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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 13, 2014

William Zalatoris

JOHNS CREEK, GEORGIA

PETE KOWALSKI: We'd like to welcome Will Zalatoris, who was a 2 & 1 winner over Jordan Niebrugge in a match of USGA Champions. That's got to be a tough draw, but you carried through very well. Tell us about the match.

WILL ZALATORIS: That was a great match. I started off really steady. Made a lot of really good putts coming out of the gate, which calmed me down. Obviously first time being in the Match Play in the U.S. Am, it's obviously everything from here is a learning experience. I had a lot of fun today. Any time you're playing a Walker Cupper, doesn't matter if they are injured or sick or whatever, it's going to be a challenge and that was an absolute blast. Just trying to minimize the mistakes today. It's windy out there so hit as many greens as possible, and I know if I get on the greens, I'll make a few. So it was a great day today.

Q. How many greens did you hit?
WILL ZALATORIS: I don't know exactly but Scott I think told me 12 or 13. So just like I said, just trying to not make many big numbers -- I think three. I think I was 2-over today, which I was giving him a hard time. He's caddied for me in 17 competitive rounds and this is the first time we were ever over par. I guess his pay is getting cut.

Q. You never trailed during the match, but was there any critical moment?
WILL ZALATORIS: You know, there wasn't a real big moment, but it was actually kind of a self-inflicted wound that I actually kind of cleaned up was on 16 -- no, 15, I'm sorry, the par 3, where he made a great up-and-down, and I ran mine by seven, eight feet and made that coming back. And sometimes when you make a silly miss like that. But I made up for it and it gives you a little momentum. I was leaking oil mentally going in there, so kind of nice to be able to 2-putt 16. And like I said, just the same thing, hit as many greens as possible from there on in. Good 2-putt on 16 and another good 2-putt on 17.

Q. You talk about this being a learning experience. How much of what you learned in the Junior Am is carried over to this week?
WILL ZALATORIS: A good bit, but the part that I love about it is I love the pressure. I thrive on it. You know, when you think about it, the U.S. Junior, everything after the round of 16 was a learning experience. That's a lot of golf to be played. I love being under pressure. Forces me to perform better and I love it. I can't tell you -- I can't put that into words, just absolutely love it. That seven 8-footer that I made on 15, I know it was huge, but I just felt calm under it just because I just love being under that pressure. So it's something that really helped me in the junior, and that final day or final match, I was 7-under for the 33 holes, and you know, that's tough to beat.

Q. I understand you never advanced past the 16th before the U.S. Junior?
WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, before this year's U.S. Junior.

Q. What's clicked in your match-play skills?
WILL ZALATORIS: It's been more of just overall play. A lot more experience of, like I said, being under pressure, just getting better. I mean, the round of 16 was two or three years ago, and hitting it a little bit farther. Short game is basically the thing that's really helped me, just overall. I tried to hit as many greens as possible but when you're able to save the ones that you don't hit, that's huge. And having my caddie, Scott Fawcett, he played professionally for a number of years, played on the Web.com Tour mainly, he's really helped me mature and become a lot more patient. As a 17-year-old, I want to go out there and fire at every single flag, but you can't do that on a USGA golf course. You can't do it to win or make a cut. It's just not going to happen. And being patient, letting those 15- to 25-footers come your way, one of them is going to fall. It's just going to happen. So might as well make it stress-free golf, and as Scott brilliantly says, boring golf is good golf.

Q. Your preparation for the Junior Amateur, you had said after you won, you said it validated the process. Knowing what it took to win that, did it change how you prepared coming into this week?
WILL ZALATORIS: Not really. I'm just still trying to get better. I'm 17. I told myself I was going to take four or five days off, and after the third day, I couldn't take it any longer. I got back out and started working on the short game, because that's -- it's not a major weakness, but it's not one of my strengths. Just kept working on that. Just keep grinding it out from there. You know, Scott during that time period has just kept mentoring me and just kind of talking about, okay, this is where we made some mistakes during the U.S. Junior where it was more strategical errors, meaning we fired at a flag that we shouldn't have fired at just because we didn't really think that the trouble was that bad. Stuff like that. But basically all I really worked on was under a hundred yards and rest up. It's a lot of golf. What is it, nine competitive golf rounds? And this one spanned over a day, so it's more of just being mentally fresh.

PETE KOWALSKI: When did you see in your preparation as you got ready for this competitive season, when did you see or feel that this could be a really good year?

WILL ZALATORIS: It kind of -- it's just a lot of hard work that I put in the off-season. I actually didn't switch to the claw until June 1. It was actually June 1 on that exact date. But I had a lot of really good success playing conventionally beforehand. I was just playing really well overall and if I keep ball-striking the way I am, eventually I'm going to make some of those putts. That's just how it works. Once I switched to the claw, it was just an absolute click where immediately I knew, this is going to be a great year. I've had good success this spring. I won a couple of events by double-digits back home and right when I went to the claw, I knew immediately this is going to be a very, very good year. That's the part that saved me. You know, I've had two 3-putts today and that's two 3-putts for the whole week, and with Scott, I think that's three 3-putts in the last six competitive rounds. So that helps when I'm hitting that many greens.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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