U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2022

Ben Carr

The Ridgewood Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Let's talk about this match. Getting to the semifinals is no small feat as we talked about with the quarterfinals. What's it mean now to be in the semifinal round?

BEN CARR: Yeah, it means a lot. This is the tournament everybody looks forward to, everybody wants to play well in, and it's my last one. Just very lucky. Just really excited to play tomorrow. I'm not going to get on here and say anything about myself. I'm just really lucky.

Q. Do you know anything about your opponent tomorrow, Derek Hitchner?

BEN CARR: I know of him. I've never met him. Looking forward to meeting him. I'm sure it'll be a really fun match. But I enjoy playing this golf course, and I'm just trying to beat the course.

Q. Tell me about your start today. You were 4-up through nine holes. What were you doing well?

BEN CARR: Yeah, hit the ball a little better off the tee than I have been in other rounds, and my iron play was really well. Took a little pressure off the short game and the putter, but I still was able to roll a couple in. I made a 40-footer for par on 2 to halve the hole. That was a big setter of the tone for the rest of the match. Just wanted to put the ball in the fairway and just put pressure on him all day when I had the tee.

Q. Tell me about a couple of those birdies that you got credited for, especially 7 and 9 got you to 4-up.

BEN CARR: 7, hit a great drive, we were both in the fairway. I was probably 10 yards ahead of him. He blocked one a bit into the bunker, and I put an 8-iron to about 12 feet, and he conceded the putt after he missed his par putt. On 9 I hit probably my best drive of the tournament and hit a 9-iron in there to 10 feet and made it.

At that point I was just thinking keep my foot on the gas, and he fought really hard and got a couple holes late. Credit to him for sure. He's a great player.

Q. Things started to go his way starting around the 12th hole. I know there were a couple of shots that maybe weren't your best during that stretch. Tell me about what happened there.

BEN CARR: Yeah, on 12, I was in the middle of a divot, big sand divot to a front pin. I didn't really have much. He hit a great shot in there to two inches. He just won that hole.

Then I gave him 14; I hit a really bad pull with a 7-iron and just kind of made a mess. Same thing with 15, just blocked a wedge in the bunker. But he was hitting great shots. He hit a great shot into 15 and made the birdie putt. Yeah, he fought so hard.

To be at a Division III school and make a run like that, I'm really happy for him. It was a fun day.

Q. But then you gathered yourself, though. Tell me how you finished.

BEN CARR: Yeah, I think I really settled down after the tee ball on 16. He was in the fairway, and he had just won the last two holes. I knew I needed to put one in the fairway, and I put one probably 10, 15 by him and wedged it inside of him, and we halved with par. I just made a great swing off 17 tee with a 3-wood with the tee up and had a really good number with a hybrid. He laid up in the rough, and I looked to my caddie and said, what do you think; do you think we should lay up? He said, this is a perfect number, just a driving range hybrid, and I just trusted him, and yeah, just was able to make birdie and win the match.

Q. How much is Willie helping you this week, and what kinds of things is he either doing or saying during the match?

BEN CARR: Yeah, he's helped me a ton. Anything that goes with being a good caddie, he's got it. He keeps me grounded. He's a great green reader, good with numbers, good decision maker, and we just had so much fun out there. Two guys from Alabama and Georgia, just up here in New Jersey, almost like a foreign country, just having a good time on the golf course.

Q. When you're not on the golf course, do you guys talk about his career a little bit, how he's played in a U.S. Open and on the TOUR and maybe impart some things to you that maybe sticks with you?

BEN CARR: Yeah, definitely. It definitely helps a lot that he's got a ton of experience that I can lean on. Yeah, I think he spent four years on the TOUR and a lot more on the Korn Ferry. He played professional golf for the better part of 15 years. So just having him reassure me on certain shots just gives me all the confidence I need to execute.