THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18, 2026

Matt Moloney

Quick Quotes

Q. Matt, that's been some day of golf for you. How are you feeling right now?

MATT MOLONEY: Tired. Tired, hungry, ready to get some food and go to bed.

Q. 24-hole match this afternoon. Do you think -- is that the longest match you ever played?

MATT MOLONEY: Absolutely. It's actually the first playoff I ever won believe it or not, so a lot of firsts today which was good.

Q. How many playoffs would you have been in before this one, do you think?

MATT MOLONEY: Five or six. And hadn't gone my way before, so glad this one did.

Q. Can you talk to us about the match, the ebbs, flows, how it all went out there for you today?

MATT MOLONEY: Yeah, the second match was very back and forth for both of us. I mean, he was up early, up one early, and then, you know, I came back; got it to -- up one by nine and then kind of traded blows going into 15, 16.

We were all square -- I think I birdied 16 to go 1-up, and made a poor bunker shot on 17. Made bogey and he made par, and we were tied. From there on, it was just sudden death. We both played good. We both hit great shots all around, and then just happened to go my way on one hole where he didn't hit his best chip. That's how golf goes sometimes.

Q. Can you talk to us about the very final hole, what you did off the tee and what he did off the tee. Paint a picture for us.

MATT MOLONEY: Yeah, it was starting to get real windy. He hit a 2-iron I think. He hits it a long way. So he hit a 2-iron, hit it pretty good, got it through the wind. I hit a 3-wood and it kind of spun up a little bit, so I had a long way in. I had 215. I hit a 4-iron and I was just deciding, you know, I'm going to make par and if he makes birdie here, good on him and we'll -- if he makes par we'll go to the next.

But we'll force him to make a good par because either of us making par is going to be a good par from that far away. Just hit a solid 4-iron, got on the green. He pulled his a little bit; ended up in the thick stuff and it was a tough chip from there. I just two putted and he had about 12, 15 feet and didn't go in for him.

Q. Looked like you had a bit of support out there with you.

MATT MOLONEY: Absolutely.

Q. When you are getting to 24 holes, how important is that support mentally to be drawing on?

MATT MOLONEY: Oh, it's great. I got my college teammates, James Earle and he and I are traveling together. We been together every step of the way. We roomed together in Scotland and we're staying together here. Flew together, drove together, all of this.

So he unfortunately -- it didn't go his way this morning, but thankful he came out and supported me this afternoon. I was happy to see him out there.

Q. For the quarterfinals here at The Amateur, you would've seen Ethan Fang win last year.

MATT MOLONEY: Yeah.

Q. Seeing him win and what he's got to do this year, was that motivation for coming over and playing this year?

MATT MOLONEY: Yeah, definitely. I mean, Ethan is a friend of mine. I played with him in the practice rounds last year actually at St. George's. He is a great kid and he obviously played very well, but it was cool to see because, yeah, he's a great player. We know he's a great player. But playing with him a few times now, you know that it's possible for me to compete with him. So seeing him get it done, it was cool.

You just knew it was possible.

Q. Lots of golf today but still lots of golf to go if you're going to make it through to the final. How do you recover and prepare for the next couple days?

MATT MOLONEY: Yeah, lots of rest. I'm going to go home and get some food, get on some compression, ice and heat, and I'll just be ready to go for the morning.