U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 30, 1998

Hank Kuehne

HANK KUEHNE: I'm hanging in there. I'm doing pretty well right now.

HANK KUEHNE: I'm up and I really can't put it into words for anybody. It's an unbelievable feeling, it really is.

HANK KUEHNE: I came out, Tom didn't hit a very good tee shot at first, and I got down the middle and knocked it on the green. I thought I was going to win the first hole, but he hold it, what, a 25-foot par-putt. Then I hit it about three and a half feet on 2, and he's in the back of the green, I thought for sure I'm going to win this hole. And he knocked it in and I missed. He putted really well, he made a lot of putts, but the ball-striking really kind of hurt him there, especially in the first nine holes of the morning 18. And I just was able to put the ball somewhere where I could knock it on the green and make some pars and hit a couple of good iron shots to win some holes and I played pretty well. And had a pretty comfortable lead after the morning 18.

HANK KUEHNE: Sure, he definitely ended on a good note from the morning. And then coming out in the afternoon we got started off, I had regrouped, I made a good putt on the first hole and then he covered me, played the second hole good, down the middle, about 20 feet, I left it short and he makes birdie there again. I had a good chance to win the third hole, but didn't win the third hole. And then my ball-striking kind of was a little suspect for the next few holes. Only 4 and 5 was really bad, and then I got to 6, I had a perfect shot on 6. It was right of the pin, I hit one less club than I did in the morning and it knocked it over the green. I hit a horrible pitch, but my ball-striking came back and I started hitting the ball better, and basically got back on my feet again.

HANK KUEHNE: That's 100 percent true. I couldn't say it any better myself. This is the second greatest victory in my life. Sobriety is definitely No. 1, and no matter what I do for the rest of my golfing career there's nothing that can ever knock that out of being my greatest victory.

HANK KUEHNE: You know, I try not to go back there very often, but when I sit back and I do think about where I was and the condition my life was in and everything else that was going in my life, I'm really pleased. I feel pretty satisfied with the direction my life has taken and where I am today.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, we talked about it all day, but you don't really -- when everything is going backwards, I can't -- when everything was going backwards and I was losing a few holes and got one down, I said: All right, it's time to step it up. When we got on the 7th tee and I hit two great shots there, I just happened to be five feet on the wrong side of the hole, and I just -- we'd read it to break a certain way, and I hit it so soft that it really didn't have a chance to make it, and I continued to hit some pretty good golf shots and coming around and I played just pretty decent from there on out.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, because I really hadn't got a lot of -- I'd had some shots and some good breaks, but on 8 when the monkey there threw it out of the tree, that was pretty good, to say the least. And Tom putted great all day. And he finally missed a couple of ten-footers, which he made every one of them all day long. So I just pretty much tried to right myself and keep knocking it on the fairway and trying to put some pressure on him.

HANK KUEHNE: I expected him to make every putt he stood over. It didn't matter where it was from. I expect it to go in. I expected him -- when I was on the green ten feet, I expected him to chip it in if he missed the green, just the way -- you take that mentality against anybody. You expect them to do pretty much -- you're trying to figure out a way that they can beat you. You're trying to think, how can he possibly beat me in this hole, and then you figure it out so then you fully expect them to do that. So you don't expect to go ahead and have an easy win or something like that and get let down while you prepare yourself for the worst, which I pretty much tried to do all day.

HANK KUEHNE: The only thing -- Oh, really haven't gotten that far, I just know it's going to be a great year. That's pretty much as far as I've taken it. It's going to be great to go home and it's going to be great to get back in my own bed, but those are pretty much the only things I've really thought about. That and how far I am behind in school.

HANK KUEHNE: I knew that was going to come up (laughter.) You know, that was my gameplan, as soon as I got into matchplay is hit driver on 14. It worked. It's worked. I birdied it -- in the 7 times I played it -- no, six times I've played it, I made birdie four times, I missed a three footer for birdie and the other time and today. I made great shots there every other time. There's no sense in changing my gameplan. If I hit a good tee shot there, who knows what would have happened. The thing is, I actually -- I had a pretty easy shot for my next shot, but I hit a horrible shot from underneath the tree. So I still think driver is the play there. And if I ever come back here and play again in tournaments I'm going to hit driver.

HANK KUEHNE: You know, I looked at it -- I actually hit my driver pretty straight. I hit it a long way, but if you go back and look at the amount of fairways I hit with my driver or when I did miss the fairway, why did I miss the fairway, it's not because I curved it too far off line, it's usually because I hit it through the fairway. And I stood up on 17 and I knew that I don't curve my drivers much as I curve my 3-wood. Is if I hit a good tee shot I could have a short iron into the green, and that would be a huge advantage, if I can hit a good tee shot.

HANK KUEHNE: Actually, I hit it solid for the first time all week. I just kind of hit a big hook.

HANK KUEHNE: It was pretty much absolutely perfect (laughter). If you sit back and you think about golf shots that you hit given the circumstances, given everything that's on the line, given where I am in the match, the momentum is with him, that shot was perfect.

HANK KUEHNE: Great match, Buddy. He's a good friend of mine. He wished me nothing but the best. And said that if he had to think of anybody else -- anybody that he would lose to, he would like it to be me, if he had to lose. And I feel the same way. Tom is a great guy, and a great player. We're really good friends. I can't think of anybody, any nicer than Tom.

HANK KUEHNE: I have no idea. I have no idea.

HANK KUEHNE: No, I'm going to go back to SMU and I'm going to tee up my first college tournament, I tee it up September 18th at the Tucker out in Albuquerque. And I look forward to playing college golf all year. I look forward to going back. We've got a really good team this year. We've got a lot of new players in, and I'm very excited to get back and play with them.

HANK KUEHNE: On 13. That was not an easy putt. I hit a great putt. I finally covered him instead of him covering me, which was nice.

HANK KUEHNE: It's not an easy situation, but if you put it in perspective it's simple. Three and a half years ago I couldn't play golf, and now if I can go out, every day, golf is what I love to do. You can't beat it. You're out there, you get to see some of the most beautiful places in the world. You get to -- if you work hard and you do the things you need to do in order to be good, you reap the benefits. I'm the only one that -- I control basically what I put into my golf game. I don't control what I get out of it, I don't always get everything out of it that I could, but I know if I've prepared and I know that if what I've done is enough to be where I am and if you go out and you shoot 80, if I went out and shot 85 or couldn't get off the ground or shanked it five times a day, 3-putted every hole, if you think about where I was three and a half years ago, it really makes no difference if I shot 85 today. I'm glad I didn't, and I'm glad that things worked out the way they did. But honestly, it really -- in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make any difference.

HANK KUEHNE: It's amazing. The volunteers, the galleries, if you look at it, they were -- when each one of us was having our bumps in the road, they were screaming: Hey, come on, get back on your horse, do what you have to do. It was for both of us. They're unbelievable, they're very golf knowledgeable, they know what good golf shots are. Some situations you can be in you go places where if you get it airborne, people start clapping. Here they know what a good shot is and they know that if you knock it down the fairway, that's a good shot so they clap for that. If they knock in the rough, they're not -- they don't clap for that, which is good (laughter.)

HANK KUEHNE: My family has had a tremendous role in keeping me sober. They've been nothing but a hundred percent supportive of me and done everything in their power in order to help me in any way, shape or form, anything that I've ever asked as far as any help in my sobriety they've been there for me. And that is a -- that's extremely -- aside from me making the decision and me wanting to do it for myself and me keeping my mind on it, that's the second biggest thing is having my family support.

HANK KUEHNE: I've always known I could hit the ball a long way. When I was growing up, if it was hitting a baseball, I could hit it further than most people. I could throw a ball harder than most people. I've been just blessed in that sense. As far as -- I don't know how good I am or how good I can be, I can't explain that. I'm not a professional. I'm not ranked in the world, so I can't give you a number, I can't give you anything else.

HANK KUEHNE: It's hard to say. It's hard to say.

TRIP KUEHNE: He's better than all of us. He's got more talent than all of us. And he has a passion of the game that far surpasses my brothers and sisters, that's why he's doing so well and that's why he loves the game.

HANK KUEHNE: Definitely. It just makes it even sweeter. I wish that his name was on the cup a couple years in front of mine. If they could even grave it and put both of our names on there at the same time that would be something, too. But he definitely, definitely was -- it was something that he was there. He lived every shot with me. So he was definitely a big part of it and I definitely am extremely happy that he was able to share it with me and walked on the fairway with me, since he came so close a couple of years ago.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, if I can, I definitely would. I've caddied for him before, and we work really well together, no matter who is on the bag and who is playing. So if I have the situation -- if the situation were reversed, I'd definitely step in there and carry the bag with no regrets for him.

HANK KUEHNE: I'm a communications major, TV, radio.