U.S. AMATEUR FOUR-BALL

May 20, 2025

Marc Dull

Plainfield Country Club

Quick Quotes

MARC DULL: If we happened to make match play and win our first match, he's like, you're going to have to play the second-round match by yourself; do you still want to do it? I'm like, yeah, let's do it, why not. If we get there, we'll just cross that bridge when we get there. My game was getting better as the week went on so I felt confident that I could shoot under par out here on my own ball. I knew it was going to be a strong task, you know what I mean, but just trying to make no mistakes. I wasn't super patient, just trying to make sure they made -- make them make birdies to beat me, and I made a few putts today, and I was down two early, made a couple birdies on the front to kind of turn at even, and with nine holes to play, I'm like, I've got a chance. I've got a chance.

Q. Did it free you up in a way?

MARC DULL: No --

Q. That the pressure was more on them?

MARC DULL: I would say the pressure was more on them, but I wouldn't say it frees me up because out here you can't play golf like that. Like everything has to just be playing the golf course. You can't be aggressive out here. You can't take on shots that you can't hit.

On this golf course, and I will say this is the right golf course to be able to do that, where you don't need to go shoot 7- or 8-under. You can go shoot 2- or 3-under and have a chance because this golf course is so hard. So I told my caddie, told Brian, I was like, if I drive it well and drive it in the fairway, I have a chance. And I do. I just drove it so well today.

Q. The putt on 15 was obviously huge. If that doesn't go in, is that maybe going off the green?

MARC DULL: It's probably to the fringe. I had about a five-footer on 14 to win the hole to go 2-up --

Q. Saw that --

MARC DULL: And I just tugged it just a hair. The one on 15, I probably hit that too hard. It probably goes six, seven feet by. But I read it a little, like, flat. It was more down than I thought. It wasn't trying to hit it that hard. But about 10 feet short, I was like, I made it. I knew it right away. I hit it on the line I wanted to, just hit it a little further.

Q. It's got to be absolutely soul crushing for an opponent --

MARC DULL: Absolutely. It's a game changer. I made four or five four- to eight-footers early in the match that when there's only one guy near the last one, they're probably assuming I'm going to miss one or two of them, but you do, we work for a living. We're not professional golfers. But I made them all. Yes, I lost 2 and 3, but then hit a really good shot on 4 and won that hole, and then I made an incredible up-and-down on 5, made a good putt there for par, and then hit a really good shot and made that birdie on 6, so when I turned at -- made an incredible putt on 7, like just a sniper -- like an eight-footer but it broke two feet.

I made the putts that I had to make today playing by myself. There's not that much room for error. So when I had a chance today, I pretty much made all of them.

Q. Is it hard to make that quick shift from playing with a partner to all of a sudden you're playing by yourself?

MARC DULL: I would say no because when we play this partner golf, we both try to just play our game exactly how we would play it regardless if you had a partner. So it's still the same thing. I wouldn't say it's like a shift. Just you're aware that you don't have any backup. But we play individual golf all the time. We play tournament -- like individual tournament golf all the time. So we never have a backup. So it's just -- I just tried to do the same thing -- pick the same lines, hit the same shots that we had talked about since the practice rounds.

Q. Fair to say you played better today than you have in any previous match?

MARC DULL: Correct, but I was trending. Each round we played, I was starting to play better. It got better and better each round. I won't say I felt it coming that I was going to play well, but I definitely had the confidence to think I could go shoot 2- or 3-under.

Q. Did you detect any frustration from your opponents? It seemed like --

MARC DULL: They were, yeah. They were. For sure. Yeah, there was definitely some frustration because I get it; if I'm playing alone -- me and my partner are playing one guy, I would get frustrated, too; why are we not killing this guy. 100 percent. The thought would be he can't keep doing this, like he's got to screw up somewhere.

So 100 percent I understand the frustration. I don't take it personally. They're just frustrated because they show up on the first tee playing two on one, they think they're going to win, which they should. 99 out of 100 times they would win that match.

Q. Do you think the odds were that stacked against you?

MARC DULL: Honestly, probably 90 out of 100.

Q. Obviously heading into the quarters now, is the mentality going to be the same?

MARC DULL: It's going to be the same thing. I have to drive it well because I played out of the fairway all day. Most of the time they had one ball in the fairway and one ball in the rough. If I'm in the fairway constantly, it's almost one-on-one if you're in the fairway and the other guy is in the rough. Maybe one guy hits a really good shot, but if I drive it in the fairway, to me I'm basically playing one versus one, as long as I'm in the fairway. I just have to keep driving it well. I drove it great all day, so if I do the same thing, who knows. I mean, I'm mentally exhausted but not physically because I caddie every day, but mentally -- I just have to kind of refocus and get the mind back where it is. We were just on top of our numbers all day, like didn't get overly aggressive, just kind of hit what the golf course gave to us.

Q. What's your caddie's name?

MARC DULL: Brian Davidson. I call him BD. We caddie at Streamsong together. He's caddied for me in this is probably his seventh or eighth USGA event he's caddied for me.

Q. How many years have you been caddying at Streamsong?

MARC DULL: I started in 2013. I've been off and on for 12 years out there.