U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2021

Jeff Wilson

Omaha Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. So what are you thinking? You're going to the 11th hole. You're 4-under par. You're one out of the lead.

JEFF WILSON: My practice was I was so bad that I went to Milt's Golf Center this morning at 8:30 and went out and hit balls for like an hour and a half just because I go, you know what, I've got to like decompose and just try to figure it out. I came out and made some really nice putts early on. I still got pretty sloppy, but you know what, I'd have taken 70, no matter how you add them up.

Q. Then what happened in that run of bogeys? Did you lose concentration or something?

JEFF WILSON: You know what, I made 11 -- it was just a bogey. 12, I made a bad swing. I made a bad swing on 12, and I three-putted -- was it 14? Other than that, I didn't hit a bad shot off of the par-3 -- was it 15? It wasn't bad. It buried under the lip, and if it hits three feet further, it's probably 15 feet from the hole. So it wasn't bad. Really two shots, I kind of let slip, but oh, well. It is what it is.

Q. Nice shot on 17. What did you hit in there?

JEFF WILSON: I hit a 56-degree wedge. I got out there where I couldn't miss it. Well, I could have but -- (laughter). But I got up there where I didn't miss it. How about that?

Q. Almost a nice up and down there on 18.?

JEFF WILSON: I saw my lie, and I was thinking I'd take 5 now on a heartbeat. That ball could have been in the bunker, could have been over the green, down the hill, it could have been anywhere. It came out -- that was probably the best shot I hit, today for sure.

Q. Let me take you back to December. Can you tell us a little bit about the accident and what happened?

JEFF WILSON: I'm playing Valley Club in Santa Barbara, and I always walk. I took a cart because my foot was bothering me. Not paying attention, this is a MacKenzie course, so you can't see the bunkers if you're driving backwards. Not paying attention, drove off the top of about a five foot bunker, and I hit my shoulder on the wheel. As soon as I got on the ground, I knew I was like in trouble. I knew I was hurt. Went and got X-Rays the following Monday and confirmed it was broken. They had to replace tendons. They had to replace four tendons and four screws.

Really to be able to compete right now, they thought this was about when I'd be playing golf, not competing at the highest level that I can compete at.

Q. So you had four screws placed in there?

JEFF WILSON: And four new tendons, four cadaver tendons.

Q. How in the world were you able to swing a club again four months later in March?

JEFF WILSON: The first couple of weeks that I was swinging, I was hitting off tees, and it did not feel very good. It felt -- yeah, it felt terrible, and you don't know if you're ever going to be able to like hit a real shot again, but I played off tees for about a month. Played off tees for about a month, and then it gradually got a little bit better. I think I had a great surgeon, and I had a great physical therapist, I think is what the deal was.

Q. But you had to put some work into this too.

JEFF WILSON: But it's like I never realized how -- I just -- I had nothing else to do. I'm going to rehab it, and I want to go play -- I really was trying to rehab it to get ready for the Senior Amateur. If I could play in a couple tournaments before the Senior Amateur, it would be great. To be here, to be able to compete, it's pretty cool.

Q. Your caddie told me he got you out to a four ball event, local one. That was the first one back?

JEFF WILSON: Fairfield senior four ball. He actually played really well. It was fun. We play in it every year, but that was probably the last week in April, I guess.

Q. Did that -- not necessarily give you confidence, but did that tell you I'm going to be all right playing in that?

JEFF WILSON: Still I'm not very confident, and I have some issues, but you know what, I think maybe being able toe go at it and go at it hard, I figured, okay, I'll be all right.

Q. And then the last thing on that is do you have to do anything special to prepare to play with that? Do you have to do any exercises or anything?

JEFF WILSON: I've actually pushed it pretty hard this week because I hit a lot of balls and I played, but it gets a little stiff in the morning, but honestly, it's not bad. I'll take it.

Q. 70 today. What's in your mind now? Because you'll play in the morning tomorrow.

JEFF WILSON: I'd really like to come out and hit some good solid shots and let it go where it's going to go. This is a hard golf course. If you're not playing this kind of thing all the time, there's a lot of hard holes. If I can feel a little more comfortable with my swing, and hopefully I can shoot a good score.