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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2019

Erik Van Rooyen

Farmingdale, New York

Q. Nice round today. Closed with a 12-footer on 17 for birdie. Talk about your round and Bethpage Black, since you have never played it before?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, it's a grind, and today was definitely a tough day because I guess I didn't hit as many fairways as I have the last two days. That's just going to make it really tough out here, so you're going to have to probably chop out and try to wedge it close. Bogeys will be on the card. It's a bit of a grind but level par isn't too bad.

Q. Were you shocked by the layout, the rough of Bethpage, and how Brooks is playing?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Not shocked. I read a lot and knew a lot, and I knew it was going to be long and brutal. But it's a major so you expect it to be tough. That's okay.

The way Brooks is playing is impressive. To be honest, 12-under the last two days, excluding today, I could see it out there, but I mean, no one else is getting even close. So it's really impressive what he's done.

Q. Are you going to hit any balls? Go home? Take a rest?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Probably take a rest. Hit some putts and go home.

Q. Started off with a really impressive birdie on 1. Assess your day.
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Yeah, you feel like you can go out and birdie the 17 remains holes, but that's just not the way of Bethpage. Good start and a lot of good holes in between, but a lot of poor shots, as well, and you're going to get punished for them.

Q. Dramatically more difficult today than it was the first two days?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Definitely a bit more breezy but not more difficult I'd say. The pins are going to be where they are going to be. It's not like they are super tucked because the greens are kind of small. If you hit it in the middle green, you're going to have 30 feet or less.

It's just you've got to hit it in the fairway.

Q. What do you expect -- or what's your goal tomorrow?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Make 18 birdies.

Q. With Brooks playing the way he is, does it change your approach? Playing for second or Top-10 or anything?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Look, it's going to be really tough to catch Brooks. I don't see -- the way he's playing, I don't really see him coming back to the field. But anything can happen. We've seen crazy stuff happens in sports.

But for me to catch him, I mean, I'm 2-under. He's got 11 shots on me. It's pretty difficult. My job is still to hit good shots tomorrow, make as many birdies as I possibly can.

Q. You don't look at second and say, that's still a lot of points?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Look how many guys made the cut -- there's 80 guys that made the cut. I can't control what they are doing. Some guy could come tomorrow and shoot 63 and break the course record.

I've got to go out and just hit every shot as good as I possibly can and we have done a really good job of that so far.

Q. When you're brawling with such a tough course and you see someone that deep against the field, is that discouraging?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: It's not discouraging. It's encouraging because you can see that someone's doing it.

Yeah, sure, Brooks has won three majors, but if I get the ball on the green and close enough and make some putts, I can do the same thing. So it's actually encouraging.

Q. Is it the same with his overall play when he's setting such a high standard, does that force everyone to get better to keep up?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Of course. Of course. Everybody raises their focus and sharpens things up a bit. You just have to if you want to win this tournament.

Q. You mentioned you're not thinking that he's going to come back. Has he reached that place in the game where you see his name on the leaderboard, and, okay, have to go get him because there's no backup in him?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: No, just this week.

Q. Just this week?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Just this week. Look, he's a great player, but I mean, look, I didn't play in the Tiger era. I watched Tiger on TV and I saw guys sort of get the shakes when he's around. But you've just got to focus on what you're doing. And that's exactly what Brooks is doing. He's not giving two hoots about what the other people are thinking and doing, and that's the reason he's playing so well. If I'm going to go out there and think about, oh, is Brooks going to come back or not, I'm just going to falter and make mistakes, so I've just got to do my thing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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