U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2021

Peter Fowler

Omaha Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Just overall your impressions of your round today.

PETER FOWLER: I think it was pretty good. I drove the ball well. I think you've got to drive the ball in the fairway here to -- because the greens are really, really difficult to putt on, really slopey. You've got to be sort of hitting good iron shots, which I did early, and then back nine I hit a few poor iron shots, and it killed me.

Q. I've been hearing kind of those longer par-4s, 8, 10, 12, have created kind of a problem, but you've finished under par on those. Just want to tell me maybe your approach on that?

PETER FOWLER: Well, yeah, 10 I had a bad approach shot in there, but I chipped it up and holed a really good putt. That's a really difficult pin position today, you know. It's right on the top of a crown, so if you're left of the hole, it breaks left, if you're right, it breaks right. I was lucky.

12 I had a good drive, and then I get on -- but, again, it doesn't really matter what sort of length shot you got in, you're always going to have a heavily breaking putt on almost every green, and they're slick as can be. So it's just getting it into the right spot. Obviously, Jim Furyk is a good driver and a good iron player, so that made a good round today.

Q. Right around the even mark, is that kind of -- do you feel like you're in good position, or where do you see yourself moving forward?

PETER FOWLER: Again, if I drive the ball well, you've got a good chance to have shorter shots from the fairway rather than longer ones from the rough. I've been driving it pretty good the last couple years. I'll keep doing that and just go sharpen up on my irons. You've just got to be in the right place.

Q. Following up on that, I saw your group down here. One of you guys hit the fairway on your drive but then you were able to recover.

PETER FOWLER: This is the thing, if you miss it left on 18, it's horrible. It's thicker rough, and that's a longer shot and you've got to carry the bunker, but if you miss it -- I always try to keep it on the right edge of the fairway, and I pushed it a little bit. You've got a chance from the right rough, and you have no chance from the left rough.

That's pretty much the way around the course. You've got to be on the right side of the fairway. They're pretty generous fairways. They're not running at all. They're plugging, a lot of mud on the ball, which makes it difficult with your iron shots as well. You've got to be on the right side of the fairway so if you are in the rough, you've got a chance.