U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

June 19, 2021

Bryson DeChambeau

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Flash Interview

Q. Bryson, your first bogey-free round in a major at the U.S. Open as defending champion. Where does that put you heading into tomorrow?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, I was certainly glad to come away free of any mistakes today. I made a few, 7 and 14 and 18, but was lucky enough to save pars on those holes, and making a 20-footer hitting a wedge shot in there close to seven feet always helps when you're trying to salvage par.

That's what you've got to do. You've got to be really patient out here at these majors. It's something that is not easy to do. My first few goes at majors, I was not successful or anywhere near successful, and I feel like I'm starting to understand major championship golf and how to play it and how to go about managing my game, my attitude and just my patience level. If I can continue to do that tomorrow, I think I'll have a good chance.

Q. It seemed like today's setup was a little easier for some players. How much will tomorrow's setup factor into the outcome?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, if they make it hard and tuck pins, it's going to be a very difficult championship. It's going to be hold on to your horses. If they make some of the pins accessible and move the tees up like they did, you're going to have to go at it. You just have to recognize the golf course in the moment, in the conditions at hand because if there's no wind tomorrow or if there's a lot of wind, that's going to change a lot of factors, too. It's about adapting on the spot.

I think that's what's so great about the game of golf is I can take as many numbers as I want into play before a round but until you get out there on the golf course and you see and sense and feel things, you're going to have to adjust off of those numbers. That's what the beauty is of this game, and no matter how much I try and take every variable out, you're still going to have to adapt every day.

Q. 18, was there any thought when you're standing in that trap of going for it?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: It was, but it was on a side hill and there was sand behind the ball, so it rolled into the side and it didn't go straight in, so I didn't have a clean strike on the back. For me I was like, look, I can still make birdie, my wedges are great. Unfortunately, the ball came out left and then spun left off the fairway into the rough, and that was a Debbie downer. But I was still able to play it nice out of there, and ball didn't roll back like I thought, but I gave myself a chance for birdie again.

Q. I know you've been talking about it here a bunch. Just talk about the Brooksy bros out there.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Hey, I love it. I think it's so much fun. People think that it annoys me. If anything, it just creates a great atmosphere for golf. At first I didn't really know how to handle it. You're kind of thrown into a situation. But now I enjoy it. I think it's great. You've got to embrace it. There's going to be team Bryson, team Brooks out there, and hey, keep it up, I'm happy about it. I'm excited that one day we can eventually get paired up and play together. It would be fun.

Q. You hit some nice drives on the back nine, but you also missed a few, but you never seem to get in much trouble. Was that basically the game plan? Did you feel like you got a bit of luck in the rough, or is that just the way the course was set up?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, it's kind of the way the course was set up, but for me when I miss it because I hit it pretty far, I'm going to miss it off line quite a bit. So that plays kind of into my advantage a little bit more because where the people are walking, it's trampled down and you get some good lies out of that. 4 is a great example out here today. I was able to hit it close. I didn't make the putt, but again I hit it over to the right, it's trampled down, had a nice lie, and I was able to get it up on the top ridge.

Again, that was all part of the strategy. I knew that there was going to be people walking and trampling, and if it was a bad lie, I can still run it to the front of the green and hit it out from there.

That's still the game plan, and hopefully I get lucky tomorrow again.

Q. Does that mean that the Winged Foot strategy works here, and are you actually employing that the same way that you did?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I mean, well, I'm hitting driver off of pretty much every hole, depending on where the flag is. Like 14 is the only hole that I laid up on, and it was with a 4-iron yesterday, it was because the pin was back right so I wanted to give myself a chance for birdie. I knew if I would miss the fairway on that hole there's no chance I go for that pin, so depends on where they put it tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be back right, but it'll be a game-time decision again, and I think the Winged Foot play is kind of what's going on this week so far.

Q. How much different has this test been though than Winged Foot?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, the grass is completely different, so it's a lot of kikuyu, poa annua, and it's stickier, so you can't brush the club through it as easy. Sometimes you get jumpers, sometimes you get just golf shots that come out super dead. So you've just got to judge the lie really well. At Winged Foot it just seemed like they were all coming out dead no matter what. There was never really any jumpers so I didn't have to contend with that.

That would be the only other thing, and then the greens are tough to putt on. They're a little bumpy just because it's poa annua and that's part of the game. I recognize it, and you've got to embrace it. If you don't embrace it and stay patient, that's a part of the test, everybody has to deal with it. So it's all about who gets luckier.

Q. Is there some pride in facing both these tests and playing them really well?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I've really never played great on poa annua, but I've started to embrace it recently, and it's suited me well so far. Hopefully I have a great day tomorrow. I've just got to go out there, hit some great golf shots and make a few birdies early and get myself up near the leader.

Q. When you talk about recognizing the course in the moment, I wonder when you are going into a round like that and you get out the pin sheets and you see the different yardage markers, do you have your plan of attack going into it? Are you still making decisions on tee boxes?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I have a general game plan, and then when we get to the tee box we make the decision. We adjust off of whatever is going on at the present moment.

Q. And when you're standing over your drives and it looks like you are kind of psyching yourself up in that moment --

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, it's a lot of adrenaline stuff, trying to get my body in the right place.

Q. What's the thoughts? Is it the same thing every time or are you thinking different things to get into that place?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: It's about feeling it correctly, and then it's also about amping myself up, like (breathing) get myself moving and going to create a lot of blood flow that allows me to hit it hard. Because I'm just static over it and just staying there, you see a lot of the long drive guys doing that. So it's tough to fully employ it out here in Tour event golf, or major championship golf for that matter, but I try and implement a little bit of what the long drive guys do, and it's not the full-blown thing, but it's still a little bit.