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U.S. SENIOR OPEN

June 30, 2018

Paul Goydos

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Q. We want to know how you played today.
PAUL GOYDOS: Okay. I didn't make a lot of putts. I think today I got away with it. I easily could have shot 75 today. I caught a good lie in the rough and bounced one through a bunker, made a crazy putt on 13 for par. I probably got as much out of it realistically as I probably could have, which is a good thing. You need to have those rounds and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Q. Is that important --
PAUL GOYDOS: It's important, especially in, like I said, USGA events. Par is a good score. I shot even par; I don't think I'll lose a ton of ground today.

I didn't drive it good. The USGA, they want you to drive your golf ball and they want you to hit your iron shot in the correct place or you're in trouble. And I didn't think I drove it great. I got away with a couple again. That needs to be tightened up. But, yeah, to shoot even par today was a small victory.

Q. Making the par at 13, was that the key to keeping the round --
PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's definitely a big momentum thing. For the next few holes I actually played pretty well. And that was -- that's that altitude problem, where you're into the wind. I would have hit two more clubs at sea level. But you don't want to go over. The rough is difficult. You try and keep it below the hole -- I hit a pretty solid shot, didn't get there. Hit the wrong club. And hit a poor putt. That happens.

But the next putt -- that putt had to break five feet. It was going sideways when it went in. It actually had some speed when it was going in, too. I conceivably could have made six there if that doesn't go in. It has that feeling, if I could keep it under par or around par, then have a good day tomorrow and have a chance to win. And you get over par, it's hard to get it back. The golf course is not playing easy. I don't think anybody did anything special today. Yeah, I think that was actually probably the most important shot of the round.

Q. Right now you're four back. How far back can you be to have a chance tomorrow?
PAUL GOYDOS: You've seen some things -- Petrovic shod 65. I think a couple 66s today. You can shoot good scores. You just can't make mistakes. If you make mistakes you make bogeys. That's just the way it is. Some of the holes -- 11, I actually hit a pretty good tee shot and got nothing. Was in the bunker and wasn't very good and made bogey there.

You have to execute. That hole requires you to hit the ball from right to left. And I didn't do it. But if you -- it seems like if you play good, you could shoot 3- or 4-under par. And you've gotta do it under difficult circumstances.

Q. Did you attack any holes differently today than you have?
PAUL GOYDOS: Again, the thing is that the wind is, it's so hard to figure out. We just have never seen a place where the wind blows a different direction. It's just, you just never know. And so I don't know that we attacked anything any differently. Moved the tee back on 11 today, which to me makes it easier. I still drove it through the fairway.

But, no, I think, again, this is a golf course -- this is a traditional United States Open. You need to drive your ball in the fairway, and you need to hit the ball below the hole on the greens. If you don't do those two things you're not going to win the tournament.

Q. The greens seem true. They look healthy. Would you characterize any of the breaks as tricky?
PAUL GOYDOS: They're tricky because of the mountain. The mountain is in your head, constantly, and you're constantly looking -- and you watch it on TV, you're always looking for that bell or the mountain.

I hit a putt on 11 that looked like it was going to break maybe outside right to break left. I played it outside left because the mountain's going to affect it. And I pulled it and made a good putt. But you have to kind of -- you have to build in a bias in the sense into your reading that there's a slope there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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