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THE 147TH OPEN

July 19, 2018

Rickie Fowler

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. How was it out there today?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's good. It was fun. With the wind not being much of a factor today, it was good to go on the fairway and go after it. If you missed a shot, deal with it. Whether it was a penalty or not depending on the lie or bunker or whatever, it was a good, fun day. Keep moving forward.

Q. Conditions might change tomorrow.
RICKIE FOWLER: I'm no rookie when it comes to playing in some weather, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Are you confident you can make a run in the next three rounds? Four shots off the lead.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah. Obviously, you can't win on the first day. Did a good job of getting off to a solid start. I think it was a good, successful day.

Q. Going into tomorrow, a lot about momentum, does it change things?
RICKIE FOWLER: It doesn't really change a whole lot. Yeah, it's always nice finishing on a birdie, cap off a good day of fighting and grinding.

Q. But even more so because it's tough where that particular hole is and the reputation that it's got?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's tough unless you hit a good drive. I did a good job of driving it well today. We had gap wedge in on the last hole. So it wasn't -- at that point, you're trying to make birdie. So the hard part is getting the ball in play off the tee, I think there.

Q. Rickie, your game travels everywhere, but everybody looks at you as a player that really could perform well on this style of golf. Do you see yourself that way too?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I love playing links golf. It's definitely my favourite style of golf, and I definitely enjoyed coming over and playing Scottish Open here last week and being here this week and getting fun rounds away from the tournament golf over here as well.

It's enjoyable. It's fun seeing a place as burnt out and fast as this, tee to green. The harder you hit it, the further it can go offline. You kind of want to -- some shots you're trying to hit in the air to keep it from running too much, and the others, you can go ahead and let it run out there and use the ground. You definitely have to pick those wisely.

Q. Have you always been good at links golf?
RICKIE FOWLER: I think it's always suited my game. I didn't get to play links golf for quite a while. But once I did get to play it, yeah, I felt like it was right up my alley. I love to use my -- the creativity and hit different shots. Yeah, once I got on links, true links golf courses, it was, like I said, right up my alley.

Q. Most importantly, who's the best soccer player in your house right now?
RICKIE FOWLER: Not everyone has kicked the ball yet. Zach's sneaky, has a nice leg. I've given it a couple soft kicks, but I was in flip flops and barefoot, so I wasn't trying to do a whole lot.

Q. Duff's all time goalie?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah. He provides plenty of comedy for us this week.

Q. Rickie, is it hard to stay committed on some of the tee shots because you just don't know how far the ball is going to roll?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yes and no. Really, it's you're questioning what kind of hop you're going to get. All you can do is hit it how you're trying to and what you're envisioning. After that, it's kind of out of your hands. Every once in a while, you may hit one how you want to and it happens to catch the back side of a knob and runs 15 yards further than you were planning on, and there's a bunker.

So, yeah, all you can do is not so much worry about it. Commit to the shot that you're trying to hit. The more you -- the better you commit, the more shots you're going to hit how you want. If it's one in 50 that happen to get that weird bounce and let go in a bunker, you can deal with that. It's when you don't commit and come out of one or pull one, you can get in more trouble that way.

Q. Is it stressful watching the ball roll and roll? It's getting closer to a bunker.
RICKIE FOWLER: There's really only one or two that got me today. One that ended up in a bunker on 11 where I didn't think it would. But other than that, I feel like I did a good job of committing and hitting shots how I wanted to. I knew they -- I kind of played for, if I happened to hit it really good, it would get to my max. Other than that, I was playing fairly conservative, just getting the ball in the fairway. Because I feel like, around this place, with how dry and fast it is, you have to be in the fairway to control the ball into these greens.

Unless you have a wedge into the last hole out of the rough. It's okay.

Q. Is there an example of a really conservative club that you took off of one of the tees just to make sure you'd stay short?
RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, nothing that would surprise anyone. There were a lot of guys probably hitting short clubs on 3 today. Yesterday I hit 8 iron. Today I hit 7 iron because there's less wind. I was trying to lay up on 11 short of the bunker, which is it runs out at 220 or 225, and I hit 6 iron into there, kind of lost track of the numbers, and probably should have hit 7 iron there, which would have been another fairly conservative one. But at the same time, just trying to get the ball in the short grass as much as we can.

Q. Good idea trying to drive 3?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's kind of a gamble. I would say I need a little more help for it to be less of a gamble. Jon is a little longer than I am. So he was able to take advantage of that today. I heard Rory early in the week was flying it on the green. So kind of depends on what your carry number is and how long you are.

Q. You mean fly the wind (inaudible)?
RICKIE FOWLER: Wind. There wasn't a whole lot of wind out there today. Holes will play differently with carries and where trouble is based on how long you can carry the ball and how far you hit it. Just because one guy hits driver doesn't make it a driver hole for the other guy.

Q. It was crazy with the water and the bunkers?
RICKIE FOWLER: Once you get the more wind, it can get tough to stop the ball with a 7 iron. Yesterday we had a 7 iron go 230 there. So in a way, you're kind of taking that 50-50 gamble and potentially having some sort of pitch shot that you can get -- and to some pins, like today, if you happen to get one over the green, you're pitching back into the wind to a pin that was, for a wedge, you can't really get at.

Like I said, there's not really a safe play really anywhere on this golf course. It doesn't really give you a wide area, and sometimes if you do lay up shorter to a somewhat wider area, you've got a longer and tough shot coming in. So you're going to have to take some gambles here and there and challenge some bunkers out here. It's a true test.

Q. What were the toughest pins today?
RICKIE FOWLER: 3 was one of them. Even with a short hole, but it's a pin that's downwind over a bunker on a downslope. You have no chance of stopping it back there. You have to play it to the right.

They had a lot of good pins out there today.

Q. What's the chef got tonight?
RICKIE FOWLER: I actually don't know. I don't know what's on the menu. We have a lot of meat this week, I know that.

No, they had a lot of good pins today. A lot where, if you're out of position, it could cause some trouble.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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