MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY DANA

July 9, 2021

Austin Ernst

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Austin Ernst who just shot a 4-under 67. Nice way to end the round with two birdies. Had a couple streaks there. Tell us how you feel you played today.

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, pretty solid overall. Missed a few short iron shots here and there, but managed it pretty well.

Started off really well with three birdies in the first four holes. Made a couple bogeys just kind of missing fairways, that kind of thing.

But, yeah, game was really solid. Putter has been feeling really, really good, so it was nice to birdie three out of last four and jump up a little bit and get a little closer to Nasa.

Q. I was going to ask that, the 10-under yesterday. She hasn't gone out so you're still very close to that. How amazing is that to put into perspective, 10-under on any course?

AUSTIN ERNST: Oh, it's a great round. Any time you shoot that many under you're hitting the ball very well and making a ton of putts. You can't do it without putting well, so you know she was making a ton of putts.

Actually looked at her stats and I saw she hit every green. Clearly she was playing great yesterday.

Q. And you were playing great today. You mentioned your putter. Was that the strength of your game today? What do you think went into the strong round?

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, I think so. I hit it inside 15 feet quite a bit, but I converted a lot of those putts.

Even on 17 and 18 I hit it to about nine feet on each hole and made both the putts. When you're making those putts, getting looks, gives you a little bit more momentum.

I made a long putt on 15, and everything other than that it was kind of inside that 15-foot range. But when I'm putting it well from that range I feel like I play my best golf because I give myself a lot looks typically from around 15 feet.

When I see those go in, it just gives me a little bit more confidence with it.

Q. When you see those go in, especially here where we have such great fans, it's good to have the fans back. What's it like coming here it Highland Meadows? I was telling someone it almost feels like a hometown event to all of us.

AUSTIN ERNST: It's great. You see fans on every hole. You normally don't get that many fans on the front nine, but they like to camp out on 6. I think the golf course is great because you can see a lot of holes. So 5 and 6 come up next to 12 and 13, and you just have a lot of the great spots where fans can congregate and see a lot of golf.

You get a ton of people out here, so this is one of my favorite places to play. It's nice to get people loud. We haven't had that until earlier this year so it's been really nice to come back and have a good full fan base.

Q. And looking ahead, I think that's going to make for an awesome Solheim Cup, too. You were at Inverness for the practice session. What was that like and why should the people of Toledo continue to support and come out to Solheim Cup?

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, Inverness looks fantastic, so I think the golf course will be amazing. It'll be interesting to see how many people come out. I know they already started their builds. Solheim is unlike any other event and you get people that don't even watch golf that can easily get behind and understand what's going on.

I mean, whenever you can support the U.S. I think everybody comes out a little bit stronger and gets a little bit louder when you're supporting your country. Especially nobody wants to see Europe win, so...

Q. Well, and you're teamed up with a European next week, Caroline Masson. What's that like for the week to come together as a team and, yeah, you're all still friends at the end of the day, but you're trying to beat the other side?

AUSTIN ERNST: At Solheim?

Q. Yeah.

AUSTIN ERNST: It's no different. It's the same thing we do here. At the end of the day I have all of my best friends are out here, but I still want to beat them every week and they want to beat me. But I think that's what makes it so great. We're all so competitive, but at the end of the day we can still be friends.