An Interview With:
CASEY WITTENBERG

CRAIG SMITH: Your last two days have been quite the finish. I can see it on your face, it's kind of draining.

CASEY WITTENBERG: It is. But I'm glad to still be sitting here and being in this position. Obviously that means that I've advanced and I was fortunate enough to squeak through.

CRAIG SMITH: It must tell you something to be able to execute some difficult shots under pressure and pull matches out.

CASEY WITTENBERG: Definitely. But that's what you're going to have to do to win the U.S. Amateur. You just got to take them where they come.

Q. You said you felt he kind of left one get away there at 15, when you left it in the bunker. At that point did you sense that when that happened when he made that error?

CASEY WITTENBERG: Definitely. I mean he practically gave me the hole. Even though I didn't win it, it kind of felt like I did. Because he was a lot closer than me and he was one less shot. So he just made a poor decision and at the wrong time. Fortunately for me it kept me in the match.

Q. It almost worked the other way. He made a remarkable out on that downslope there and then you left it in. What were you thinking at that time?

CASEY WITTENBERG: When I left it in the bunker, I was even closer to the lip the second time. So it was even going to be a harder shot. Everything is so difficult out here on this golf course. The bunkers are so deep and I'm hitting a lot of lips this week trying to get out. You got to make sure you get out of them first of all and I just made a poor decision on trying to force it down the fairway a little bit too far and got away with one.

Q. You stared at the ground for several seconds; did you try to compose yourself or what was going on in your mind there?

CASEY WITTENBERG: It's just you're out there, you're here all week, the golf course is so difficult. When you're making it this far you hate to make stupid mistakes coming down to the end which could cost you maybe a U.S. Amateur Championship. And to make that mistake right there at the end was just, to work so hard all week and then to make a mistake like that, that's just extremely costly and kind of wears on you.

Q. What did you hit the first shot out of the bunker?

CASEY WITTENBERG: I tried to hit a 9-iron out the first time and it didn't work out too well. And then I hit sand wedge out the next time.

Q. Has the No. 1 ranked amateur did you feel like the favorite or do you think at this point that all four guys are dangerous in this format?

CASEY WITTENBERG: Match play is a dangerous game. Rankings really don't mean anything in match play. This isn't like tennis or some other sport where physically a No. 1 player is better than another. If you looked at the rankings and who is in the top-10, the funny thing about golf is it's separated by the shots, the small shots. What's the difference between the No. 1 ranked person and No. 10? Probably scoring average is probably less than a shot. It's a nice thing to have.

I don't think Lee tomorrow morning is going to worry about the fact that I'm ranked No. 1 and I'm not going to worry about the fact that he's played  -- obviously he's played great golf; we're just going to go to go out there and gut it out and see who wins.

Q. You talked about you felt like you missed some chances. Did you feel like on the front nine you had a chance to maybe take a big lead?

CASEY WITTENBERG: I did. It's a very poor decision that I did on four. I hit a great drive down there and I wanted to force it down a little bit further and I talked with my dad and we ended up talking down iron instead of hitting an iron that I wanted to hit and I put myself in a dead situation. I don't think -- I think I could have won number 4 if I would have put it in the fairway. Once he saw me hit it in that bunker it kind of gave him a second wind and I ended up losing number 4 instead of winning and that took a bit out of me.

Q. That seems like when it became pressurized; did you feel that?

CASEY WITTENBERG: Definitely but it's all pressure. It's the U.S. Amateur. There's pressure from the get-go, from the first tee. But you got to deal with it and take it in stride.

Q. You've come back from four down, from three down, on two matches. Your dad has been caddieing all the time for you, carrying the bag. What is he saying to you when you're down like that? Does he give you a pep talk or what's the secret to it? Because they have tagged you now as "Comeback Casey."

CASEY WITTENBERG: He's an extremely level-headed person out there on the golf course, which is why he's so good on my bag. We don't really necessarily talk about winning or losing; it's just playing the golf course and just taking it one shot at a time.

This golf course is so difficult you can make a mistake at any time and it's really not over until it's over. You could reel off three pars and win three holes. And you just try to get back into the moment, get back into focus into what you're doing and I've just been fortunate enough to where when I've been down people have started making mistakes and I've been able to play a little bit better.

Q. But does he say anything to you? Does he affect your game?

CASEY WITTENBERG: He definitely affects my game. We make decisions together. But he doesn't say any one particular thing. We're just out there grinding it out there the whole way.

Q. You said outside that, George is a guy you look up to. Can you explain why that is? What it was like playing against him?

CASEY WITTENBERG: I played a lot of golf actually this summer with George. A lot of the Amateur tournaments. We try to get on the Walker Cup team together and calculate points and this and that and the other for the team and he's just a great guy. He's got good values, family values, and he's a great guy. Extremely nice. Extremely complimentary if you play well with him and he's got a great game. He's extremely smart and on golf courses like this, that's why he won the Mid Am last year because when the conditions get tough he can think his way around better than a lot of people. And I knew the match was going to be tough and unfortunately he just made a few forced errors right there at the end and I squeaked through.

Q. On number 17 you hit a pretty good drive, it looked like you laid up short. Was that the plan? Was that a better angle to the green do you think?

CASEY WITTENBERG: I have not had very much success hitting the ball up where he hit it. Because the pins are so close cut to the right that it's really hard to get the ball close to the pin. It's not necessarily hard to put it on the green, but to put it close to the pin it's hard. And if you want to be able to come in at a little bit better angle you can hit it in the short cut and hit it up. Unfortunately I hit it down where I wanted to, but I was on a side hill slope. The ball was about a foot and a half above my feet and I'm trying to keep it out of the right bunker and keep it from going left of the green. And the green's small enough as it is. I think if I'm in that situation again obviously I'll have to see what it is, but I think I'll go down the left again.

Q. What did you hit off the tee?

CASEY WITTENBERG: 5-iron.

Q. What's it like playing in this atmosphere and the galleries are getting bigger and it seems like there's swarms of people; what's that like playing with that?

CASEY WITTENBERG: It's awesome. Obviously you want to perform in front of people and I think it makes everybody play a little bit better because they want to show everybody what they have. It's just a great experience to able to do it at such a young age.

Q. I know it was early, but you started off here with 78, you came in on a roll; were you at all bothered at that point and you seem to have gotten better though every day.

CASEY WITTENBERG: I definitely would. I think it was only the second time I played this golf course ever. And I shot 78. And honestly I really did not play that bad. It just shows you how penal the golf course is for mistakes that you make. Drives a foot left and in the rough and a foot right in the rough on certain holes you just make bogeys. And that's kind of what happened the first day. But it's a U.S. Amateur and you just got to hang in there and that's what I tried to do. Even though I played as bad as I did I could go over the Pittsburgh Field club and play well the next day and squeak in and likely said once you get in match play the slate's clean, it's all even.

Q. You told me you thought the course was getting tougher and tougher each day?

CASEY WITTENBERG: It is, unless it rains for some reason today. I've heard that maybe it might. The golf course is just going to be playing even harder tomorrow. The greens on certain spots are just extremely firm and it's really hard to get the ball close to the hole and they're getting extremely fast.

Q. After playing two rounds yesterday and going 20 holes with Rubinson, did that take anything out of you or did it make it difficult to get started this morning?

CASEY WITTENBERG: No, not really. Obviously playing with as many holes as I did yesterday it was kind of tiring but yesterday was a long day and this morning you just had to gear up and just go out there and try and get off to a good start. It's really a key thing to get off to a good start on this golf course if you want to win. You can get off to a bad start and you get down and have you time to get back, but it's a really a hard grind, a long day if you have to come back from way done and yesterday afternoon I had to do it, and I was trying to get off to a little bit better start today.

Q. How do you feel about your putter? You had several missed opportunities but then you made some pretty clutch putts too. How do you feel about your putter; do you think it can get better?

CASEY WITTENBERG: To win the U.S. Amateur you have to make clutch putts. You don't necessarily have to make tons, but you do have to make the ones that are important. I've done that pretty well throughout the week and hopefully it can just continue.

Q. Talk about your play on 13. That was almost an unmakeable birdie on 13?

CASEY WITTENBERG: My putt on 13 there, George hit an unbelievable chip from where he was to even get that ball up-and-down it was quite amazing and I didn't have an easy putt as it was and it was so fast I was just trying to kind of make it but I was trying to lag it down there and I had a spot picked out. I rolled it over that spot and it was just kind of letting it roll down when it got with about halfway. I was like, I think that ball is going in, and then at six feet I said, there's no doubt it's going in. I didn't see the ball go in the hole so I don't know what it did. Obviously it went in because I didn't have to go pick it up or putt it over.

Q. You did a celebration there?

CASEY WITTENBERG: No, I wasn't really trying to mean anything by that; it was just U.S. Amateur is such a tough thing you kind of need something to pump you up once in a while and that was a big putt at a big time.

Q. And then 14?

CASEY WITTENBERG: 14, that one, they say -- I just watched it on TV. They said that it was going pretty fast. From where I was standing it hit the center of the flag stick and I thought it was going in. I really did. But it was just an extremely difficult putt. It's really hard to hit that fairway. You almost have to hit it down the right center. I've been in the left rough almost every day and my ball has been bouncing from the fairway over almost every day. It's hard to keep the ball in the fairway on that hole and unfortunately I didn't really have a bad lie but I had a bad enough lie to where I had to worry about it. So you had to kind of bail out a little left and I gave myself an extremely difficult putt and I was fortunate to make par but at the same time it could have gone the other way and I could have been two up instead of all square.

CRAIG SMITH: From the looks of things you sit here, you don't look like you're 18, you don't talk like you're 18; you're so composed and you hide your emotions. Usually 18-year-olds will be pumping fists and smiling, jumping. Do you ever get to show some that have stuff or is that all behind you.

CASEY WITTENBERG: I think that's all behind me. When you're playing the match you don't want to have somebody pumping a fist in your face and running around a green; this, that and other. I think there's times when you can show some emotion but as far as trying to be impolite to your partner I think that you ought to show him as much respect as he's going to show you. It's just a grind out there and you just got to keep your emotions as even as you can and hopefully things will work out for you.

Q. You've accomplished so much. Maybe we take it for granted a bit, but just how excited are you to be sitting in the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur?

CASEY WITTENBERG: You know, it's obviously been a huge goal of mine to be able to play well in the U.S. Amateur. It's our biggest tournament and a lot of people that are great players can't get over the hurdle in the U.S. Amateur. It's a tough thing and I've been put in a great situation this week and I'm just going to take advantage of it.

Q. In the large scheme of golf do you feel like it's a major championship?

CASE WITTENBERG: Definitely. Definitely it is. It's the major championship in Amateur golf.

CRAIG SMITH: July, the Southern, Porter Cup, your qualifier here which may be the most remarkable of them, you won by 10 shots and then you come here to do this. Just put the big picture on it for us.

CASEY WITTENBERG: It's been a fun last stretch of the summer. I'm getting excited about going to school and being at Oklahoma State and I've just played well at certain times. When I really need it to hopefully it will continue for the rest of the week.

Q. Are you really that cool all the time in everything you do? Are you just wearing that like a nice fresh clean shirt every day?

CASEY WITTENBERG: I like to think I'm pretty level headed about everything that I do. On the golf course there's -- people have different ways of acting and showing their emotions and I'm just trying to keep everything even keel. That's just my personality.

Q. You're doing well.

CASEY WITTENBERG: Thank you.

CRAIG SMITH: Thank you, Casey.

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