U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL

May 20, 2025

Barnes Blake

Liam Pasternak

Plainfield Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Just sum up the week, getting a chance to play in front of a lot of your support, sleep in your own bed, enjoy a home game.

BARNES BLAKE: Yeah, it was awesome having all of the locals out and all of our members at Echo and Plainfield and a couple of Essex Falls as well and all of our friends out here watching. Obviously we wish we could put on a little bit more of a show for them. It stinks to come up short, but anytime you get to play a USGA event in your backyard, it's always a great time.

Q. You guys were 4-under par and still lost. Is that a difficult pill to swallow?

LIAM PASTERNAK: We definitely didn't give it to them. We played our butts off. Considering we were in a 12-for-2 playoff, I think it was just a gift to be out here. Like Barnes said, we definitely didn't want it to end, but we fought, so got to be proud.

Q. What do you guys take from this going forward for the rest of your summer? You've got a big event coming up in 13 days.

BARNES BLAKE: Yeah, a lot of good to come out. But we definitely know what we need to fix coming into the summer, and hopefully this served as a good tune-up for us.

Q. What's left on your schedule? Obviously you're going to play in the Junior Amateur soon?

LIAM PASTERNAK: Yeah, we've got U.S. Junior, U.S. Amateur, Western, Southern Junior, a couple others that I'm forgetting. But yeah, it's filled.

Q. You're a member at Essex Falls?

LIAM PASTERNAK: Essex Falls and Black Oak Golf Club, as well.

Q. You are at Echo Lake?

BARNES BLAKE: Echo Lake.

Q. Your putt at 15 to cut it to one, just talk about that. You gave a nice little fist pump there.

LIAM PASTERNAK: Yeah, I hit a pretty good 9-iron in and just wanted to give myself an opportunity, and I saw the chip shot that our opponents hit, and it actually went left, which I probably wouldn't have seen or felt as much as what it did. Decided to play it right edge, Barnes and I agreed that was a great spot, and just tried to hit it there as best I could, and it was a good roll.

Q. How far would you say the putt was?

LIAM PASTERNAK: Probably six, seven feet.