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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 20, 2015

Shane Lowry

UNIVERSITY PLACE, WASHINGTON

Q. How does it feel to be doing something right out there? You're right at even par for the day.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's such a grind out there. It's so hard to hit greens. Then when you hit the greens it's tough 2-putts, you have to take your chances when you get them. I'm delighted with my day. Obviously I was going real well playing the 14th and I hit a great putt for par there and just missed, and then hit a great shot into 15 and just missed that. And hit a very poor tee shot on 16. Delighted with the putt I holed on 17 and then obviously just parred the last. But, yeah, I looked up, I thought I was a little bit farther behind than I am. I thought the leader was maybe five or six and I looked up and Dustin was 4. Yeah, I'm in a decent position going into tomorrow.

Q. How hard is it to hit the greens?
SHANE LOWRY: Like 14, for instance, I had 210 yards to the flag and 180 yards to the front. I hit my 7-iron 180 yards, I hit 7-iron and it just went over the green. It was into the wind as well. I had no club to hit the green. You just take it where it is and you're just praying that you're hitting greens. You're just standing there trying to hit good shots. That's what I've done the last few days. To be honest, I feel very in control of my game and my iron play has been quite good this week. I'm just hoping to hold up for one more day.

Q. You've not been in the hunt on the weekend of this particular tournament, and not only be here, but to be very much in contention going out late on a Sunday. Do you feel pretty excited about that?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I am. I said to my caddie coming up the last, it's probably one of the most enjoyable days I've had at a golf course in a while. Being in contention in a tournament like this, what more do you want. It's great. I'm excited about tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll definitely sleep after that round today. I'll get up and just chill out in the morning. A nice late tee time tomorrow is something that what you want.

Q. Can you say how hard this golf course is compared to what you've played in the past? You've played Royal County Down a couple of weeks ago, that condition was pretty tough, too. Say how difficult this is compared to other courses you played?
SHANE LOWRY: It's tough. It's very tough. But I think it's playable. I think it's been getting a lot of slack. The greens are not the best surfaces, but if you hit a good putt nine times out of ten it goes in. Sometimes you hit a good putt and it misses. That's the thing a lot of players are focusing on. Yeah, it's very tough. It's tough to hit greens. But at the end of the day it's a U.S. Open. Like, the leader is 4-under. A U.S. Open is not normally like that. I don't know what was in the top 10 last year at Pinehurst, but in my opinion, Pinehurst is on a similar scale to this, and hard, as well. If you miss the green at Pinehurst you couldn't chip. It was designed -- you're supposed to be able to chip with the grain on the grass. I think that was a little more unfair than this is. So, yeah, I think the course, fair enough, the greens are not a hundred percent, but the golf course is still a good golf course.

Q. Attitude is the key this week?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I said it, like I think about three or four months ago or a couple of months ago anyway, a couple of guys came up and played here, and then I seen a few comments on Twitter from a few people. Talking about the golf course before you get here is not necessarily the right thing to do. You want to get here and see it and see how it plays. When I got here on Monday I thought, yeah, it's a bit funky, like the first if you miss it left. But the more you play it, the more you kind of -- the more it grows on you and that's what I felt. And that was one of the reasons I think I'm in the position I'm in today.

Q. Nobody likes to get carried away, what would it mean to you to be standing here tomorrow night?
SHANE LOWRY: I don't know. I don't know. It would obviously mean everything. So, yeah, I'm going to go out there and give it a hundred percent tomorrow and what happens will happen. What will be, will be. I think if I played the way I played today I should have a chance coming down the last few holes.

Q. Mike Davis warned all the pros, Look, you need to come here, you need to come here early, you need to come here often. Do you think the next warning will be taken more seriously?
SHANE LOWRY: I arrived here on Monday, played 36 holes practice. I think that was the one of the things Mike Davis said we weren't going to be able to do. Hopefully I'll prove him wrong tomorrow. I played 18 holes Monday, nine Tuesday, and nine Wednesday. That's what I normally do. You go to August, Augusta is probably one of the hardest golf courses to learn quickly and people go and do it. Obviously this is quite similar. It's quite tough to learn how to play it. But most of the shots are there in front of you. You've got your yardage book, you've got a caddie that should know -- most people do anyway -- you know how far you hit the ball most of the time. And you just go with that and see what happens.

Q. There are players that have played it a hundred times, but here no one played it any more than anyone else.
SHANE LOWRY: I like coming to golf courses that nobody has played it. Everyone is on an even keel at the start of the week and you play it from there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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