U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 19, 2020

Taylor Pendrith

Winged Foot Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you sum up your round today.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it beat me up a little bit today for sure. I didn't hit many fairways and not a lot of greens, but my short game was pretty good. I made some really nice up and downs. Just didn't have too many good looks at birdie. Grinded it out pretty hard and shot 5 over. Felt like a pretty good round from where I was off the tee and around the greens.

Overall, I'm pleased, I guess, not with the score, but my short game was really good today.

Q. How much of -- I don't know. You might actually be playing well but the golf course is so difficult that you can't judge against what you normally play. Does that sort of happen here?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, for sure. You can hit a pretty good drive -- today it felt like a lot of nice drives that just kind of bounced into the rough, and you're just kind of chopping something to hopefully get it back in the fairway, and if you don't, it just sets you up for a really difficult next shot. So things kind of add up quickly here.

Yeah, my game feels pretty good. It just was a little bit off today, and the golf course beat me up a bit.

Q. Do you feel more comfortable now in your third round here? Do you feel like you're getting into what is Major Championship golf?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, definitely. I felt comfortable all day. Obviously, that first day was a little different, my first Major. I haven't played a PGA TOUR event in a long time, and it was definitely the biggest one I've ever played in.

But I felt very comfortable all morning and throughout the round. Yeah, just trying to play my best and plug away.

Q. Can you talk about that chip in on 14?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, that was awesome. On 10 and 11, I just burned the edge on both my chip shots, so I was due. It was pretty good. I once again hit a really good drive there and bounced a couple yards in the rough and had a not great lie. Hit a sweet shot to get it there. Yeah, it was a perfect little pitch.

Q. Adam Hadwin sort of spoke about it earlier, just about keeping going when the golf course is so difficult. How do you just stay focused when the golf course is tricky and it's just not rewarding you with good shots?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I kind of have got it in my head that it's just going to be hard. As soon as I qualified -- I don't know, you've just got to have a good attitude about it. You can hit some really good shots and end up in not good spots, and you're struggling to make bogey.

I'm just having a ton of fun here and trying to embrace the challenge. Whatever happens happens. Made the weekend and felt like I played pretty nice today, just kind of going along and trying to enjoy the weekend.

Q. What's the game plan for tomorrow?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Same as today. Hit a lot of drivers. There's a couple holes where I need to hit 3 iron. I just need to get the ball in play. I haven't looked at my stats, but I felt like I was in the rough every hole. So I need to hit some more fairways. If you hit the fairways, you can get on the greens and make some pars and have some birdie chances.

I was grinding to make par saves. So more fairways and hopefully more pars.

Q. On a difficulty scale of golf courses you've played in your life, where does this rank?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Number one, for sure. Just everything about it is very difficult. It's long, tight fairways, long rough, and the greens are fast, firm, and very slopey. So I'd say it's number one.