U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 17, 2020

Brendon Todd

Winged Foot Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. 2-under 68; just take us through your round.

BRENDON TODD: Yeah, obviously 68, 2-under is a good score to open up with, so pleased with that. We had great conditions. It was a little bit calm. Greens were still pretty receptive. There were a few pins in the middle of the green early and late.

I thought the scoring opportunities were really good. You still had to be patient because it's hard to birdie all of them out there, but I didn't do -- I wouldn't say anything amazing, but I hit a lot of good iron shots and holed a couple nice putts.

Q. Given the practice rounds, did you see this coming?

BRENDON TODD: I did.

Q. When you looked at the scoreboard and see someone at 4-under --

BRENDON TODD: Absolutely. I did a radio show yesterday and told them I think guys will shoot 3- and 4-under, maybe even lower this afternoon, in the first round or two, and I could see somebody -- I said I could see somebody being 4- or 5-under through two rounds, and then it playing a little harder on the weekend.

It's cooler weather coming in, maybe a little bit more breeze on the weekend, and I think they'll probably dry the greens out a little bit.

Q. What are your thoughts on how Davis handled him out there?

BRENDON TODD: He's unbelievable. He definitely has been one of the most mature kids I've seen go through college in my time, and it's been nice to get to know him, living in Athens there and playing with him a lot.

You know, he played great today, and it wouldn't surprise me if getting up there in the lead made him a little tighter coming down the stretch, but his temperament was great, his fight was great, and he played really well.

Q. What were your thoughts when you saw the pairing? USGA obviously has some fun with these pairings, and you obviously got a pretty good one.

BRENDON TODD: Yeah, I was excited. Those are two friends of mine, and all Georgia pairing is always great. They did this for me back in 2014 as well. I played with Russell Henley and Chris Kirk and played well that week.

Hopefully it's a favorable pairing that I take advantage of, but it's really fun playing out there with those guys.

Q. Obviously when you're focused on your game there, but when you see Davis, you know what he's doing, right, at the time and you know what's probably going through your head. Do you say anything, kind of try to keep him talking about other stuff or anything like that?

BRENDON TODD: You know, I just tried to be friendly and a good playing partner. But he hit a great shot on the par-3, 13, he hit a 5-iron from 216. The wind was helping maybe a little bit more than we thought, and it flew to the back of the green, rolled over. Ended up making his first bogey of the day, and I just told him walking off that green you made a great swing there, that was -- the wind just kind of surprised us, but just kind of keep it up.

Q. What do you kind of remember about being that age and being in an environment where you're just trying to keep your head on straight?

BRENDON TODD: Yeah, I remember when you're a good college golfer you believe you have the game, but when you get out there and shoot good scores, you're kind of proving it to yourself. And it's exciting, but it's also a little new. And so I think for him, he's just kind of figuring out how good he is and that he can hang out here with probably the best players in the world and that's what his future is going to be.

I don't remember being as confident or as collected or as talented as him at that age, so he's got a great future.

Q. Do you guys ever have an alumni versus current players thing, contest at Georgia?

BRENDON TODD: Not really. Me and Chris Kirk live in town and we play with the team a lot, so sometimes we'll get a game together. There is always an alumni event every other year where only former Georgia players come back and play like little two-man team event, but it's not really against the players.

But that would be a neat format. It would be pretty cool to take maybe the five starting guys on the team and take five pros and see if you could have a nice match.

Q. How would you like your chances right now if you actually had that match right now?

BRENDON TODD: Yeah, obviously we've got some great players on TOUR, so I'd like our chances, but again, like I said, the best player on their team is potentially as good as any one of us on any given day. He's a stud. And Trent Phillips is a great player, Spencer Ralston, are two more guys who are going to come out and play on the PGA TOUR some day, as well.

Q. What do you see in him that makes you think he's, as you say, one of the most mature guys that you've seen for that?

BRENDON TODD: Well, he's just been very disciplined since day once. He doesn't party. He practices efficiently. He has a very easy-going temperament, doesn't seem to get too mad. And if he does, he's very disciplined, not acting out.

Those are all the qualities we're all trying to have at any age in golf. His dad was a good player at Georgia, Todd Thompson. His dad started the Southeastern Junior Golf Tour, and he raised him right, and I think his dad should be real proud.