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U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 24, 2007Casey ClendenonSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA CRAIG SMITH: Casey, congratulations. CASEY CLENDENON: Thank you. CRAIG SMITH: You've reached the semi-finals, which I'm sure -- let me just take you for a moment back to Wednesday morning, when you were stuck in a 17 for 6 playoff and birdied the second hole, the par-3, and it's a long way from there to here, isn't it. CASEY CLENDENON: No doubt about it. It was a grind, the playoff. And I just, once I got through that I just told myself anything can happen in match play, so just kind of just stay patient and here we are. CRAIG SMITH: I was going to say once you get through that you're sort of looking at it as everything else is a bonus and no pressure at all. Is that the way you're playing? CASEY CLENDENON: No doubt about it. No pressure. Just play. CRAIG SMITH: So how well are you playing? It looks like it was a pretty good. A 4 & 3 win and you get a bunch of wins here starting the back nine that brought you to the house early. CASEY CLENDENON: I just tried to play consistent. Just make a bunch of pars, put pressure on my opponent and I did that today. CRAIG SMITH: These Texans are noted for football, but you're turning this, you and Colt Knost are turning it into quite a golf community here in the Houston/Dallas area. CASEY CLENDENON: Yeah, it is. It's looking like that. But Texas is a football state and that's the No. 1 sport. It will always be like that. CRAIG SMITH: I don't think you're surprising yourself this week, are you. CASEY CLENDENON: You know, I just like I said, I'm just taking it one match at a time wherever it end up, it ends up. Q. Is there something in particular you feel that's been as part of your game that's been going very well this weeks that's helped explain the run so far? CASEY CLENDENON: I think it is my putting. To win the U.S. Amateur obviously you got to be putting very well. And I think that I'm putting really well right now. CRAIG SMITH: How about a for instance on this match. What kind of putts did you make here that probably put somebody at a disadvantage? CASEY CLENDENON: On 4 I got up-and-down out of the fairway, made a 10-footer. 5, I got up-and-down, I chipped out, I got up-and-down and made about an 8-footer for par. And I made a couple 10 footers coming in and just kept the momentum going. CRAIG SMITH: We were talking earlier about that the 7th hole, a lot of the players are winning that hole and using that as a momentum builder. And you won that hole. CASEY CLENDENON: When you take driver, you're looking for birdie, obviously. But if you miss the shot you're behind the tree, you have a touch pitch, so I've been laying up on that hole every day. I just kind of trying to get it up there and. Q. Every day? CASEY CLENDENON: Pretty much. Yeah. CRAIG SMITH: So what do you hit off that? CASEY CLENDENON: I just hit a 4-iron off the tee and 4-iron to 70 yards, see what happens. Q. So you've done that, but you've never once tried the driver? CASEY CLENDENON: I hit the driver one day and it went left and that was it. CRAIG SMITH: You're going to be a senior at Lamar. CASEY CLENDENON: Um-hum. CRAIG SMITH: Take me through just how you get from being a high school player and to Lamar and all the things that we would like to know about that get you to where you're at right now. CASEY CLENDENON: I moved to Katy, Texas my sophomore year in high school, and I played golf there three years. Before I moved I won the Mississippi State Junior, the 5A State and then I kind of moved in with my dad in Katy, and just the golf just kind of took off from there. And just playing in Houston, playing in Texas, bigger events, it just kind of helped my game. And I signed with Houston. But I just didn't, I just didn't feel like that place was right for me. And I heard a lot of good things about Lamar. And then I transferred and it turned out to be the best. CRAIG SMITH: When did you transfer? CASEY CLENDENON: After my freshman year. CRAIG SMITH: And how long were you in Mississippi? CASEY CLENDENON: I grew up there. 14, 15 years. CRAIG SMITH: Any other sports in your background? CASEY CLENDENON: I played one year of high school soccer, I played a lot of baseball in junior high and all that stuff, like everybody else does, pretty much. CRAIG SMITH: When did you decide to put all those other toys and rackets away and say I want to be a golfer? CASEY CLENDENON: Probably age 13 or 14. Q. Anybody here did you say? Your family? CASEY CLENDENON: Nobody is here. Nobody's here. Just me grinding it out. CRAIG SMITH: How did you choose your caddie. CASEY CLENDENON: I played in the Scratch Players last week and he was my host family and I told him if he wants to loop he can come on. CRAIG SMITH: So everybody else is going to dinner with moms and dad's, what are you doing? CASEY CLENDENON: I'm actually going to a host family. They actually knew somebody that lived here so I'm just going over there. It's 20 minutes away and I'm staying there. Just hanging out. CRAIG SMITH: Been to San Francisco before? CASEY CLENDENON: First time. CRAIG SMITH: And have you had a chance to get any place else any place in the hotel or? CASEY CLENDENON: No, sir, this is it. Olympic Club. Olympic Club and the host family. CRAIG SMITH: Have you played something like the Olympic Club ever before? CASEY CLENDENON: Not quite this difficult. But in the history of this place. I really don't think that I've played anything up to this standard. CRAIG SMITH: I guess the easy question to ask, but is -- you're trying to play one match at a time. Have you had a chance to look ahead a little bit? CASEY CLENDENON: No, like -- you really can't get too far ahead in the U.S. Amateur. You just got to kind of go through a routine. Play your matches. If you win, you win. If you lose you go home. So it's either one or the other. So you just kind of got to stay patient. CRAIG SMITH: And take me back to the playoff hole which is the start of why you're still here. It's a par-3, it's the second hole that we played. What did you hit? CASEY CLENDENON: I hit a little chunk 5 to the front edge and then ran it up to the back and made a 6-footer for birdie and got out of there. CRAIG SMITH: Okay. Q. How well do you know Michael Thompson? CASEY CLENDENON: You know, I know he plays for Alabama and I know he's a good player. But that's really it. End of FastScripts |
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