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THE 148TH OPEN

July 18, 2019

Ryan Fox

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Q. How many times have you done that before?
RYAN FOX: Not for a long time, and not on a golf course like that.

Q. Do you know that's the lowest back-nine score in an Open?
RYAN FOX: I just heard that. That's pretty cool. I did actually ask my caddie, had anyone shot 29 for nine holes in a major, and I'm sure that happened. He said, Shut up, and just hole the putt.

Q. 3-over at the turn. Did something click, was there a change in conditions?
RYAN FOX: To be honest, I've been struggling lately. And this is the first day it felt pretty decent ball-striking-wise. And the front nine I had two bad shots and made a couple of bogeys. Didn't hole anything. Had a three-putt and sort of walked off the front nine sort of pretty pissed off, to be honest. I holed an 8-footer for birdie on 12 and it just sort of relaxed me a little bit. And saw a couple more go in.

It was the first time I've had fun on a golf course for a while. You certainly don't expect to do that. But it was nice to just get out of my own way and hit some decent golf shots and be a part of such a great event.

Q. I've asked athletes in different sports, but talk about what it was like, you were in that zone they talk about. Do you realise what's going on? Is it an out-of-body experience, you tell me?
RYAN FOX: To be honest, I don't think I quite got in it. I know that sounds strange, although I've probably been in it once or twice before. And it gets to a point of: See it and hit it. And it certainly wasn't like that. And I think this golf course almost let's you do that. You've got to think about it. There's so many lumps and hollows and stuff like that.

I've been working pretty hard the last few weeks on some technical stuff and also some other stuff and just trying to get out of my own way and just focusing on trying to hit a golf shot and not about all the bad stuff.

It's the first time that sort of happened. When you get a little bit hot like that, you see some putts go in, it's really nice.

Q. The second round is just simply a case of doing the same thing again like the back nine?
RYAN FOX: I'm not expecting to go out and shoot lights out tomorrow. But it's nice to be not well outside the cut line, like I have been the last few weeks.

I want to go out with the same attitude tomorrow. Go out, try to have some fun, enjoy it and not worry about things. Hopefully I can take some confidence out of today and go out and enjoy it and be around for the weekend and hopefully be in contention.

Q. Overall talk about the course, what was it like, the fans. They've been wanting the event here for so many decades.
RYAN FOX: The golf course is fantastic. I certainly am glad the showers disappeared. There was a couple of holes it was really, really horrible out there.

But the fans are fantastic. There seemed to be a lot of Kiwi fans out there, I heard a lot of cheers, which was nice.

I always enjoyed playing up here in Northern Ireland. It treated me well in the past. A couple of events I've played the crowds have been fantastic and very knowledgeable. And they are certainly like that this week.

It was always going to be a great event. They have been waiting 60, 70 years for it. Hopefully they don't have to wait as long for the next one.

Q. There's no lightning, so you're playing, they're not stopping this at all. What is it like when it is that torrential rain and you still have to play?
RYAN FOX: You really hope the front is slow and you can hide under an umbrella, to be honest.

Yeah, we had a couple of pretty tough shots out there. And you almost need a little bit of luck. To have one of those squalls come in when you're putting or on a nice downwind hole, it's better than when it's pumping into the wind and raining. That's not very nice.

So we got lucky, we didn't have too many of those really nasty holes into the wind. But you're pretty much just trying to keep out of trouble. Keep out of the long grass. Make a par. Don't do too much damage. And I managed to do that fairly well for the most part today.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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