THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2025

Gavin Tiernan

Quick Quotes

Q. Now that you're in the final eight, describe your emotions.

GAVIN TIERNAN: Yeah, very happy, obviously. A little bit of relief, like match play, anything can happen. You could be a couple up with a couple to play, and you just never know. Just happy to get into the clubhouse and into the final eight.

Q. What were the keys to your good play out there today?

GAVIN TIERNAN: Definitely my pace putting was good. These greens are so undulating that there's a lot of difficult pin positions, so your pace putting needs to be dialed. Also iron play, you need to be very mindful of where you're hitting it on the greens because you could hit it on the green and be in a very tricky spot. So hitting it to certain parts of the greens. I feel like my distance control was very good, which I think are all keys to playing this or any golf course well.

Q. Do you have much experience playing on links golf?

GAVIN TIERNAN: Yeah, my home course, County Louth, it's a links course. The Boys' Amateur is actually there in August. So I have a lot of experience playing on links. I definitely leant on that coming down the stretch today.

Q. You got through pre-qualifying, as well, so it's obviously been a long week. How have you managed your energy?

GAVIN TIERNAN: Yeah, just in the past I've been prone to, like, the ball is not coming off right, I'd go and start hitting a load of balls. But this week I was really vigilant making sure I prioritized my rest and my hydration and stuff like that. I feel like that's the stuff when it comes down to the very end, that's what kind of makes the difference rather than hitting an extra 15, 20 balls on the range. I feel like you don't get as much out of that as you do getting more rest or being hydrated.

Yeah, that's kind of the approach I've taken, and it's definitely, definitely benefitted me so far.

Q. We're heading into the business end of the tournament. You're into the final eight. Do you allow your mind to start thinking about the end prize or are you still focused on --

GAVIN TIERNAN: No, I'm just taking it hole by hole, one shot at a time. That's kind of been my motto this week, just one shot at a time. No matter how the rest of the tournament goes, once I know that I gave it my all, I think that's all that really matters.

Q. Have you played Royal St George's before?

GAVIN TIERNAN: No, never have. I really like it. It kind of plays into my strengths. Like playing away from pins and stuff like that. I'd say a lot of the Americans, they're used to kind of target golf and stuff like that, where here you have to run it in or sometimes even leaving it short of a green is better than being above the hole on a green. I feel like that plays into my strengths, being able to hit it to middle of the greens and stay patient with stuff like that.

Q. Obviously the golf course has changed a little bit over the course of the week so far. We've had a lot of sun and the wind got up today. Has that impacted the way that you approach the course?

GAVIN TIERNAN: It's 100 per cent firmed up today. I've noticed a couple of shots, like short wedges that are releasing 20, 30 yards, even from the fairway. You have to change that up a little bit, but you just change your number a little bit. I'm used to it -- again, coming from links, I know how to do that, and I'm comfortable doing that. When you're 140 and you're hitting a lob wedge, it feels a bit weird, but I'm used to being able to trust that, and seeing it before and stuff like that definitely helped me this week.