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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2018

Scott Piercy

Southampton, New York

THE MODERATOR: Now approaching the flash podium will be Scott Piercy, plus 1 for the day, even par for the Championship.

Q. Scott, great way to hit it.
SCOTT PIERCY: Especially after making the mistake on 8. That was tough.

Q. How's your confidence right now?
SCOTT PIERCY: It's good. You know, it was kind of Shaky to start the day, couple of bad swings and a couple of bad putts on the first five holes or so. But kind of righted the ship, figured out what was going on, and I felt like I struck the ball a little bit more solid today. The putter kind of let me down early, but I think it kind of made up for it at the end. You know, the last ten holes, I felt like I rolled the ball really pretty good.

So I'm excited going into the weekend. I think things are kind of where they need to be. If I can just get a little bit better each day, then, you know, hopefully I have a chance.

Q. Get off to a rough start. (No microphone) for that second nine?
SCOTT PIERCY: Well, the wind laid down. You know, I hit a bad tee shot off 10. Out of the rough, it's hard to make a par there. So you bogey straight out the gate. Then I three-putted 14, which I missed a five-footer there, which I had been making yesterday. And then I get to 16, I hit it four feet for birdie and end up walking away with bogey.

So I knew I was hitting it pretty decent, so I just tried to stay patient and really tried to figure out -- you know, basically I wiped both of those putts, downhill left to righter, I wiped it and missed it low, uphill right to lefter, wiped it and missed it right.

I know what's going on. I just got to get my setup a little better, get it to look a little bit different. Once I did that, I started rolling the ball online, and, you know, when I hit it close, I made some, and obviously I made the one at 9 that's a total bonus. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied.

Q. Was there one point in the round that was the aha moment, where you said, okay, I've got this back in the ropes now, and I'm going to make my move.
SCOTT PIERCY: When you get kicked in the teeth on 16, three-putting from four feet, you better wake up. So I really tried to keep my emotions in check, even though I was kind of pissed, but figure out what's going on with the putter, how do I fix it, what do I got to do?

These greens don't let up on you. Even 15, 20 footers, half the time you're playing six, eight feet of break. So you've got to really try to keep your confidence high, even though you just missed a couple.

But like I said, the ball striking was pretty good all day. It was just a matter of getting the ball to -- start where I was looking with the putter.

Q. Do you feel you have good momentum going into the weekend?
SCOTT PIERCY: Yeah, you know, obviously. And then with that putt on 18, to see it go in the hole and, you know, to -- I really wanted to finish in red numbers. I wanted to make a birdie on 8 and at least give myself a chance on 9. But even par through two days is really pretty good.

If I can just -- like I said, if I clean up the putter a little bit -- you know, shoulda, woulda, coulda -- but hopefully a couple under, and we're talking a little something different.

So I'm right there. Couple good days, and, you know, as long as D.J. doesn't run away with something, run away and hide. But I'm excited.

Q. Oftentimes you don't see many red numbers on the board, you hear a lot complaining, especially at U.S. Opens. Not to knock USGA, but they've got very difficult setups obviously. Sometimes they talk unfair, that sort of thing. I've heard nobody complain about the setup here. Would you agree that you're quite happy with the way they've set up the course?
SCOTT PIERCY: Yeah, I think they've done well. It definitely gets a lot more difficult when the wind picks up. I think they had to really watch it when the wind was up, but I think they did good. I think the rain kind of throughout the early part of the day probably helped it a little bit. So they've probably been saved maybe a little bit. But I think it's in a good spot.

Q. You mentioned 14. That's been one of toughest holes out here. From your perspective, what makes that hole so difficult?
SCOTT PIERCY: I mean, it's 500 yards or something, first of all, and it's a par 4, which you don't get that very often. You've got to hit a good tee shot. You know, when the wind's blowing, it's blowing 10:00 or 8:00 off your left, so it's pretty much dead left-to-right.

And you can't fly it too far over the right corner. They made that line go straight instead of cut back, so you really got to take it at the left bunker and try to slide one in there. You know, if you don't drive it on the fairway, you've got to chip it out. Guys in my group did that both days.

So if it's into the wind, I think I had two -- I think I had 220 into the hole today, and I hit a pretty good drive because it was in off the left. It was a 10:00 wind. So then you're trying to hit a 4 iron close, which you don't do that very often.

And then you've got the green. So there's -- I mean, it's like that on every hole, really. It's not just the ones that are 500 yards. You have to really pay attention off the tee. You have to pay attention into the green and when you're on the green.

Q. So on your experience at Oakmont, bring that into this weekend?
SCOTT PIERCY: Yeah, you know, Oakmont was obviously a little bit different. If I could hit it like I did at Oakmont, I would say I'd probably be the winner. That was the best I've ever hit in my life, bar none. So it was -- almost made it seem easy for me because I did hit it that good that week. So I'm not quite there, but hopefully the weekend, I can kind of bring back some of that.

Q. Do you think that these are courses you do well on?
SCOTT PIERCY: Well, you want to do well in the Majors, right? So you try to step up your game when you need to.

Q. Thank you.
SCOTT PIERCY: Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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