U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

June 17, 2021

Francesco Molinari

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Francesco Molinari, 3-under 68. What was working well for you today?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Pretty much everything. I can't complain about anything. I hit the ball pretty well. Putted really well. Got out of trouble a couple of times. Yeah, just a tough golf course. It's in front of you. There's no tricks. You need to grind and fight for 18 holes and then relax until tomorrow and start over again.

Q. How important is it to get off to such a good start at a U.S. Open especially?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, it's nice, especially for someone like me. I haven't played recently, so it's nice to get off to a good start, but there's a long way to go, so like I said, start over tomorrow like nothing happened today.

Q. Your brother Edoardo shot 1-under today. Do you have any friendly bet this week given you don't always play in a U.S. Open together?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Not yet. Maybe after today.

Q. Are you surprised by this at all or have you felt your game kind of trending in this direction?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: I don't know, to be honest. The times I've been healthy I was playing well and hitting the ball well at home, but then I seemed to struggle recently with injuries here and there and struggling really to get some continuity.

I don't know, yeah, I was playing well yesterday, but it doesn't mean a lot really until you do it, you prove it in a tournament. It's definitely nice for my confidence to play a solid round like that in tough conditions.

Q. Where is the here and there on the injuries? What have you been coping with?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Pretty much every part of the body that you can name, from February onwards it seemed to be a bit of a struggle to get going really. But the last one was my back at the PGA. Obviously I was there, played two practice rounds but then wasn't able to play on Thursday. It's nice to be back and feeling good.

Q. I know it had been a while since you got to spend any time with Edoardo. Can you talk about that? And are you guys sharing a house this week?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: No, we are both staying in the hotel. Yeah, it's been since Christmas 2019. You know, it's nice, obviously, to see him. Yeah, wasn't expecting the U.S. Open maybe to be the occasion, but it was great to see him play well and qualify, and yeah, nice to spend some time with him. Hopefully I can go back to Europe this summer and spend some time with the rest of the family, too.

Q. Where is Edoardo living?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: He's in Italy, our hometown in Italy, in Turin.

Q. You came over from London to California in July. This is the first time you've seen him since Christmas of '19?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, because when COVID first hit I was here. I managed to fly back to London but then obviously I couldn't fly from London to Italy, and then we moved here, and he couldn't fly here. Yeah, I don't know, it's just a weird year and a half.

Q. How often do you guys keep in touch with each other?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: We text and we talk pretty often, but obviously it's not the same, especially after such a long time. It's definitely the first time that we've been apart for so long, so nice to see him.

Q. Two Molinaris anywhere in the top 10 anywhere in a major?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: I don't know. He's the statistician. You need to ask him.