An Interview With:
LEE WILLIAMS

PETE KOWALSKI: We'll get started. Lee, congratulations on being our first quarter finalist.

LEE WILLIAMS: Thank you.

PETE KOWALSKI: As we just talked about you are exempt from qualifying for next year's U.S. Amateur. If you could just review the holes that you think were turning points or key holes in the match so the media have an idea of how you won the hole or how you halved it. Something that was critical to the match.

LEE WILLIAMS: The third hole I made probably a 30-footer and made birdie on that hole. And I birdied that hole every single day. And that seems to be a hole that's been real nice to me. And I knocked it close not but once. Just been making long putts for some reason on that one green.

Then everything just pretty much stayed the same. I was 2-up.

And then we go to the number 8, and I thought I was going to end up going 3-up because Greg was in the trap and he hit a bunker shot that ended up 40 feet below the hole. And I was putting 30 feet up the slope and I was like  -- or 40 feet up the slope. I was about the same distance as him and I was like I had to 2-putt this. I had the same putt earlier and actually made it and I ended up knocking it way by the hole, getting too aggressive with it. And I missed that.

So I was a little bit down, but then on No. 9 hole, I hit a great 3-wood in. That was a long hole. And I made par there. And that's the first time I parred that hole, I think. And that was real good feeling there.

Then on 10 we stayed square.

11 square.

12, we both just hooked that one up. I hit it in the rough off the tee; he hit it in the rough off the tee. And we both just made pretty lousy bogeys. And the same happened the next hole.

But I would say that the biggest point in the match for me was on the 14th hole when I almost holed out a real long putt, probably a 40-foot putt. And Greg ended up hitting his a little by the hole and missed his comeback putt. And I felt real comfortable with 4-up with four to play.

I figured just hit my next drive in the fairway on 15. And I figured I could manage a par out of that. And if he birdied it, that's a great birdie. But I figured I just needed a par to have a good score on that hole.

PETE KOWALSKI: The two wins that you had today, was it more your driving, was it your putting.

LEE WILLIAMS: Probably driving and putting. I hit a lot of fairways today. And I putted pretty good. My touch was good on long putts. That was probably my biggest thing. Because you're going to have a lot of long putts out here, as hard as these greens are and as much slope as they got in them. And my feel was real good.

PETE KOWALSKI: Can the word expertise be used, your ability to read these greens yet?

LEE WILLIAMS: No. I don't think so.

PETE KOWALSKI: Did you think if maybe you get to the final you'll have a feeling like you might have a little bit of an idea.

LEE WILLIAMS: Well, I feel like I got an idea now. But I don't think anyone can become an expert reading these greens because there's so much imagination involved. And some putts break 20 feet, some putts break two or three feet. But it's all in the speed. I think it's really hard to masters these greens.

PETE KOWALSKI: Is your caddy a local.

LEE WILLIAMS: He's a caddy out at Pittsburgh Field Club. Real nice guy. We get along great. He helps me a lot. I like him.

Q. Do you particularly enjoy playing golf in Pennsylvania?

LEE WILLIAMS: Do I enjoy playing golf here?

Q. You had a nice round last week.

LEE WILLIAMS: I didn't know you knew about that.

Q. I was there.

LEE WILLIAMS: Okay. Well, yeah, I love playing up north just because the courses are so nice. And greens are just always perfect. Everywhere I go, the courses and the greens are just so good. And if you miss a putt, you can't blame it on anything but yourself. And I love playing up here.

Q. You're going to play Pat Carter; do you know much about him?

LEE WILLIAMS: Actually I ate lunch with him today. We ate lunch together. I'm sure tomorrow will have a fun time. He's a good player. And we have competed against each other I think one other time this year. We hadn't played  -- ever played together. But we're both familiar with each other and know each other.

Q. The media probably has anointed or had anointed Trip as the favorite here. Everybody figured he was going to be the guy to beat. With him out of the way, does that change your mindset at all?

LEE WILLIAMS: No. There's so many good players that are still left in this tournament. And all of them can beat each of them on any given day. Everyone's a good player. And just because Trip wasn't fortunate enough to win his match this morning, I don't think most people -- most people know they still got a lot of other good players to beat if they want to win this tournament and keep advancing on.

Trip's been around for a long time and he's always seemed to play well in this tournament. Especially against Tiger. He made it to the finals there. And that was great. I know Trip has a lot of experience. But there's a lot of or guys out here that are real good too.

Q. Did you feel you were playing particularly well coming into this tournament?

LEE WILLIAMS: I feel like I was playing pretty good. I didn't play very good the Monday and Tuesday of the qualifying rounds here. But I just -- I was thinking surely something will turn around and I called my teacher back home, Hank Johnson, and I asked him a couple questions and he just told me that he thought my ball position was probably off a little bit and my alignment was off a little bit. And I just worked on that. And I've started playing better. But the first two days were a struggle.

PETE KOWALSKI: Give us a geography lesson. Where is Alexander City.

LEE WILLIAMS: In Alabama.

PETE KOWALSKI: Close by where.

LEE WILLIAMS: In between Birmingham and Auburn. It's about center of the state on the far east side. But it's really pretty much just smack dab in the middle of Birmingham. Actually I go to school at Auburn. So I don't live very far from the campus.

PETE KOWALSKI: Have you school started yet? Are you missing classes?

LEE WILLIAMS: I like that though. Actually, I don't -- I had some problems getting in touch with some of my teachers for me missing. Started on Wednesday. So I'm missing Wednesday, Thursday, tomorrow, and I didn't get in touch with any of them, and so I'm kind of hoping that there's not going to be any problems when I get back to school as far as my classes go. Because they're pretty strict at our school about missing classes. You get an excuse or a family death or something like that. But hopefully they will -- maybe they watched some TV. I don't know. See it's good for me.

Q. You kids actually go to school, go to class at Auburn?

LEE WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah, we have to go. They come check up on us. I mean you got to be in class. And a lot of teachers -- see a lot of people think that at least our school, every class is a big auditorium. But I have a lot of classes that are just 50 people and less. And a lot of the teachers do take roll, and/or either have you to sign a sheet. I had a history class one time with 200 people in it and we had to sign sheets, letting them know we were there. Everybody; not just athletes, everybody. So I don't skip class.

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