HUGEL AIR PREMIA LA OPEN

April 22, 2021

Austin Ernst

Wilshire Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Top 10 at the halfway point; still in the hunt. How would you assess today? A little more challenging it seemed.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, I didn't have it today. Got it in pretty well with how I hit it today. I was happy to get in under par. Would've been nice to get 18, but, yeah, I had to scramble a lot more than I had to yesterday.

Conditions are definitely tougher. Wind picked up. Swirled a little bit and gusted at times. Yeah, I mean, have a good weekend and you kind of never know.

Q. Even just the way it is right now feels tougher than yesterday afternoon.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, it's cold, too, so you kind of have to factor that into shots. Ball is not going quite as far.

And then with the wind you kind of have to trust what you feel and hope it's right.

Q. You had birdies and I think 3, 7, 8, and 10.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yep.

Q. Any of those replay in your mind tonight and give you some good mojo for tomorrow?

AUSTIN ERNST: Hit a really good shot into 10 up there about four feet and made a nice little quick downhill slider. So that was a good one.

And, yeah, just hope to be able to hit it a little bit closer tomorrow and hit a few more greens and be able to attack it.

Q. 10 and 11 seem to get a lot of the people, too.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, it's all about the tee shot. 11 gets a little claustrophobic if you take it on and hit driver. But 10, I think if you hit a good tee shot you got a wedge in your hand and you can kind of attack it.

The green is severe and you have to watch out for that on 10.

Q. Speaking of a weekend little Wilshire, you got Jessica Korda, Jin Young Ko, Sei Young Kim, yourself, Ally Ewing, Brooke Henderson, I mean, y9ou got winners stacked at this top of the leaderboard.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yep.

Q. How exciting is that when you're going to try and give chase. Going to be tough, but exciting.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, all I can do is go put up a good round and just kind of get as many birdies as I can get. I think it just shows you how good the golf course is, too.

Kind of a lot of players that you would expect to be at the top are at the top. I can't really worry about what they do. I just got to hope they don't get too far ahead of me or I've got to go really low.