U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 8, 2021

David Toms

Omaha Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. A little bit of everything today in that round?

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, started off, felt really good early, but then I hit a good shot on the par-3 there -- what was that, No. 3 maybe? Three-putted. You know, just continued to hit good shots and made another birdie and was really in control and hit a great shot on 10, made birdie there. Hit a great shot 11 and missed it, and then all of a sudden I made a bad swing off the tee, I think on 12. Then I started fighting it a little bit, hit it in the rough off the tee a couple times, had a couple of mud balls. I had a mud ball on the par-5 over there, 16, during my layup, and that took me out. Then you're just trying to make par, you get in the rough. So that really wasn't my fault on that hole.

I made a couple of bad swings, but then I made two great swings on 18, thought I hit it really close and came down the front edge, front fringe, and I made it. Finished off the day on a high note. Still feel pretty good about my game.

Q. How far was that putt, and how much did it break?

DAVID TOMS: The pin was on eight, so that was 24 feet, two feet off the green, so about 26 feet and it broke about a foot. It was a good, solid putt. Perfect speed and everything. Nice way to end it.

Q. The old phrase is you can't win it on Thursday, but you can play your way out of it. Did you keep yourself in it today?

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I think so. Obviously, to me, I don't think the golf course is going to play any easier than it did the first three hours we were on it today, and we had no wind. It was soft everywhere. Greens were probably as good as they're going to be. You see some good scores. I see it only getting tougher. It doesn't mean that you can't shoot a good score on it, but I have to play better than I did today.

Q. How tough is this course when it has some fire in it?

DAVID TOMS: I didn't get to play it the last time. They said it was bouncy and really hard to hit the fairways but it played a lot shorter, which I'd probably prefer that. I hit a lot of long shots today because it was so soft. We were backing tee shots up and things like that, but it makes the fairways play wider.

I'd probably like to see it get a little bit harder. Not necessarily playing harder, but just getting faster. I'd enjoy that. I wouldn't feel like I have so many long shots.

Q. Is that the way you would like to play golf, where par is very meaningful?

DAVID TOMS: Yeah, I think you just want a good mix during the year. There's some weeks, we played Firestone a couple weeks ago, and hardly anybody's under par. Then you play some weeks where you got to shoot 18-under. But for a USGA event, they always protect par, and I think the players are used to that, they enjoy that, but they set up the golf course today where you could still make some birdies if you hit good shots, but you didn't get rewarded for marginal shots, that's for sure. That's kind of what happened to me.