite as bad on me as it was on him. He had four seniors telling him what to do. I didn't have quite as many. I felt like I got off pretty easy. And the guys say that as well. I think the rest of the team may give Tiger a little more trouble than they gave me, so it was kind of nice.

JOEL KRIBEL: No, I treated it like two separate tournaments. 72 holes is like most tournaments that you play. And I just took it like that, as a 72-hole event. But all you needed was the top 16. It wasn't necessarily you had to win. But once you got in the top 16 it started all over and anything can happen.

JOEL KRIBEL: Well, so to speak.

JOEL KRIBEL: I always thought it would be neat to play with him, I could learn a lot of stuff but that was definitely not one of the major factors in my decision to go there. The school is almost unbeatable academically. It's pretty close to home for me. It's got a great campus and when I went there I had a chance to play for a national championship, which is something I was looking forward to.