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U.S. SENIOR OPEN

August 11, 2016

Jeff Gallagher

Columbus, Ohio

Q. How was the heat?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Not bad. I live in Vegas, so heat's not that big of a deal for me.

Q. I know that Brian was talking about the club conditions in terms of it being so hot and adjusting. How long did you recognize that, and how long did it take for you to adjust?
JEFF GALLAGHER: It happened pretty quick. To me, the ball went a lot further today than it has been going. It was very weird earlier in the week because 10 to 15 yards shorter than what was pretty much normal, and then all of a sudden, boom. Maybe the adrenaline, maybe -- you swing differently when you're playing in tournament time, but it happened pretty quick, yeah.

Q. Your experience here has been what?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Oh, this place is unbelievable. It doesn't get any better than this. I grew up in Indiana, and I always knew about the golf course and never got to play it. The chance of getting to play it, especially in the Senior Open, doesn't beat that.

I know that there were some pretty good players that played here at certain times of their careers. It's pretty neat.

Q. Good golf course?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Great golf course. Hard.

Q. Is it true that if you don't have it in the fairway, you're toast? Or how did you do?
JEFF GALLAGHER: I hit it in the rough a lot. So, yeah, I didn't drive it as well as I normally do. My driving is usually the best part of my game. A little shaky, but I hit it in the right of the bunkers in the rough on 18, and it was pretty nasty. It came out pretty good. So either I'm hitting it in the right spots on the rough -- but you can get in that rough, and it can get pretty penal.

Q. You're getting up and down. You're getting out of the rough for the next three days, you don't have to be perfect. You know --
JEFF GALLAGHER: You don't have to. You've got to miss it in the right places. I mean, it's -- and when you do have a shot that you're out of the rough, you just pretty much have to play for middle of the greens and hope you get a good putt at it.

I had a lot of really good looks at it today. I left a few out there, but I hit a few shots that weren't great. I got lucky a few times.

Q. Considering you were in the first group, 1st tee Thursday morning, what kind of mindset did you have to start the day off for yourself?
JEFF GALLAGHER: First off, trying to wake up, that's the hard thing. You know, you get perfect greens for nine holes. So it's pretty good. So take advantage of that if you can, not that greens were any worse in the afternoon around on the back nine. But getting out early is kind of good. You don't have to wait around as long, and you just get it going.

Tomorrow's going to be a little different story, but that's all right. I need to sleep in the next few hours. So we'll take it.

Q. Did you get any advice from your golfing family members before you came out here?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Well, my dad -- my mom and dad are out watching. So I had dad watch me a little bit on the practice tee. He's been my instructor my whole life, just kind of -- not really. I mean, my brother, I talked to him a few days ago. We've been through it so many times. It's just more encouragement. I had a lot of -- I got a bunch of friends here this week and some cousins. So my family's here. So I had a good rooting crowd out there for me.

So it was nice to -- I love to perform. So hopefully, we can keep the four days going and see what happens.

Q. Was there any maybe difference when you had the last group still teeing off on 10 when you finished 9, get a chance to maybe take a break?
JEFF GALLAGHER: It worked out good for me because I had to go to the bathroom. I ran into the locker room and went to the bathroom, and it kind of took some time away. But it is what it is. It's no big deal. You know, when you're the first group, you're going to play pretty quick. We had a decently fast group.

I don't like to take a whole lot of time. So I know I'm always -- if I'm the first group, I'm probably going to wait no matter where we are.

Q. Air conditioned too.
JEFF GALLAGHER: Yeah. It got pretty cold when you came inside, yeah. But it was nice. Nice little break to get a little chill and then go from there.

Q. Describe your back-to-back birdies on 6 and 7.
JEFF GALLAGHER: 6 and 7. I three-putted 5, kind of silly three-putt there, but 6, I hit really good drive, knocked it up to about -- I don't know. It was probably about 15 feet from the hole, just pin high in the rough. Got a really good line out there and knocked it up there a foot. The next hole, hit a little sand wedge in there about five or six feet and made that.

The top of the day was on 17. That might be one of the hardest holes I've ever played. That is a brutal hole, and I kind of tugged it a little bit, and it caught the edge of the bunker just on the edge of the green and ended up about 2 1/2 feet. So I dodged a bullet there and got lucky with it.

And I missed some, but you know what, I made some putts too. So it was fun. It was a good round.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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