MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2021

Francesco Molinari

Quick Quotes

Q. Tell us a little bit about these two days and the round today. It's been a fight, no?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I think I played slightly better today than yesterday. Just a few too many mistakes, obviously, on 5 especially. Yeah, I played quite well, lots of chances, lots of putts that didn't drop by very little. Hopefully, I can have two good days over the weekend and make up some ground.

Q. If you compare November with now with your game, because you arrived in November it was like starting again after a long time.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah.

Q. Do you feel like the game is evolving, that you feel much better now?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, to be honest, I didn't feel terrible in November. Yeah, it's probably slightly better than where I was. Obviously, I've played more tournaments. Like always, it's tough to work on, but, yeah, it's not far off. Like I said, a few too many tee shots offline by too much, so getting in trouble. But if I can clean that up, I can definitely score better.

Q. Not necessarily for yourself, but just in general for players, it seems so difficult to put two super low rounds back to back. Justin came out yesterday obviously with that great 65. He struggled a little bit today, back to about even. Is there a psychological element that goes into that to try to keep that rolling and recreate the magic?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I think many of these courses, in majors especially, it's going to be easier to play if you got little to lose. You play more free, and you hit better shots. I think, when you have a really low round, the next day you probably think to steer the ball a bit more and try to -- almost try a little bit too hard. So I think that's a psychological element to it.

Yeah, I think, especially how it's playing, firm and fast, I think today is a bit more forgiving. It's a bit softer than what it was, at least for us yesterday in the afternoon. But, yeah, the margins are really little, so the difference between a 7 under and a 2 under, it's relatively small.

Q. I'm assuming with so many boards around you probably saw Justin coming back to the pack a little bit. What's your reaction there in terms of opportunity to bring some people back into it?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I think it's expected, not because he's Justin, but you see in majors, you never see people running away with a lead that big. So, yeah, I think he's back to level par now. If he finishes level par after yesterday, it's a good round for him.