THE 149TH OPEN

July 15, 2021

Emiliano Grillo

Mixed Zone

Q. Talk to us about your round today.

EMILIANO GRILLO: I didn't play great. Somehow I kept the ball in play. I played better than I expected off the tee. I know it's really hard out there. Even though my stats would show I'm not hitting fairways, but the fairways are pretty odd, to say the least out here.

They run away from the middle of the fairway into the rough or first cut, so I'm happy to -- I struggled a little bit and I was happy to end the round even par in a major.

So I'm going away with that one.

So it wasn't great. It wasn't good. So, I'm going to away with that.

Q. Obviously you play on the PGA TOUR. Talk to us about how different it is to come over here and play links golf.

EMILIANO GRILLO: Completely different. This is whole different game. This is almost links golf in a major is different, too. I was used to play Scottish, Irish Open. It was kind of links golf here and there, but the difficulty wasn't that high.

Out here you hit in the rough you're chipping off 50, 60 yards. Greens are way more difficult. But if you -- you can't just compare golf on the PGA TOUR to this. This is completely different.

Q. Obviously in the clubhouse at even par after the first round. You're certainly not in a terrible position heading into round two. So what do you feel like you need to do out there tomorrow to advance up the leaderboard?

EMILIANO GRILLO: Again, I just need to kind of do the same I did today. Kind of get around, give myself opportunities for birdies, and try to convert those. I was able to convert a few today. I definitely left a few out there, few putts that I left short.

Ball isn't rolling really well with the wind and so many players out there, so just got to give myself chances and try it capitalize as many as I can.