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U.S. SENIOR OPEN

June 29, 2017

Jeff Gallagher

Peabody, Massachusetts

Q. Once again, just like Stephen, you got on a roll on the back side with three birdies in a row. How did you do it?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Yeah, well, I kind of just plugged along the whole day, and I had it 1 under early and made a kind of dumb bogey on No. 9. I guess I birdied 12. I hit it about 2 1/2 feet there just above the hole, which was kind of pulled it a little bit, but a little 8 iron.

And then 13, I hit a really good wedge, sand wedge shot in there at about 6 feet right up the hill, which was normal putting. And par 5, I hit it just on the fringe 20, 25, 26 feet and two-putted from there.

Just kind of plodded my way around the rest of the day and played it smart. So it was a good day.

Q. On 18, you had that slippery putt down, and then you had to come back about five, six feet?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Five feet, six feet, yeah. The greens are so good, if you put a good stroke on it, you're going to make putts. They're tricky. I hit it probably about two yards too far. It's up two or more yards short, it might stay down on the bottom.

Anywhere on the green's good. You don't want to really chip them from the front of these greens either because the grain kind of grows into you. So chipping gets a little more tough also.

Yeah, it was a good -- great day. I hit a lot of good shots and just kind of kept it in front of me.

Q. Obviously, you played well in this Championship last year. Was there anything that happened last year that helped you today?
JEFF GALLAGHER: I would say a lot. Last year, I got off to a good start. I shot a couple under the first day. I didn't play so hot the second day, but finished on the weekend.

I don't play a whole lot of golf, but that competitiveness is still in there. You've got to be able to handle the nerves a little bit.

I took a lot from last year because I finished off the last two days really well. I missed by a shot, missed about an 8-footer on the last hole to be exempt, and that bummed me out. I was really excited to get back here to play.

Especially Boston. My wife's from Maine, and this is like my favorite place in the world right here in Boston, so it was great. Got a lot of family and friends around. So it's been a fun week so far.

So, hopefully, we'll keep plugging away and keep it fun.

Q. You've had to qualify. What does it take to go through the qualifying, for someone who wouldn't know, and to get here?
JEFF GALLAGHER: For me, it's picking the correct spot. I live in Vegas. I could go close. I could go to Arizona. I could go to Southern California, within three or four hours. I choose to find a course that kind of suits my game. I like it kind of narrow and difficult because in the qualifiers, if you feel like you're a good enough player, you're going to go out and shoot 1 or 2 or 3 under on a real difficult course, you're probably going to make it through, even though it's one or two spots in most places.

It's not a whole lot of fun, but I've been doing this for so long that, like I said, you've just got to pick the right spot. You don't want to go to Southern Cal where there's going to be a lot of good players. A lot of Tour players live there.

To me, that's the goal of it, just trying to find the right place for your game.

Q. I'll ask you the same question I asked your playing partner, Stephen Keppler. Even though you had a good score today, are you comfortable with this course?
JEFF GALLAGHER: Oh, yeah. I love the course. I think it's awesome. I mean, the greens are -- you've got to get it in the right spot. I learned a lot last year by -- you know, the Donald Ross last year, putting it in the correct spot on the green. You don't go at pins all the time. You just try to plug away and give yourself putts.

I missed a few, but I made a lot of good putts too, and it's a tricky little place, but it suits my eye really well off the tee. There's a couple tricky shots out there. But middle of the greens on this golf course is really good in most places.

Q. Last question. Your brother's doing some TV work. If he was analyzing your round today, what do you think he would say?
JEFF GALLAGHER: It all depends, if he's the analyst or my brother. I think he would -- if you look at what I did out there, he would compliment the way I got it around. I mean, I probably only missed two or three fairways, and two of them I missed by like two inches.

So I kept it in the fairways for the most part, and I hit a lot of greens. If he were to look at it, he'd probably go back and say, you know, solid ball striking. He hit it in the right places a lot of times.

Three more days of fun, and we'll see what we can do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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