U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 17, 2020

Thomas Pieters

Winged Foot Golf Club

Flash Interview

Q. 4-under 66; talk us through your round a bit.

THOMAS PIETERS: Yeah, my front nine, the back nine, was lovely. I drove it really nicely and I had some really deep ones, so left myself some really short wedges into long par-4s, which helps. The fairways are really firm, so that's going to be key to hit the fairways the rest of the week.

Back nine I struggled a little bit off the tee, and I was kind of having to make par from some positions, and I did, but can't be doing that all week, so got to just tidy that up. Overall very happy.

Q. You missed a chunk of time because of COVID; was it difficult to return after that, and are you pleased with your comeback?

THOMAS PIETERS: Yeah, I've made my comeback, so to say, in Wales five weeks ago, and didn't really have any expectations, kind of was expecting it to take a couple weeks before I get into like competition mode. And did well there, finished third. So I kind of knocked the rust off and came here with, yeah, a bit of confidence because I'm hitting it well. And just got to put down a good score, and I did today.

Q. People talk about how important it is to start a major well, especially at a U.S. Open. What does that do now for your game plan for tomorrow?

THOMAS PIETERS: It's going to be cold, it's going to be early, 7:00 a.m., so I'm going to go straight to bed after this, and hopefully it's not going to blow too hard tomorrow morning.