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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2015

Kevin Sutherland

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome Kevin Sutherland into the Media Center. Kevin, 34, 34, 68. 2 under par in his first round, currently tied for eighth. Kevin, good round in heat that was about 101.5 degrees today.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: That's what I was told walking in here. It seemed warmer than that. It was a hot day. We get days like that here sometimes in Sacramento. But I hear that weather on the weekend is supposed to be a little bit better, more like it was earlier in the week. So I'm looking forward to that.

Q. Very good. You had a nice start to your round today, birdied the 1st hole. If you could just take us through a few holes on your card. Your birdies are on 1, 9, and a great shot in on 17.
KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I birdied one. The ovation I got on the 1st hole was amazing. Kind of caught me a little bit off guard, to be honest with you. I kind of tried to get some sort of composure there a little bit, but hit a really good tee shot and then got up and down out of the bunker from about four feet. So a great way to start the day. And then I just made a string of a lot of pars. I made a couple of good saves. I made a good save on 3. I just tried to get a lot of pars. Some good opportunities and some long putts for birdie, but my speed was off today. I was short a lot today. I think sometimes that's a little bit of nerves. I just wasn't finishing the stroke. I birdied 9, made a nice putt down the hill, a 15-footer. Had a long wedge into the pin. Then made a nice up and down, made a nice putt on 14 to save par. And then bogeyed 16, hit a bad drive and a chip out. Just made bogeys. That's the way it works out here. This rough is tough. I got paralyzed from the bad shot. Then I turned around and hit a really good 7 iron on 17 to about 5 feet and made that. So it was a nice way to end the day. Then hit a really bad 7 iron on 18 left of the green. Didn't really have a chance to get it close. Made about a 10, 12-footer for par. So a nice way to end the day.

THE MODERATOR: It was a great way to end your round for sure. As you look up at the scoreboard there, it seemed like most of the good rounds were coming in the morning. I think six of the top seven positions up there were morning rounds. Do you feel like you'll have an advantage teeing off earlier tomorrow?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I would guess the greens might have been a touch softer and, obviously, a lot cooler. And I think that's a part of that. On 15, I waited for my second shot on 15, and I kind of walked over to the shade. I kind of stood there for like three or four minutes, and I could feel -- I was a little -- kind of lost my legs a little bit. I was getting tired and started getting a little bit of a headache. This heat will take it out of you. I was drinking as much water as I could, but obviously I wasn't drinking enough.

Q. Hey, Kevin, coming in, you talked about managing expectations. How's that going for you so far?
KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I thought I did a pretty good job of it really. I stayed pretty patient. I didn't make any bogey. I made a bogey on 16, but it's easy to stay patient when you're making a lot of pars. But I didn't get frustrated with the fact I was leaving a lot of putts short. Just stay the course and keep hitting good shots. So I did a good job of that. The way the crowd treated me on the 1st tee was amazing, and I kind of -- emotional might not be the right word, but it was a little bit, wow, that was pretty amazing. I handled it pretty well, I thought. So I did a good job of just kind of managing my expectations.

Q. Was it everything what you expected to be, your emotions?
KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah. Early on, I was pretty nervous, I'll be honest with you. I would say about the first three holes I was pretty nervous. Then I kind of got into playing golf. I felt like the rest of the day, I felt like I was playing -- could have been anywhere. I just was playing golf, trying to do as best I could, and I got a little bit of the early jitters out of the way. So, yeah, I thought I did a good job of that.

Q. With the exception of the crowds, the advantage of being a member here, is it that you know shots that other people don't, or is it the fact that you have got a comfort level having hit this shot so many times?
KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I'll be honest with you. I didn't feel like I had any kind of advantage from tee to green today. The golf course played so different than I've ever seen it play. I was hitting drives in places that I've never been. The through lines and stuff were a little bit foreign to me on some of the par 4s. So I would say, tee to green, I felt like the course played different than what I'm used to, and I didn't really have much of an advantage there. Where I did have an advantage, though, was on some of the putts. Like the putt I made on 18, I've had that putt numerous times, and it looks like it wants to break right, but I knew that it didn't. I knew that, if anything, it moved a hair left. So that was a big advantage. And I had another putt somewhere else. On 9. I made a putt on 9 that it looks like it wants to be pretty flat, but I just know I've hit it so many times that it breaks left. So I was able to make both those putts mainly because of that. So that definitely was the advantage I had today was some of the putts I've had on the green are putts I've had numerous times.

THE MODERATOR: Kevin Sutherland, 7:52 off the 10th tee tomorrow. Best of luck.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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