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THE 147TH OPEN

July 20, 2018

Bernhard Langer

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

BERNHARD LANGER: If I'm happy? Well, whatever. I wasn't happy with my ball striking. My putting was good, but I was unlucky. I had like four lip-outs, no lip-ins. That part was good. But the ball striking, I wasn't really comfortable with my swing. I was on the phone with Willie, my coach, the last two, three days, and I'm trying different things. Just it's always tough trying stuff in the middle of a round.

Hopefully, I'll find something here in the next couple days and on the weekend, and it will be a little more relaxing, more fun playing, instead of just fighting myself.

Q. But you still got around in par. How did you do it?
BERNHARD LANGER: It wasn't easy, but it could have been a lot better. A couple of putts ago, it looked really good. But I managed to get around the golf course. Had one or two good breaks. I had a really awful break on 13 when it plugged -- I think it was 13. Plugged so bad, I had to go backwards and sideways. Made a brilliant two-putt from long distance.

Otherwise, just try to keep the ball in the fairway even though I didn't feel that comfortable. I managed to get it on the fairway a number of times and hit a couple decent iron shots in there. It's long. That course played long today. Or a little longer anyways.

Q. Was it experience or --
BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah, it's a little bit of everything. Just knowing where your misses are. Experience where you -- knowing where you can go, where you can't go, and just accept 20-yard putts, 15-yard putts, that kind of thing, instead of 60-footers, 50-footers, instead of attacking the flag. It's hard to attack the flag when you don't feel comfortable.

Q. Bernhard, do you feel you get beyond the point -- I don't mean to sound patronising at all, but obviously, you've been doing this for a very long time. Do you consider it a good accomplishment to just make the weekend here?
BERNHARD LANGER: I think it is for my age. You know, I've played the Masters; made the cut. I'm here and made the cut. I think it is an accomplishment. There's a lot of great players in the field, and I've beaten a lot of very good players that are a lot younger than me.

I know that I didn't play my best, you know. I could be right up there if I had played to the way I think I can and I know I can.

Q. The top two players have not made the cut, and Justin Rose is the third, and he's on 18 trying to make the cut. When you go back to your house or hotel later on, will you look at the sheet?
BERNHARD LANGER: No, not necessarily. I'm not going to look and say, oh, I beat Justin Rose or beat whatever. But it just shows it's not easy. When some of the top ten or top 20 in the world don't make the cut, it just shows that the setup is not easy and the conditions -- well, the conditions actually were pretty good certainly this afternoon.

So I got the better half of the draw maybe too, right? It wasn't much fun playing in the rain, I guess, this morning for five hours. I had to practise in the rain, but I think once I teed off, we never used umbrellas. So that was a blessing.

Q. On which aspect are you working on your golf swing at the moment?
BERNHARD LANGER: It's the same stuff. My tendencies are to lay it off. The shaft is too flat, and then I come over the top, and I get underneath. Just fighting it. The last four shots were really good, so that's promising, when I had to. I wasn't happy with the tee shot on 16. I thought that was a pretty simple 3 iron and pushed it again. So it really ticked me off.

But the last four shots I hit just now were solid. They were probably as good as I can hit them, and that's encouraging. It's still there. You know, you don't lose the swing.

Q. Somewhere.
BERNHARD LANGER: It's somewhere there, yeah. You can't lose it in an hour and a day. I mean, you can to some extent, but not where it's gone forever, if that makes sense.

Q. Darren Clarke, how is it to play with somebody who can't break 80?
BERNHARD LANGER: He actually just talked to me afterwards and said he's really struggling. He just can't cover it. He usually covers the ball very well, and he's hitting a lot of his shots to the right now. So we talked a little bit. I told him what I do when I hit them right because he's going to join us on the Champions Tour next month when he turns 50. Obviously, he doesn't enjoy playing the way he played the last two days. There were so many awful shots, that that's no fun, you know.

He usually hits a little draw, and he was hitting a push cut. So you know there's something not quite right, and he's working on it. He wants to get better and get out there and compete.

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