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U.S. SENIOR OPEN

June 28, 2019

Kirk Triplett

Notre Dame, Indiana

Q. How did you feel the round went today?
KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, I hit some -- I thought you could have shot a good score if you could have got ahead of it a little bit. But it's a U.S. Open. It's a little sketchy. There's rough. There's trouble. You start guiding it a little bit, and you start playing for pars even though there's a guy at 14-under and you're at 6, you're not going to catch him by making bogeys.

Yeah, I got I think I little bit conservative, but my play sort of dictated that. I wasn't hitting the ball where I was looking. I made my pars, took my medicine and birdied the last two and feel pretty good going into tomorrow.

Q. Goosen just mentioned that he felt like halfway through the round he started to see the course firm up a little bit, dry out a little bit. Did you notice that or did you still feel it was pretty soft?
KIRK TRIPLETT: You know, for what they're trying to accomplish, I think it's still fairly soft. But it's on progress to be a little firmer. I don't think it's going to get to the point with this humidity, but I'm not an agronomist, so I have no idea.

If you can drive it in play and avoid those silly pins, you can shoot 3- or 4-under out there. Not easily, but it's doable. Some years in a USGA championship it takes something superhuman to shoot 3- or 4-under, but it's not going to take that here.

Q. Is it frustrating knowing there were birdie opportunities but you couldn't seem to find one out there?
KIRK TRIPLETT: It's golf. That's what we do every day. It's frustrating (laughing).

You know, Steve set the pace at 14-under. You know, if you want to beat him you've got to get up there near him. He's probably not going to shoot 77 tomorrow and come back to everybody. That would be more the frustrating part to me than if the leader was at 10 or 11. I would feel, hey, I'm right in this thing. But I'm having to convince myself at 8 that, hey, you're still in it, because there is 36 holes left, and it's not fair to the game, it's not fair to the competition to say Steve has already got the trophy.

Q. Your track record in these championships is very good. You've contended and --
KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, I think typically it fits my strengths. I drive the ball reasonably well. I'm not afraid to make some ugly pars, and I'm good around the greens. For the most part I usually keep my head pretty level. Not always. But today would be a good U.S. Open round or a good major championship round, just nothing is happening, nothing is happening, nothing is happening. Some of it's because I'm not hitting good shots, but some of it's because I'm not converting.

And then I converted a nice putt on 17, had an awkward shot for me on 18, forced me to draw the ball around that tree, but I thought, you know what? This is the only shot that fits here, and I executed it, and it's just luck that it goes to two feet. But I feel pretty good going into tomorrow.

Q. Is there such a thing as an ugly par?
KIRK TRIPLETT: You know, we have this idea of how we want to play, right, we draw it up, I'm going to drive it right here, I'm going to hit this part of the green, and then I'm going to make my birdie or whatever. And then all of a sudden you drive it over here and you hit it in the right bunker, and you're kind of short-sided and you get it out there 12 feet and you make a curler, right, that's a great par.

But it's not pretty, and it's not sustainable. But if you can do that a couple, three times during the championship, that can be as meaningful as a birdie.

Q. Mentality, we talked about that, and par is really good and so forth. Will you go out tomorrow thinking a little differently about how you want to play?
KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, I'll keep one eye on Steve, but I'm mostly just worried about me. If I play well, I can shoot 4- or 5-under around here, provided the pins are accessible, the conditions allow it. There's always adjustments that have to be made, but I don't see the course firming up so much that even par becomes a great score. I do think you have to try and make some birdies.

Q. I noticed you've got the leprechaun head cover.
KIRK TRIPLETT: Yeah.

Q. You're a Notre Dame dad. What's this week been like for you?
KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, we've been thinking about it a long time, so we've known it's going to be here for a long, long time, so the lead-up has probably been as much -- that's the thing that's different more for me. Like I wasn't worried about the lead-up to Salem or to Oak Tree or to wherever -- Omaha or any of the others. All fairness to them. But here I've had a lot of lead-up, and, hey, I bet you can't wait to get to Notre Dame.

Yeah, it's true. It's a neat place for us. It's important to our family. My son is out there watching today with his buddies, and I got to go to his breakfast -- they had a little thing called the breakfast club, and I joined them over there this morning. And my wife is coming in tonight, so we'll enjoy the weekend here in South Bend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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