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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 2018

Henrik Stenson

Southampton, New York

THE MODERATOR: Next on flash podium is Henrik Stenson. Henrik shot a 71 today, plus 1 for the championship.

HENRIK STENSON: Thank you, thank you.

Q. Hello, Henrik. First of all, anything -- very few red numbers up there, and you're right there. How do you feel about the way you played?
HENRIK STENSON: I was extremely happy with the day's work. I got off to a rough start scoring-wise, even though I played -- you know, started on 10, particularly hole 10, 11 we're seeing big, big numbers, telephone numbers being wrapped up there. So you've got to play those with caution. I played them really well, but I still made bogey, bogey, two far away three putts. So I felt that was 2 over after two without doing much wrong.

Then just overplayed my bunker shot a little bit on 14 from the front trap, and it went over the back. Like to see many down there, see people putt it down there, chip it down there, bunker it down there. All three players in my group, we all made double bogey from different positions on that one.

So that was a tricky pin position. There's nothing behind it. Whistling downwind, you've got long putts. The greens are kind of slow and bumpy, and you need to give it a good putt, and as soon as you do that and you over hit it, you're going to be down the other side. I'd say there's four or five pin positions like that out there today that are really, really tough.

A few of them cost shots, but I was digging deep and kept to my game plan, and the birdies on 16, 17 meant a lot, and they got us back in the ball game, I felt. And even though I gave away an easy one, I felt, on 18, hit the turn 3 over was not the disastrous by any means, and I managed to make a few more birdies coming home.

Q. Did you watch the TV this morning?
HENRIK STENSON: I did, yes.

Q. Was that a good idea?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it's both a good idea and a bad idea. I think mainly a good idea. I mean, it's a very tricky golf course, and in these windy conditions, yeah, it doesn't get much harder than this.

You know, you're going to laugh, you're going to cry, and I guess we chose to laugh today, which is obviously the better option. We just kept on going, trying to execute the plan that Gareth and myself had worked on before, and, yeah, I guess it paid off.

Q. What was the mindset after 10 and 11? Were you disappointed after two bogeys in a row?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I didn't really feel I did much wrong. You've got a 40-foot putt for birdie, and there's virtually three feet behind it before you putt it down a mountain. You just can't hit too hard, and I left it a little short, like many others, I guess.

I had both my par putts were lacking a little bit of pace, and they both rolled off the ball, almost just dived across over the edge of the hole on both 10 and 11, and I didn't feel like I did much wrong. I just tried to keep on going. First mistake, or one of the few mistakes was the bunker shot I played, came out a bit too hard on 14, and it cost me an easy shot as well.

I mean, I left one or two out there, of course. But so did everyone else, I imagine.

Q. Do you feel like a more demanding and difficult test plays to the strengths of your game?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah. When it's hard, it good for me. Major golf is good for me. Whenever we play courses where the pars are coming hard, then I think that plays to my favor a lot of times. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, and I think I was way, way up there in greens in regulation today. So that's certainly going to pay off, even though you still got extremely difficult two-putts.

The greens are quite bumpy, and like I said, the uphill putts are slow, and you've got to give it some. A lot of times, they put the pins just over a little crest, and now it's downhill on the other side. So if you don't hit it, you're not getting it there. As soon as you putt it a little bit too aggressive, it's whipping six, eight feet by on the other side.

Q. Would you rather have this kind of golf or the kind of golf you've won The Open Championship with?
HENRIK STENSON: I don't know. Is there a difference? The only difference is that at The Open, you can run it in a lot more than you can on a bunch of these holes. I think that makes it hard. You both got to flight it, you've got bunkers and elevated greens. You've got to flight the ball in, but at the same time it's windy, and you've got to keep it down and stop it at the same time.

Q. I mean, just putting up these wild red numbers, versus just grinding it here for a par.
HENRIK STENSON: A lot of times at The Open you have to grind it for pars as well. I would say the birdies come a little easier at The Open unless the weather is horrendous. This is what we've got in front of us, and I'm here to grind it out another three days.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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