U.S. Amateur Championship

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Bandon, Oregon, USA

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort

Philip Barbaree

Quick Quotes


Q. So that back nine seemed pretty competitive. Take me through it a little bit.

PHILIP BARBAREE: Yeah, I mean, I started the back nine 2-up. I was playing pretty solid up until then, and he ended up -- he actually made an eagle on 9 to make it 2-up. We get to 11, and he makes a great par, and then 12, I didn't hit a great tee ball, so right there we were tied. I just kind of had to dig deep a little bit and just told myself, man, at the beginning of the round I would have probably taken being tied through 12 and not let the momentum shift. Got to 13, made a great birdie, made a great par on 14, and then just kind of rode that out.

Q. Tell me about the birdie first at 13.

PHILIP BARBAREE: Yeah, so I got there in two. I was about 60 feet for eagle, and he made par. I blew my first putt by a good bit, about eight feet, so I had to make that next one coming back, and that was definitely the putt of the match. I feel like that kind of switched the momentum for sure.

Q. Was there some break in it?

PHILIP BARBAREE: There was a little break, and the tricky part about it was it was breaking left and the wind was going right, so you kind of have to cancel that out a little bit. So that's what we were doing all day. It's tough to putt when it's blowing 40 out there. But somehow that went in and definitely helped me go to victory.

Q. And then the par at 14?

PHILIP BARBAREE: Yeah, the par on 14, I really hit two great shots, great drive and a second shot. I believe I hit 6-iron from 135 because it was just straight into the wind. I hit it to about eight feet, and he was in trouble, so that's all really I needed to make par and win the hole.

Q. Have you ever played in this kind of a wind in your life? I know it gets windy down in Louisiana and maybe some other places, but this seemed to be sustained.

PHILIP BARBAREE: Yeah, no, this was sustained 30 miles an hour for sure. No, I've never played in wind like this, that's for sure. Even playing a lot in Texas where it gets windy and me in north Louisiana, it also gets windy there, but nothing like this. But I also think that's to my advantage because I hit the ball pretty low. So I think for the most part it gets under the wind and I'm able to hit some pretty good shots.

Q. When the wind is hitting you in the face or behind you all that time, how do you mentally keep it out of your mind?

PHILIP BARBAREE: You've got to just really tell yourself that everybody has to play in it. You and your competitors all have the same wind, so it's not like a luck of the draw type of thing when you're out there like it was the first two rounds. So that's really just what you tell yourself, and just kind of keep your head down and just try to gut it out.

Q. Getting to the quarterfinals in this one, you've won a Junior, but still, getting to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur, what's that mean to you?

PHILIP BARBAREE: Well, it means a lot. I've had a pretty good USGA record, and this probably being my last Amateur will be icing on the cake. You know, I think today gutting through that round to get to the quarterfinals, sometimes you have to win ugly to win one of these things, and I kind of just kept my head down, gutted it out and pulled out the wind after playing really solid this morning. Sometimes you need to have a little luck on your side and a little bit of fortunate, I guess, breaks on some of these matches, and that's kind of what I got today.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
100659-1-1002 2020-08-14 01:45:00 GMT

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