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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 21, 2015

Troy Kelly

UNIVERSITY PLACE, WASHINGTON

Q. How was the whole experience? Your score, your dad being here?
TROY KELLY: The whole experience was amazing. It was an honor to play in front of everybody and have everybody come out and support me. Overall it was a great week. Obviously the last two days have been fun for me, because I didn't even know if I was going to be able to play. Yeah, overall a great week. It was a lot of fun.

Q. Once you learned you were going to be able to play it sounds like you had to settle on a mindset because there was some uncertainty. Once you got here did you shape and approach and how close did you come to it?
TROY KELLY: You know, I obviously was sitting there going, Well, I'm not going to play. I really wanted to. I wanted to try to take another couple of shots at this thing. I know it was going to play hard. But I know that there was room if you did play well to make a move over the weekend. I slowly made a little bit of move. Today will hopefully help a little bit. Yeah, I didn't change anything as far as my approach to the golf course. I played it the same way. The wind was a little different today, obviously. They definitely moved some tees around, like they have been. So the course, it's scorable today, I think, a little bit. I obviously played better on the back nine it seemed every day, that's where I made most of my birdies. Overall it was a great day today for me.

Q. If there's somebody that is going to break the logjam at minus 4, what are they going to have to do to break it?
TROY KELLY: Obviously you're going to have to hit fairways and keep the ball out of that long rough so you can still control the balls around the green. Obviously DJ, having all the power he's got, he's going to be tough. There's some carries, but they moved 12 up, you know. Most everybody, I think, can reach 12 now. But I think just making some putts outside of 15 feet is really going to kind of help, because it's hard to get it inside of 15 feet all day. I think those guys that are long have a better opportunity at that because they can control the ball and get it closer with some spin. But, yeah, I think the longer guys are going to have the -- Jason Day, those guys that move it off the tee, have a big advantage out here.

Q. How fast was the putt on 15?
TROY KELLY: You know, we talked about it. And I get a little tentative kind of late in the round sometimes. And Ryan said, Just be aggressive. And I'm like, Okay. And it felt like it wasn't really fast, just looking at it. Actually, it looked like it actually flattened out a little bit where it wasn't creeping away. But when I hit it I didn't feel like I goosed it too much. Then when I saw it rolling and it got about three-quarters of the way there, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, slow down or hit the middle of the hole. And it was just boom, right in the middle. That probably would have went off the green, I think. I'm glad it hit the middle of the hole.

Q. What did you do to keep yourself calm and relaxed the whole week?
TROY KELLY: I was just trying to enjoy the whole week. And I did, I really had a lot of fun over the four days that I was playing. It was nice to play with Jimmy. I played with him a little bit. So that definitely helped. So we had a lot of fun. Had some good conversations out there. But having my brother on the bag helps a lot, too. I trust all the stuff, the numbers, everything that we're doing out here. Because you're getting a lot of numbers, you're uphill, downhill, wind, trying to get all of those, and trusting where you're going to land it. Because a lot of times you're landing it 15, 20 yards short of where that pin is and you've really got to be precise on where you're landing it to keep it around the hole.

Q. When did you know that you were going to be healthy enough to play?
TROY KELLY: I would say probably three or four weeks prior I started feeling better. Obviously I was having the knee issues a little bit. But it started feeling better, and I'm walking a lot of my rounds over at the club. I was feeling pretty good. So I didn't anticipate anything coming up. But I think it could happen at any point. I don't know how this thing is going to go. But right now I feel good and my plan is to go to Greenbrier and play.

Q. How did it feel kind of being the hometown guy, walking up 18 on a Sunday at the U.S. Open?
TROY KELLY: It was really special. That's the biggest grandstand I've ever seen, I think, besides maybe playing over in the British Open. I played one of those. And the grandstands are pretty big there, too. But to see all those people and having people yell my name, Hey TK, and stuff like that. Every hole it was going on. And I'm out on the road I don't get that support. A lot of people probably don't even know who I am when I'm out there but this week they did. And it was sure a lot of fun.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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