U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 27, 2000

James Driscoll

JAMES DRISCOLL: I'm sorry, what are you --

JAMES DRISCOLL: I just wish we could have finished it tonight. Not because, you know, I might have had some momentum, but just to, you know, get it over with tonight would have been so much better. But I kind of got to forget about that. I know what we have to do, we have to come out tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock and play a pretty tough par 3. That's what I have to focus on, I have to forget that we couldn't get it done tonight.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Didn't look good. When I three-putted 14, I thought this is pretty much over. I never really gave up I was just kind of being realistic, three down, four to go, I'm like if I'm in his shoes, I'm feeling pretty good. But, you know, dormie three, he kind of messes up the 16th hole, the four on 17 was pretty good, up-and-down, I probably could never get that up-and-down again. Pretty excited just going to the 18th tee. I think I was too excited. I didn't want to swing out of my shoes and do anything crazy, I think I kind of went the other way and kind of eased up to try to overcompensate for all the excitement and lost it way right. Somehow made four there, made a five-footer, a pretty good up-and-down there from one four and four.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Me, I can tell you there was one comeback in the state -- Massachusetts Amateur, two down with two to go or something like that. I kind of had a very similar feeling, actually. It was when I saw this putt go down in the Massachusetts Am, chills went up my spine just like they did on 17 here, so it's pretty similar.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know. I didn't have any more or any less confidence than I always do over a putt. I just -- it was a pretty tough putt though. It was way outside the hole probably, cup, cup and a half, left-to-right, downhill, one of those putts -- downhill left-to-right, no one likes those. But I kind of just tried to gather myself and look at the line and hit it right on the line. It was -- it did exactly what I thought it was gonna do.

JAMES DRISCOLL: No, I'm pretty sure the ball was touching the pinecone. I wasn't gonna risk a two-shot shot penalty at that point.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Yeah, I had to hit the pinecone before the ball.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't think that direction was any worse or any more difficult to get through. It was just -- and it was getting me further up the fairway. I basically had three options and the other two options weren't great, so I figured, "Hey, I might as well go as far up as I can if I don't have a great sideways option."

JAMES DRISCOLL: A pitching wedge.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I had 145 to the hole, figure it was playing about 140.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know what it was. I just, you know, right from the get-go I missed a short one on 1 and I think sometimes with me, my putting is very much determined on how I putt in the beginning of the round. And I missed some putts early on and that kind of maybe kept me from putting really aggressive strokes on it for the rest of the day. But I really don't feel like I put a lot of bad strokes on it. I don't know what was going on with my putter. I think it might have been some misreads, left out a couple of putts. It might have been one of those days, I don't know.

JAMES DRISCOLL: A lot of them were, right. Actually my coach, Mike Morgan, I kind of brought him over to the putting green before the afternoon round. He did say that -- I said, "I missed a bunch of putts." He said, "Yeah, but you were on the wrong side of the hole a lot of those times," and that kind of made me realize that the putts I had weren't straight uphill 3-footers, they were kind of slick, you can't put a firm stroke on it, you just kind of tap it and hope it rolls true. So that is true.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I can't believe it went in. It caught the right edge and snuck in. Just thanking God at that point.

JAMES DRISCOLL: He said my stroke looked good when we were on the putting green. He said, you know, I was concerned of whether my putter face was square or not. Because I missed a couple of those left. Sometimes my putter face gets a little shut. He said it looked good, my stroke looked good. Still, if you don't see the ball go in the hole, it's tough to believe that, but, you know, hopefully I can trust it tomorrow morning.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Kind of, yeah. I mean when I'm four-down and I'm like -- I've missed way too many short putts, you know, I was just like you can't win this tournament missing putts like that. Kind of. I never really thought I'd blown it because the match was never over, so... But I was definitely disappointed.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I think it helped. I was starting to feel really tired at that point. I got to put my legs up, had a banana and some water. I think when I came back out I felt a lot better.

JAMES DRISCOLL: The same situation happened to me in the Northeast Amateur this year. I was trying to hit a 3-wood out of the trees, got caught, broke like a branch, stopped my swing, it's a two-stroke penalty. So I figured over that shot, I was looking at my backswing, I didn't think it was in the way; I didn't think the branches were in the way. When I got caught, I said I got to at least try to hit it because it's one-stroke penalty, it's a whiff. If you stop, it's a two-stroke penalty. I had to keep going.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Yeah, basically. (Laughter.) I knew it before, I just took it back. At the same time, I didn't think the trees were in my way. But when I was back there, I was like I still got to keep going.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know. I guess my practice swing isn't like my real swing.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Definitely. When he hit above the hole there, I thought I can still maybe get out with a half and I did.

JAMES DRISCOLL: That's what everyone says, a 50-, 60-whatever-yard bunker shot. A friend of mine kind of taught me something how to do out of that situation. It's tough, you can't blast it, it's way too long to blast. There's really no other way to play it except kind of try to punch hook it. If you hook it, the club's turning over and it's going to definitely get through the sand. If you come through with a regular club face, you know, you're most likely going to hit it fat. So that's what I did and I'm pretty thankful he taught me how to hit that shot about six years ago.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Nothing. I don't think about, you know, I don't really think about everything that's surrounding the situation. I just look at this eight-footer, it's got a cup and a half of break and I've got to hit it on that line and that's what I tried to do. Part of me might have been thinking deep down that I was due to hole a putt, but as soon as you say that, "I'm due to hole a putt," you're not going to hole a putt. You have to go through your same routine and hope it works out. I said that a lot, I'm due, and I never made any.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Definitely. I've got so much family and so many friends here, it was great. It was great -- I got kind of fired up when they were yelling.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Thanks.

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