Western Amateur Media Day

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Skokie Country Club, Glencoe, Illinois

Following is WGN-TV’s Dan Roan’s interview with University of Illinois golf standouts Dylan Meyer, who won the 2016 Western Amateur, and Nick Hardy, a two-time Western Amateur Sweet 16 qualifier.

Meyer and Hardy led Illinois to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The Illini lost in the semifinals on Tuesday, May 30, to eventual champion Oklahoma. Meyer and Hardy will be among the favorites in the 2017 Western Amateur, to be played at Skokie Country Club the week of July 31-August 5.

The interview followedintroductions by Roan recounting theleadership of Meyer and Hardy in the NCAA Championships and throughout their careers at Illinois, where they are entering their senior years this fall.

Dan Roan:That’s a lot of golf to be played out there at Rich Harvest Farms. Dylan, what’s it like for those events where you have to grind it out for so many days in a row?

Dylan Meyer: The most interesting thing about that is you have to have experience with it. To play that many days in a row is so hard, so grueling on the mind and the body that you actually have to do it one time to really understand how it is and how to manage it. We can tell them (the younger players on the team) all day long, “you don’t have to go out and practice for an hour and a half after your round trying to figure out what you did wrong that day ... “What we did during that event with these young guys is just go out for 30 minutes after our rounds and try to get yourself ready for the next day and try to get some rest that night and drink plenty of water, stuff like that, get rehydrated. It’s important to take care of yourself during those long stretches.

Roan: It’s more of like a “cool down” session, probably mentally and physically.

Meyer: Exactly.

Roan: Nick, you guys have been in these positions so many times over the past couple years, Final Four the NCAA tournament. It’s a great accomplishment every single season to get that far; obviously not very many teams can do it. You guys have yet to break through. Tell us what it was like after you played the match against Oklahoma the other day and didn’t get through to the final. How were you guys feeling? Was it an accomplishment, or a bit of a disappointment or both?

Hardy:I think we were a little disappointed. By the end of the year we all felt we had a great shot of winning the title, not that many people thought that we would make it that far from the previous year after losing(Thomas) Detry and (Charlie) Danielson. Coming in, half our team is freshman, and I think everyone wrote us off as not having that same kind of year, but as the year went on we all got confidence in our games and actually Giovanni’s (Tadiotto) game took off the minute he got here. His game transformed our team from an average team probably to …a top five team in the country. So the freshman stepped up which was huge, Michael (Feagles) had a great year, and Edoardo(Liparelli) had a great year too, so it’s going to be exciting going forward, I mean we were definitely disappointed with the loss, but Giovanni and the rest of the freshman gained huge experience in being in those types of situations. Dylan and I have one more year to do it, so next year’s got to be the year.

Roan: Well, we all look forward to see Illinois kick down the door next year and win that national championship. You guys have a lot to be proud of, and you should be. A great accomplishment, this year. Moving on to the Western Amateur, Dylan you won it last year. You survived, because as Vince (Pellegrino, Western Golf Association senior vice president of tournaments) said, it is a survival test, and you know it wasn’t exactly nice and cool out there at Knollwood last year either, tell us what that was like for you, not only being able to get that far, but being able to pull it out at the end against a great international player like Sam (Horsfield).

Meyer:It was good for me because I hadn’t really won any real type of big event or anything like that. Yeah, I won a bunch of high school events and things like that, and to really step out and win the Western Amateur, one of the top events in the entire world for Amateur golf, is very special to me … to endure that week and to show that I had the strength to do it, the mental strength to last that long, to keep grinding on, keep playing golf, and that period of time that you’re out there, 36 holes a day of match play, it was so hard because it got so hot and the greens got burned out and you know everyone was complaining, that it was so hot … so it was whoever was the one that just shrugged it off and put that off to the side, and I did that fairly well the whole week and because the more I played the more confidence I had in my game and the better I played. Surviving that entire week was incredible to be honest.

Roan: Oh you had a really good year going before you got to the Western Amateur. What kind of a springboard was that victory going into this year for you?

Meyer: Oh it was huge. I just said, you know what, when you win you get a bunch of confidence. You get that little voice in the back of your head that says “Can you do it?” But then it shuts up and says “you can do it, you’ve done it before, so you can keep on repeating it and repeating it. No, I fell into a great practice routine, …one thing led to another and I started getting better and better and results started showing.

Roan: Well they sure did and a terrific victory last summer no question about that. Nick, you’re probably a little bit more familiar with the WGA than Dylan is having grown up here in Northbrook, just down the road. This is going to be your fourth Western Amateur. What is it about the tournament you like so much?

Hardy: Well, first off they run such a great tournament.It’s always hosted at the best courses. My favorite type of golf is the golf I grew up on, and you know, the perfect example is right out here. All the courses they’ve hosted on are first class, and the way they run the tournament is always first class and I just love coming to this event because it is such a grueling week and only the toughest survive and it is a grind and it’s a lot of golf in a short amount of time. But it’s a lot of fun too. I always enjoy coming back here. Also it’s at home, which is a lot of fun, it’s convenient.

Roan: I have to ask both of you guys if you have a favorite memory or favorite moment or anything that sticks out from your competitions during the Western Amateur, starting with you, Dylan.

Meyer:I would have to say the four iron I had to hit on 17 against (Sam) Horsfield in the final match (in 2016). I knew I had to hit a good shot after he kind of flared one out. It was a hard shot, downwind…

Roan: That’s the par three?

Meyer: Yeah, from 200 yards …and I can’t really stop a four-iron too much from out there,so it was a good shot. I hit it to 15 feet, and he just kind of choked it. He didn’t have a very good chip shot, he ducked another chip, and he took his hat off and started shaking my hand and I thought “is this actually happening?” But yeah that was one of my memories that I had in that tournament.(Winning the hole gave Meyer a 3 and 1 victory in the championship final).

Roan: Yeah I guess the moment that you won the Western Amateurmight be one of the highlights ... Nick, what about you?

Hardy: Had to be watching my boy win it last year. I was watching it with his grandpa on a cart riding around with his grandpa, it was a good time. If you every hung out with Dylan’s grandpa … it’s always a pleasure to be with him. But definitely watching him win it last year was my favorite moment.

Roan: So, this year, you guys obviously have played a lot of golf. Talk about, before we talk a little more about the Western Amateur, your upcoming week, I guess you guys are both going to try to get … in the U.S. Open, it would be your first time for you, Dylan, and Nick, of course you’ve been there a couple times. Tell us how you approach playing against those professionals and the field, that’s going to be so tough, to try and get what amounts to a handful of spots in the U.S. Open next week.

Meyer: I mean, Nick knows more about it than I do, I haven’t been able to compete in these type of events yet. This will be my first one, my first qualifier against professionals and what not. Nick’s going to be more fluent to speak about this rather than me so I’ll toss it over to him.

Hardy: I mean, I just prepare just like any other tournament, I let the competition look at me, not me look at the competition. I just go out there and prepare the way I normally do. This course (Springfield Country Club, Springfield, Ohio) I have qualified on it twice already, I’m very familiar with it, Dylan and I will play and practice together, an ex-teammate of ours, Charlie Danielson, he’s going down there too, but in terms of preparation it’s no different, it’s a qualifier, you have to go out there with the mindset where you are going to refuse to be denied. It’s just … worked out for me lately so I’ll just do the same thing.

Roan: Well you’ve made the tournament twice already and made the cut there (at) Chambers Bay (in the 2015 U.S.Open). And you were a hero to a lot of the players, you moved that cut line down toward the end, can you relate that story again? That was pretty hilarious.

Hardy: Yeah … I was choking, coming in. I was choking, but I mean I was like inside the cut by like 3 shots or 4 shots at least with four holes to play, and I three putted number 6, I finished on the front 9 and then I started to a get little nervous. Seven is the hardest hole in the course, I bogeyed that hole. And then eight is a par of 5, I choked the par and I shot a birdie that hole, and I heard someone yell from the tee, some fan like “oh he’ll be fine with a bogey here,” I had no idea.” I didn’t even know what I was at, I thought 4 would be the cutline, I was at 4 and I thought I needed to make par but I heard that, I wasn’t sure if it was true or not, so I just tried to make par and I had a horrible swing. I couldn’t tell what club to hit on that 9th hole, it’s a par three, I had like 30 yards, and I hit the worst shot I hit all tournament, and it was like a 40-yard bunker shot and I was like “just please, please get this on the green.” And I hit it on the green and I 2-putt it, and I guess I made the cutline. I came in and I just didn’t even know what to think. But I helped out like 15 other pros and I think Sergio (Garcia) ended up making like $250,000 that week so I think he owes me something. But there were a bunch of guys that came up to me and were just joking with me but I actually let in D.A. Points who’s an ex-Illini, and I think Webb Simpson and his caddie were the best about it, his caddie actually tried giving me money.

Roan: Didn’t you get some dinner offers you had to turn down because of the NCAA?

Hardy: Yeah, Webb Simpson says he’d still take me out to dinner when I went pro or something.

Roan: Well that’s a great story I think. Well, back to the Western, for you Dylan, only six players I think have ever repeated here? Is that right? We all know who’s played here and who’s won, Jack Nicklaus has won, Tiger, Phil, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, all those guys. What would it mean to you to have the opportunity to … win it back to back?

Meyer: It would be very special being one of the select few who have done it back to back, I mean, being able to win it once is hard and grueling enough and to be able to win it twice is even special and more rare, I mean it’s like winning an NCAA title is so hard to do, it’s so rare you don’t ever get to see that very often. So you know at the end of the event I’m not thinking of going back to back, I’m just thinking of me playing solid golf and get into match play because once I get into match play it’s my realm, and I like getting some guys one on one and really getting in their head.

Roan: How does that work? I mean you’re one of the best players in the field no matter where you play, you’re also one of the smallest players in the field no matter where you play. Do a lot of guys underestimate you do you think?

Meyer: I don’t think they underestimate me, I think they just get frustrated with me because I just hit it on the fairway, hit it on the green, two-putt, … you hit it to 20 feet I mean, I do it all day long, I mean I’ll get up and down if I have to from impossible spots.… I’m just relentless on these guys, and these guys just hit it so far, they just want to beat it down the fairway and get to their ball, they think they have it in the bag just because they’re closer to the green, but I’ll hit my little hybrid up there and I’ll make the 15-footer … Nick’s seen it a bunch in the little matches we have-

Hardy: His freshman year he hit his two-iron closer than his lob wedge for sure.

Meyer: Yeah, thank God I can finally hit a lob wedge.

Roan:Nick, you talked about Skokie being a great venue, and we all know it’s going to be terrific out here, and getting to sleep in your own bed which is a nice thing. Have you played out here very much and have you played much since they re-did the fairways and greens?

Hardy: I played here like 5-6 years ago, I played here a couple times but I haven’t tried it since they’ve redone it. I’m excited to go out there and see it today. I know that it’s one of the best courses around here. I’m excited to see it again, and it’s always in great shape.

Roan: You guys have such a long association with the Western Golf Association, having played in the Western Junior, both you guys finished second in the Western Junior. And you know, what was it, like 2013 and 2014 for you guys? That’s like 2-3 years ago. How fast is the time flying that you guys are where you are today?

Meyer: You know it’s gone by pretty quick you look back on it and think, wow I played (in the Western Junior) in 2013 then you come back … and you win in 2016 at the Western Amateur, not the Junior. But it’s crazy to think about being around all the guys at the Western and all that they do, the Evans Scholars and all the kids out there, all the caddies are around those golfers. It’s a special event not only to golf but to be given the opportunity for kids like that to have a chance to go to college and get an education, and that’s huge. That’s one of the things I love about the game of golf, it just opens up doors and opportunities outside of the realm-it just gives you life options. It’s not just about golf and competing. You meet people, you see opportunities and things some people don’t ever get to see and the chances, and so the Evans Scholars is a special thing, and from the bottom of my heart I appreciate everything you guys do because that’s something I value in my life … education … and you guys do a fantastic job of supporting that.

Roan: Very well said.I remember talking to Nick Hardy coming out of high school, we were at Oak Park and you were on the Radix Cup team and we were hoping they were going to put you up against (Illinois) coach (Mike) Small there in the first round but they didn’t do it. But you you, how much more special is it being close to home. And like you said, there are a lot of great venues around here where this golf tournament has been held.

Hardy: It’s definitely special growing up in this area, and having the Western Golf Association running their (events) around here. This is going to be my fourth Western Am, and I can’t believe it’s going by that fast, and then I played in at least two or three Western Juniors, too, so it’s been a crazy ride and I just thank the Western Golf Association for everything they’ve done for my career. I’ve had a lot of success in their events. Having it in my hometown and always around here is really special … because I have a lot of friends and family who can come out and support me, which makes it even better.