May 21, 2005
Augusta State Quotes
Josh Gregory – Head Coach
On today’s round
“It was just a tremendous round of golf. I think we were under par most of the day. I think we were four-under par with three holes to play and then we had a couple double-bogeys on the last hole, but that’s a tough hole to finish. Fortunately we had enough shots to play with. It’s pretty remarkable to play with the top team in the nation and win by nine strokes. And it’s pretty impressive to beat them head-to-head today by 12 shots. All five of my guys played well.”
What his team talked about coming into today
“We just kept talking about winning. We talked about winning all week even before we got here. In our last events we’ve finished tied for first, first and then second. When you have a team that you think can contend I think you are in a much better mindset when you come out here to try and win. It’s tough to qualify in a tough field like this when you legitimately have 23 or 24 teams that can qualify. That’s a pretty tough deal. So you have to come out here with the mindset of trying to win. Our goal for every tournament is to try to win so we didn’t change that. It’s pretty nice coming out here today knowing that you can go out there and try to win. Even if you have a bad round you are still going to limp home and qualify pretty easily. It was easier for us and Oklahoma State than those guys out there I can promise you that.”
On his team’s mindset
“The guys wanted to make a statement here. We felt like Oklahoma State stole one from us last week at the Maxwell when they beat us by a shot by making two birdies on the last hole. So we were hoping to get them back and keep it going for when it really matters in a week and a half.”
On Kalle Edberg’s play
“It’s finally getting to the time of the year when he is going to get rewarded for how well he hits the ball. He is just a tremendous ball-striker and he wears out fairways and greens. When you get on a hard golf course like this, he is going to contend. And to play with Pablo Martin (Oklahoma State), who is definitely one of the top two or three players in the country, head-to-head, and to be trailing or tied pretty much all day and to make eagle on 17 when it sounded like he was at a pretty impossible spot was great. With Kalle’s game, he’s great when it’s hard. If it’s a hard bunker shot or a hard flop shot, he’s great, so that’s the type of situation he enjoys being in.”
On winning the regional
“This is the first one that we’ve ever won and I think our previous best finish was fourth. This is huge for the program and huge for our guys to win this. In my three years here we’ve won 10 times. The one next week is the one we’d really like to win, but this is definitely the biggest win in the three years we’ve been here.”
Kalle Edberg – Senior
On today’s round
“That was a fun round. I played well on the front nine so the back nine was pretty much me and Pablo (Martin) tied up the whole time so that was fun.”
On his battle with Oklahoma State’s Pablo Martin being similar to match play
“I love match play but I try to focus on the course and that’s what I try to do. I don’t try to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. It did feel like match-play at the end.”
When he felt like he had a chance to win
“Pretty much the whole round, right from the start. I just wanted to go out there and have a good start and see what happens.”
On the team’s confidence going into the NCAA Championship
“I think we have a lot of confidence. Recently, we have won two tournaments and finished second at the Maxwell and then a win here. So we are on a roll right now and we just want to keep it going. We don’t want to get to excited about it. It’s just another tournament coming up, so we hope to do our best there.”
Oklahoma State Quotes
Mike Holder – Head Coach
On today’s round
“We just didn’t play well, I don’t know about anyone else.”
If he was surprised by his team’s play today
“I’ve been around golf long enough that nothing surprises me. You don’t like to play like this, but it happens. We’ll see if we can’t do better next time.”
If his team’s performance will motivate them at the NCAA Championship
“Why would anything like this ever be good? It is what it is. You just have to make the best of it. They always say you are supposed to learn more when you play poorly so we should learn a lot. So we’ll see.”
Purdue Quotes
Devon Brouse – Head Coach
On winning the playoff
“It’s nice to have an extra chance after we thought we were pretty much dead after the way we played today. It’s golf and it was kind of a false sense of security being fourth, but only seven shots away from the cut. The way we figured it was that there were 14 teams playing for eight spots and we had to beat seven of those 14 teams and we didn’t do it. So we ended up in this playoff, but fortunately we were able to come out.”
On the depth of the Central Regional
“The NCAA does the best job they can at trying to balance these regionals. They probably did a pretty good job this season, honestly. But it just seemed like our regional was packed again this year. I think there is more depth in the central part of the country. It just seems that there are a lot of good teams not getting out of here. You can look at any regional and see some good teams not getting out but there are a lot of good teams going home from here.”
Notre Dame Quotes
Jim Kubinski – Head Coach
On his team’s performance today
“It was pretty incredible. We had a good team meeting before we played today and we said that we needed to shoot 280. However we picked the number, we just felt like 35 (over-par) was it and our guys came out with a lot of heart. We had a plan to just keep it a couple over and be reasonable on the back side (of the course), where we started, and then on the front side we felt like we could make some birdies and we did. I think just a couple bogeys on the last three holes is what really decided it. If we par in, we’d probably be okay. But I’m just blown away with how they did. I was actually a little emotional during the round when I was walking around out there seeing just how hard they were fighting and they gave it everything they had.”
On how aware the team was of where they stood in the standings towards the end of the round
“They absolutely were. We talked about it before if they wanted to know and if they wanted to have a feel. We thought strategy-wise that we may need to know when to go for some flags, but as it turned out, we were right on that number. But it was just a couple bogeys on a couple of tough holes. To come back from shooting a 302 is amazing and I felt a lot of people discounted us. I told the guys that each one of them has broken 70 out here in the past and we have to shoot some 70s and get a 280, and gosh, they almost did. So I’m really proud of them.”