U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 29, 1998

Hank Kuehne

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, it was a lot shorter than I expected, a whole lot shorter. I expected the match to be a lot different than it was. Bill struggled today. I still said -- I made one par, one birdie and bogey, so I shot even par, so I still played pretty good. This golf course is not that easy. I made some good pars, though, I didn't hit it -- didn't hit it off the tee with -- every time I hit driver I hit it right down the middle and 2-iron, 3-wood I hit it in the left rough. But I made a lot of good pars. And my lag putting was great. And it just happened that my pars were winning holes.

HANK KUEHNE: He absolutely hit the perfect shot off the first tee. And I kind of pulled my 2-iron, and I just happened to fly the bunker, I had like 160 to the pin. I was on a downslope. So I hit wedge, I thought I might catch a little flier. And it went just short of the green, which is the perfect place to miss it. He hit it about 20 feet. I hit a pretty good chip up there, like 3 and a half or four feet and he hit not -- it was a decent speed, but he was way low of the hole. And I knocked mine in, and I expected him to knock his in and he missed. I was surprised to see that. So I ended up winning that hole, and I really didn't think that was going to happen. But especially where we're off the tee.

HANK KUEHNE: Let's see, he hit 3-wood off the tee, and hit it right. I hit driver, hit it perfect right over the bunker. I had like 264 or something to the front. I hit 2-iron, flew it right on the front of the green, had about 20 -- 25 feet for eagle. He knocked his third shot over the green, then knocked his fourth shot past my ball. And I ended up 2-putting for birdie to win that hole.

HANK KUEHNE: I hit driver absolutely perfect off the tee. I had like 120. He hit it in the water off the tee. Chipped it out then knocked it about 20 feet by. And I'm sitting in the fairway, going I've got 120 yards, the only possible way for me to not win this hole is to knock it over the green, and I ended up -- the only thing that made contact with the ball was dirt. I hit it so fast. And it went on that hill short of the green. And then there I'm like I'm -- I want to force him to make the 20-footer for bogey to tie me, so I just kind of hit a save chip out there about 20, 25 feet, putted it up there and gave me a range and he missed and I won that hole, so it was good enough.

HANK KUEHNE: 6 I hit a really good shot in there. I hit it about ten feet. He hit it short of the green, and hit it about 30 feet by, and then missed that putt and so ten feet, I just was trying to figure a way to dink it up there, a gimmee and go to the next hole.

HANK KUEHNE: 8 I was first off the tee, hit it in the bunker with a 3-wood. Then he had his driver. I knocked an 8-iron out to the center of the green. He hit it about four or five feet outside of me, we both had about 40, 45 feet or so. And he left it about 8 feet short. I hit a really good putt up to two feet, foot and a half, two feet by. He missed it and I made it.

HANK KUEHNE: I hit 3-wood off the tee into the left rough and he hit it perfect right down the middle of the fairway. He was out -- I thought he hit a good shot in there. He hit it -- he had knocked it over the green, but I thought he'd hit it about 20 feet, where I was standing in the fairway it looked like a good shot. So it really didn't change my plan, I had pretty much one shot, I was going to try to knock it on the front middle, and putt it up there and give me a range and force him to make it. He's got to make birdies to beat me, I don't want to give holes away to pars. When we got up there, I hit a good shot from underneath the tree to the left to get it to the front middle of the green. His was over the green, I putted it up 4 feet short of the hole, and he chipped it 15 feet by and missed. I won the hole again with a par. And I thought that I was going to push.

HANK KUEHNE: I had like a 6 footer or 7 footer on 12 to win that hole. But my brother and I read it just outside right, and I hit the putt absolutely perfect, it didn't move. So --

HANK KUEHNE: As far as him being there, I don't think that's going to play a factor, I think the biggest factor is that not only has he been with me my entire golfing career, he's been with me my entire life, so he knows me inside and out and I know him inside and out. I'm a hundred percent comfortable with him, plus I'm a hundred percent confident in how he feels out on the golf course, as well. I feel like this is the right play and he says: You might want to think about this. Ultimately it's my decision, but I respect his decisions and I think I have a hundred percent confidence in what he's telling me.

HANK KUEHNE: I thought that Sergio would have a hard time with Tom. Tom is a great player. I played at least two rounds at every tournament this summer, Porter Cup, the northeast with Tom. I've been paired with him in every event this summer. Plus we played both practice rounds together here. Tom is a very solid player, he hits it down the middle of the fairway, knocks it on the green and he's a great putter. Sergio played great yesterday, he got a lot of -- he was pretty fortunate with some of the bounces he got, I'm not trying to take anything away from his play. And Tom just kind of will tend to wear you out. He'll knock it right down the middle, knock it on the green, and knock it in from 25, 30 feet. And everybody expected Sergio to win, but I thought Tom would give him a great match, and Tom ended up winning.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, Mid-Ams are extremely solid players. You've got to play good to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves. That's the key. You've got a bunch of us young guys, the 17 to 22, I'm 22, a lot of times we'll go out there and beat ourselves, we'll 3-putt, we'll make mistakes as far as knocking it over the green. We'll miss it in the wrong place, we'll short side it. I don't know too many Mid-Ams, in fact, I can't name one offhand that it goes out and doesn't play a golf course, and always hit the ball in the right place, always miss it in the right spot. And they never kill themselves on the greens. They putt extremely well, that's the key is they're always, in every hole, they don't make mistakes, as far as mental mistakes or course management mistakes. They never beat themselves, that's why they're extremely tough for us college boys to handle.

HANK KUEHNE: It won't change, it hasn't changed all week. The only thing I did different today was I hit driver on 12. We had talked about it and thought maybe driver was a good play in matchplay. Every day the pin has been up front, so it really hasn't been an option. Today the pin was in the back. So I figured why not? I'll just see what it's like in actual competition. I hit it right down the middle and had 50 yards to the hole. That was the only change in my gameplan. But as far as for tomorrow, I don't foresee any change in any part of my game.

HANK KUEHNE: It did. It carried over. It carried over, but when I walked out on the practice tee and there was only four piles of balls, you kind of start to realize where you are. And it was hard when I teed off and everything was fine, I was completely relaxed, didn't have any problems. Then when I got to be 6 up, to tell you the truth, after 9 holes it was hard for me to stay focused on what I was doing, because thoughts of going to Augusta, the thoughts of what does this mean and where am I going to go, that kind of starts to creep in your mind. If you're playing in a tough match where you've got to stay focused, you've got to keep your mind on what you're doing, then you don't tend to slip like that.

HANK KUEHNE: Took a couple of deep breaths, stepped back, told my brother I'm having a hard time staying focused and he kind of reminded me you need to stay focused, concentrate on what you're doing, hit the shots that you need to hit, and it helps a lot, because if I was out there by myself, I would have had a hard time, because I stepped back a couple of times, just to try to refocus and get back into doing what's worked for me.

HANK KUEHNE: I live my life one day at a time, as far as being in recovery and everything else, my golf game is just the same. As far as tomorrow, yeah, if I win that match I win the tournament, but it's not any different than any other match I've had this week. Only difference in this match is it's 36 holes. And I approach it just the same, I'm going to do everything the same that I have done all week.

HANK KUEHNE: That means a lot. It's been a dream ever since I've played golf is, watched Augusta on TV every year, religiously, watched it Thursday through Sunday. And, I said yeah, wouldn't it be great to play there. I wasn't able to be there with my brother when he played, because I was in rehab at the time, and they don't exactly let you go out on pass to watch The Masters (laughter.) So I'm looking forward to it. It's very special to me. I know my brother is going to be there with me, and that means a lot to me, since I couldn't be there with him.

HANK KUEHNE: I haven't asked a question. I'm trying to let everything sink in, and there's still more business to tend to. The tournament is not over, not over by a long shot. So I've got to continue doing the things that I've done to -- that have worked for me all week.

HANK KUEHNE: He'll definitely be on the bag.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah.

HANK KUEHNE: February 3rd, '95, I guess that's kind of well documented. I had a real bad car accident. It was not a good situation. I saw what my every day life was doing to myself and my brother and the rest of my family. I live three blocks away from my brother at Oklahoma State and I saw him as little as possible. Once I saw -- it was kind of okay when I could avoid everything, I really never had to deal with my problem. When I saw what my behavior and what I was doing to myself, did to my brother, and to other people. I didn't want to live like that anymore, so I did what I had to do, I called coach holder, Mike holder helped me out a lot in finding a place to go to rehab, making sure that everything was all right for me to the two weeks in between my accident and my decision to go to rehab and the time that I actually went. But my family has been the pillar in my recovery, to say the least.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, I've been sober for -- since February 3rd of '95. So I'm working on 39 months, here. I feel like I'm -- you never can just say, okay, well, I'm well. I'm always going to be an alcoholic. And everybody is going to like to talk about that. But I'm a pretty normal person. I live my every day life, I don't worry about it. I still go to the bar, I still go out and have fun, I'm not afraid to buy beers for anybody. I've pretty much -- I've been very lucky in my recovery, I don't have any -- for me it's a choice, okay, if you drink you're going to die. So that's not hard to figure out. Let's go have a beer or let's live the rest of my life. I mean if you look at it like that it's pretty black and white, and that's pretty much the way that I view it.

TRIP KUEHNE: I was in the same position he's in this week. It was a week that my dad caddied for me, and what I take most from that week is not that I played well, but the fact that I spent a week with my father, where the phone didn't interrupt anything. It never dawned on me until it was all over with, and I was sitting in the press room, after Tiger had a great come back, of what I'd just done. If you come to the tournament and say: I'm going to win the U.S. Amateur, it's not going to happen. If you just get out there and play and trust your golf game and know that you're going to do well, and try to bide your idle time with something other than thinking about playing in The Masters or all the things that happen as a result of playing well in the amateur, then you're going to do well, the second you start thinking about trying to win the tournament, things have a tendency to go south.

HANK KUEHNE: It's hard to put in words. I can't really explain it. It's just kind of like it has been a long road, it hasn't been easy. We've had a lot of success as a family. I can't explain it. I'm extremely happy that they're here and are able to share that moment with me. I wished my sister and my mom were here, but she's off at a tournament, she shot 71 yesterday, and I don't know what she shot today. But hopefully she made the cut. I haven't heard anything about that. I'm very glad that they're here and people are here, my family and my father and my brother are here.

HANK KUEHNE: I don't think so at all. I think the hardest time actually to keep everything in check is when -- I don't think about any of this stuff, I just go out and play golf. You all bring all this stuff up (laughter). I don't think it will be a problem. Once the gun goes off and I'm walking down the fairway with my brother and we're off playing golf and everybody is watching, then I don't think it's going to make any difference. None of those thoughts are going to go through my mind when I'm hitting it off the first tee. And I think that's what's important. I honestly haven't thought about a lot of things that people have asked me about this week.

HANK KUEHNE: I've never gone DTs, I've never had anything happen like what happened to John. He's trying really hard to do the things right and he's having a hard time in his recovery, and he's at a hard point right now. I've been extremely lucky, like I said before. I haven't had the same problems that he's had as far as going through the same things, like the other day when he had the shakes and everything else. That was honestly one of the saddest things I've ever seen, when I saw it on ESPN, because I can actually -- I mean I can't empathize with him, or apathy, or whatever you want to call it, but it's hard -- I know what I felt like when I was going through it. I know what I felt like when I made the decision for me to stop drinking and go to rehab. And that was extremely hard. And now here he is almost two years down the road and he's having these problems now. You can't do anything but feel sorry for him in that respect.

HANK KUEHNE: I've talked to him once, actually, out at Stone Ridge, my home course, it was a long time ago, before he won the PGA, I think. But I never have talked to him about recovery or anything else. I never have -- I've never played a Tour event or anything like that.

HANK KUEHNE: I had 55 yards to right below the hill, which is where I wanted to land the ball. So however long the hole is, minus about 40.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, that was solid, I haven't gotten one on 14 yet. We've got another shot at it tomorrow.

HANK KUEHNE: I've never played him in matchplay, and as far as assessing our games, I mean we're pretty much completely opposite. He hits it short and straight, down the middle, doesn't make a lot of mistakes, doesn't get overly aggressive. He's very solid. I can tend to -- when I hit it off in trouble, make some great pars or hit some shots out of trouble. I don't know how to assess our games, to be honest with you. I just play a different style of golf than he does. He's waving at me out there. So as far as comparing our games, I don't think you can really make any -- Tom's a great player, very solid, and like I said, I'm looking forward to playing him.

HANK KUEHNE: Well, first thing I did when I saw him afterwards, we just hugged each other in the locker room. I'm walking -- actually I was walking out to meet my brother and my dad and he's walking in. There's really nothing you can say about it. This morning we were sitting and talking, if things go right, then what happened last Sunday when we were talking about, wouldn't it be something if we met in the finals. We were like, good luck, play well. And everything worked out. Both of us ended up winning our matches. So now we're playing each other in the finals. That's something that is unbelievable, too. I want him to play well, and I want to play well. And whoever ends up winning tomorrow wins. And that's pretty much it. But this morning we just were kind of telling each other, all right, let's go get them. And that's that.