Q. Seemed like you were on, especially early. Did you feel like you could do whatever you wanted?
JOSHUA BAI: Almost, yeah. Pretty much. But I knew obviously I had to stay in it, that Billy is a great player and I still had to play as good as I could.
Q. You got off to that early lead, made a couple of birdies on 4 and 6. What were you thinking when you got off to a good start?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah, so in the morning round, I was hitting it really well, but not many putts dropped in. I thought if I just did the same thing and the putts would fall, and that's exactly what happened on the front nine of the match.
Q. Then on 11 you buried that 25-footer. Tell me about that right there.
JOSHUA BAI: That one felt good, yeah. I played my third shot safe because he was actually in the penalty area, and he made a nice up-and-down, and I was like, look -- he saved that par and I just stepped up and hit a good putt, and it dropped.
Q. On the next tee you hit a 5-iron?
JOSHUA BAI: It was a 4-iron, 209 meters, a little hurting off the right. Just tried to hit a low cut, just flushed it, and it almost went in.
Q. At that point you're 5-up; are you still thinking, hey, I've got to put the pedal down?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah. My caddie was real good about that. He just said, keep doing the same things, don't get too ahead of yourself, take it slow, and yeah, it was good.
Q. When he made his second birdie in a row on 16 and it got down to 2, was there any nervousness?
JOSHUA BAI: A little bit, yeah. When it's 2, anything can happen. But I just stuck to the plan, hit the fairway, hit the green, hit good shots, and kept ahead on him, and yeah, managed to work out in the end.
Q. Talk about the approach on 17 that kind of closed it out, what club you hit in there?
JOSHUA BAI: I had 79 meters, just hit a knock-down lob wedge. It was pretty good.
Q. What's the feeling right now? Here you are playing for a national title in America. What's that mean to you?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah, it's really cool. Just thinking about how the Kiwi Michael Campbell, how he won at Pinehurst, and how cool it to be to follow in his footsteps and try to be there. It would mean a lot.
Q. You've played at Pinehurst before?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah, I've played Pinehurst a lot, yeah. My caddie today, he's a member at Pinehurst, and leading up to this event I played there with him for like four days.
Q. Have you ever played Pinehurst in a competition?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah, the North and South Amateur.
Q. What did you learn about that day when you played in a competitive way at Pinehurst?
JOSHUA BAI: It was tough out there. Tough. Tee to green, it was really difficult. It's really different to the courses back home in New Zealand. Playing these big events over here, it really helps -- what's the word? Like teaches me how to play smarter and really pick the spots.
Q. Had you played against or met your opponent tomorrow, Bryan Kim?
JOSHUA BAI: Yeah, actually we're friends. We met at the Junior Presidents Cup last year. I'm looking forward to playing with him. It'll be good fun.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports