Q. Play with Cooper at all or...
RYAN XIE: No, no, but good friends with him.
Q. And you're going to Santa Clara?
RYAN XIE: Yes.
Q. When did you sign, November?
RYAN XIE: April last year.
Q. April of last year.
RYAN XIE: Yep.
Q. Okay. Is this your first USGA event?
RYAN XIE: Second. I played last U.S. Junior as well.
Q. At the Trinity Forest?
RYAN XIE: Yeah.
Q. Did you make match play?
RYAN XIE: No. Missed by one.
Q. Missed by one?
RYAN XIE: Yeah.
Q. What has been the difference maybe in the last year with your game?
RYAN XIE: I think mentally I've been a lot better being able to control my emotions on the course, reacting to bad breaks and all that.
Yeah.
Q. What's been your best finish as a player in the last six months or a year? What kind of results have you had?
RYAN XIE: Recently finished runner-up at the Australian Junior Amateur.
Q. Okay. Stroke play or match play?
RYAN XIE: Stroke play.
Q. Stroke play?
RYAN XIE: Yeah, four rounds. And then also won at home on the Next Gen Am Tour in Australia.
Q. You played a guy from Singapore today.
RYAN XIE: Yeah.
Q. Did you know him? You guys play in the same Asian events?
RYAN XIE: No. First time meeting him. Good guy, yeah.
Q. What's been the key to your success this week here at Saucon?
RYAN XIE: I mean, everything feels quite solid right now. Quite confident with my game, which I think is what's required in match play especially.
Just hope I can keep it going.
Q. Yeah, what about these long days? How do you maintain the stamina? What do you do on the golf course?
RYAN XIE: Definitely drink a lot, eat a lot, and then sleep a lot. Yeah, like that.
Q. Are you a player that prefers match play or stroke play or vice versa?
RYAN XIE: I don't mind match play. I would say definitely played more stroke play. But, yeah, I like the competitive aspect of match play a lot.
Q. And then you've played this course now for a few days. What are your thoughts of the Old Course and do you feel like it suits your game?
RYAN XIE: Yeah, I think it's pretty good. It requires some distance which I have, and I've been quite abusive of that distance over the last few days, so, yeah, it's been good to me.
Q. For people that might not know you, do you think that's your strength, your distance off the tee?
RYAN XIE: No. I would say I'm quite strong on the greens as well, like sneaky strong. Yeah, a good driver and good putter is a good combination to have.
Q. Who else recruited you?
RYAN XIE: Pardon?
Q. Who else recruited you besides Santa Clara?
RYAN XIE: I was talking to like Notre Dame and Northwestern, but Santa Clara offered first.
Q. So took it?
RYAN XIE: Yeah.
Q. It's a little closer to New Zealand.
RYAN XIE: Yeah. Much easier.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports