Sides in the 3rd U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship who prevailed in their Round-of-16 matches on Tuesday morning at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club's Course No. 2 had little time to bask in the glory of their triumphs. The tandems had time to grab lunch and hit a few practice putts before refocusing for their afternoon quarterfinal matches. But before they teed off, the USGA communications staff got a few comments from some of the victors:
Scott Loving/Justin Kaplan def. Ben Warnquist/Brandon Cigna, 6 and 5
On their performance: "It was pretty stress free. We got up on them early. We played clean, for the most part. Justin is striping it. He was only out of three or four holes and I made pars on those. It was really just a good team effort." -- Loving
On their mindset: "We said today, if we get up, we’re going to keep our foot to the [gas] pedal. We played well. [Our opponents] didn’t have their best stuff and I know how it gets when you get down in match play. But on these greens, if you start pressing, it gets really difficult." -- Kaplan
On success, despite lack of USGA championship experience: "This is our first USGA event, but we didn’t come here to just make it into match play. We came here to win." -- Kaplan
On playing the 2016 runners-up: "We knew that coming out this morning. We were very focused. We both felt good coming off the range. Our goal was to just not give [away] any holes." -- Loving
Nathan Smith/Todd White def. Patrick Flavin/Brian Ohr, 2 and 1
General thoughts on the victory: "They were such a good team. It felt like they were like one putt away from birdieing the whole back side. They were really talented players and we were lucky to hang with him and sneak by." -- Smith
On the turning point of the match: "I felt like when we got 2 up [after] 11, I just knew there were so few birdies out there that as long as we didn’t do anything stupid, we might be OK. I don’t know about momentum, but just how the golf course was set up, if you can get to that point, they may have to take a few chances." -- White
Clark Collier/Kyle Hudelson def. Thomas McDonagh/Brendan Borst, 19 holes
On the extra-hole victory: "We were behind the entire time, and it was really tough to fight back into it. Those guys would not give in. We made some really good shots and made some big putts and they put them in right on top of us. It was really tough to win holes. Tom and Brendan are class acts and they played their hearts out.
"On 14, they both hit it in to about four feet and Kyle was off the green to the left and he made his 30-foot putt from off the green and they both missed their birdie putts. So that was a two-hole swing. We would have gone to 3 down, match is [basically] over. he makes it from off the green and we’re only 1 down."- - Collier
On winning the 18th hole with a par to force extra holes: “On 18, they both hit great second shots to be around the green. I kind of had a good feeling that par was going to be a good score there. We were putting 6-, 7-footers for par and Clark got his in first.” -- Hudelson
On their mindset: “We’re just country club rats. We’re war dogs. All these college kids get to play golf every day. We have an actual job. We don’t get to play golf every single day, so we just know how to grind it out. Especially when you’re only showing up on the weekends trying to shoot a good score. You’re not going to have a perfect swing. You’re not going to have time to have a perfect swing. You take your mistakes and you scramble." -- Hudelson
On taking advantage of being alternates: "We’ve had the mentality all week that we’ve won already. Just being here was a win." -- Collier
Scott Harvey/Todd Mitchell def. Kenny Cook/Sean Rowen, 3 and 2
On their performance: “We hit it good today and we hit solid putts … it’s just hard. You get on the wrong side of the hole, it’s difficult to get them to go in.” -- Mitchell
On surviving and advancing: “It’s still playing the golf course. It doesn’t matter who you are playing. You don’t try to do something stupid out here or it will light you up.” -- Harvey
On playing Patrick Christovich/Garrett Rank in the quarterfinals: “It will be fun. It will be intimate. We know everybody well.” -- Mitchell
Patrick Christovich/Garrett Rank def. Matt Naumec/Billy Walthouse, 2 and 1
On their performance: “Just like yesterday. A lot of really good golf … a lot of birdies … we were probably 5 or 6 under, and they just kept matching us. I hit one in to about 2½ feet on 13, and I hit mine in to put the pressure on them to make a 30-35-footer. Not an easy putt. And they poured it right in the middle.” -- Rank
On their opponents: "They showed a ton of heart. They never gave up, and they made a ton of putts. Just like yesterday, we were fortunate to make just one more." -- Christovich
On playing Scott Harvey/Todd Mitchell in the quarterfinals: "It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a dog fight. We play with each other a lot and know each other real well, so it’s what we’ve been hoping for. We’ve been wanting to play them [Harvey and Mitchell] for years." -- Christovich
David Kocher/William Rainey def. Davis Shore/Wilson Furr, 6 and 5
On beating the talented teenagers: “They’re one of the most talented teams here, two really, really good junior players. We knew it was going to be a tough match. We didn’t expect it to end early. They didn’t play bad. They hit a lot of good shots that didn’t get rewarded." -- Rainey
On Rainey's performance, which included five birdies on his own ball: "He [Rainey] played awesome all day, made everything he looked at. I was so glad Will kept pouring on the birdies. The biggest one was on No. 5. I birdied 4, then he comes back with a huge birdie on 5. And he hit a really good shot on 6, which kind of kept the pressure on which was big." -- Kocher
On Rainey's 60-foot chip-in birdie on 10 to go 4 up: "That was huge because I was out of the hole after my tee shot. I was under a tree. He hit one in the [native area] on his second shot, so his third shot was really tough and he hit it over the green. We were out of position, and he ended up holing that chip which was very big." -- Kocher
