U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 18, 2020

Taylor Pendrith

Winged Foot Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You kind of managed your stuff around this big golf course.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it was definitely much harder today. I thought the greens were firmer. It was windy today, as well. I played pretty good. I grinded really hard all day. I mean, you can hit one bad shot out here, and it just kind of snowballs one after another. Just keeps going if you get out of position. Overall I'm pretty pleased. Disappointed to have bogeyed the last, but I played really well.

Q. Do you think that the golf course suits your game well? I'm looking at the numbers off the tee, and you're a big bomber like you've always been.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it's a great golf course, good golf course for me, lots of drivers. You've got to hit it straight, though, but I hit the driver, I think, pretty well this week. I hit lots of fairways. I was hitting it far.

So long and straight is a big advantage, and I was able to capitalize on the fairways that I did hit, but out here it doesn't stop there. You can get the fairway and the greens are just so severe and the pins were tough and the greens were very firm. You've got to be kind of well-rounded and hit your irons well, as well.

Q. Are you confident for the afternoon? What are you going to do this afternoon looking at the play, or are you going to do something else just to clear your mind?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Probably go have a nap. Today was an early morning. I was up at 4:15. But yeah, I mean, can't control anything that happens this afternoon. I don't see it getting any easier out there, so in my mind I think I'll be one short, but who knows.

The greens will just keep getting firmer. It's windy. The pins are harder today. So you never know.

Q. What kind of confidence can you take from this week going forward for the rest of the year?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I mean, make the cut or miss the cut, it's a big confidence boost. I played really well yesterday and grinded hard today. But just competing with these guys out here, the best players in the world, it's just awesome to be here, and I'm happy that I played fairly decent so far.

Q. It's been a year that you won in Montreal at the Mackenzie Investment Open. How did your life change in one year span? You were playing on the Mackenzie Tour one year ago and you're in the U.S. Open one year later.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it's been kind of a crazy, I'd say, 18 months. My body was not feeling great the last few years and had a lot of injuries, and just to have a really good year on the Mackenzie Tour and move up to the Korn Ferry Tour, had some really nice results this year so far there, and kind of earned my way into this championship, it feels great.

It's nice to be able to swing kind of pain-free, and my mental game has got a lot better. It's just a lot easier when you're feeling good and can post some low rounds, and definitely getting those wins on the Mackenzie Tour helped me for sure. Just kind of reinforcing my beliefs in myself and knowing that I can win. I haven't quite got a win on the Korn Ferry Tour yet, but I've been playing some really nice golf, and hopefully will get one at some point this year.

Q. When were you injured?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I had multiple injuries over the years, but my shoulder at the end of the Mackenzie Tour in London was really bad. I had to get some cortisone injections. So the break, the COVID break actually really helped me. I didn't touch a club for nine weeks, and I was able to rest it. I've been playing some really nice golf ever since the restart. Everything feels good.

Q. The injection was good, because you were banging the ball --

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it worked.

Q. I saw on the KFT website that your girlfriend is on the front line. She's not involved with COVID-19 patients, but in the past maybe six weeks were you afraid that she might come back home with the virus and you wouldn't be able to go to Winged Foot? Or was it clear in your mind that she was paying attention to staying healthy to ensure that you could participate in this U.S. Open?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Well, I haven't seen her since May, so it's been a while. Yeah, I can't go back to Canada because of the quarantine, so it's been quite some time since we've seen each other. But yeah, I think Canada has got it for the most part under control and there's zero cases at her hospital. She feels very safe working there. Right in the midst of it I think they had a handful, a couple handfuls of cases. She works with blood cancer patients, so if she gets sick and passes it to them, they have no immune system, so it could be horrible. But I think they've managed it really well in their hospital, and she's doing good.

Q. You mentioned you haven't seen your girlfriend since May, no fans in attendance of course at the U.S. Open. How important is it to have the camaraderie of your fellow Canadian golfers just for support during this week?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it's great. You know, obviously it would be awesome to have family and friends here, but it is what it is. Just happy to be playing, honestly. But it's great to have those guys here. They've all played in majors and they're PGA TOUR winners, all three of them, and we played Tuesday and Wednesday together, so it was a lot of fun. And DI is here, so we've been working -- I feel pretty comfortable. I was definitely a little nervous on the first tee yesterday. I don't really like that hole and it was my first shot of the tournament, so if there were spectators here it probably would have been a little different. But I got through it.

After that hole I was good and felt really comfortable today. It was just a hard golf course and it'll beat you up.

Q. What don't you like about the first hole?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Well, it's the 10th hole. It's just a hard par-3. It's like a 5- or 6-iron, and if you miss the green it's tough to make par. But I did make it 3. Missed the green, made a 3 and I was on my way.

Q. Can you describe the feeling of teeing off at your first U.S. Open on the tee, on a hole that you don't like? Can you describe the feeling, your emotion, the nerves and everything?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, I was thinking about that tee shot basically all night, which is probably not something you want to do. It would have been a lot different with 20,000 people standing around. I was excited. They were good nerves. I probably haven't been that nervous in a long time.

But I managed my nerves, and that's what it's all about. It's good to be nervous, know you're alive. So yeah, once I got through the first hole, I was kind of right back to how I always feel on the golf course and had a good round.

Q. Everybody is speaking about the length here, your power off the tee, but I saw on Twitter and through people analyzing your game that around the green you're pretty strong, too, and it's a part of your game that you can rely on.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I hit the driver pretty well this week. You can hit a great shot and it goes a foot into the rough and you're struggling to make par, but had a lot of nice up-and-downs this week.

It's just very challenging around the greens. So you need a good short game, and my short game was okay. I wouldn't say it was great this week, but did make a lot of nice saves and drove it well. Overall I thought I did pretty good.