U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 20, 2020

Harris English

Winged Foot Golf Club

Flash Interview

Q. Harris English, 3-over 73. Harris, tell us how it's playing today. Obviously, a good score. How do you feel about your performance?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, it was just such a weird start, losing the ball in the rough on the 1st hole. I've never had that happen before, but you've got to kind of reset, restart. Made a good double on the 1st hole and then brought it back, holed a bunker shot, hole No. 2. It might have been the only birdie of the day. I don't know how you get it close to that flag.

Overall, it was good. I grinded out there. I grinded all week. Pretty happy with my performance, especially the way it started. I could have mailed it in pretty quickly, but I didn't do that. I knew I was still in it and still fighting for FedExCup points at play, and I was trying to get in the hunt, really for the first time in a major.

Q. Were you pretty sure it was in the rough, or was it possibly in a tree?

HARRIS ENGLISH: I saw it hit off the tree. Hit the very right side of the tree and saw it bounce. I really thought it was in the walkway. There's eight to ten volunteers standing right by the tree. I didn't think anything of it, of they're not going to find it. Then we get up there, and everybody's looking around and have no idea where it is.

I drug my foot up and down everywhere and couldn't find it.

Q. Did you lose any balls during the practice round?

HARRIS ENGLISH: I didn't, no.

Q. Really this the first time that's ever happened at a PGA TOUR event?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, I didn't lose the ball in the practice round out there.

Q. From where you've come the last year, two years, what do you take from this confidence-wise?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Being in the hunt on a Sunday in a Major, that's what everybody wants. That's what I practice for. That's what I prepare for. I feel like the more and more times I can do it, the better off I'm going to be, and the more experience I'm going to get.

I knew coming into it it was going to be hard. It's what you want on Sunday. I enjoy that. I enjoy the firmness, the fast, the crazy pins. I thought it was awesome. Going to learn a lot from it and be ready for it at Torrey Pines next year.

Q. What were your thoughts when Bryson came out all bulked up this year, and what are your thoughts now that it seems to be working?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, I've played with him a few times over the past few weeks, and it's a different way of doing things. It's pretty impressive. He's figuring out how he can do it.

Obviously, he struggles sometimes with the driver, but on weeks like this, it's incredible what he can do out of the rough. It's a game that we've really never seen before. I guess John Daly changed it a little bit during his time, Tiger changed it, and I think Bryson is now changing it again. So it's impressive to see.

Hitting the ball in the rough out here and trying to get it on the green is really hard, and it's really impressive what he's doing.