THE 149TH OPEN

July 15, 2021

Marcel Siem

Mixed Zone

Q. Marcel, a 67 to start off; how satisfied are you with today's performance?

MARCEL SIEM: I'm very, very happy. Yesterday in the practice round it felt really tough out there. The wind conditions were like today. I think off the tee you don't see a lot of fairway. I didn't get a lot of confidence out of the round yesterday, and I'm happy that I have Guy Tilston on my bag. He knows the course and he guided me around. I'm very pleased.

Q. You came into this championship having won on the Challenge Tour. Do you feel your form has continued after that win last week?

MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, I was driving it better last week, but my iron play was much better today. That was not really, really good last week. I'm still in that little dream. I had my daughter with me last week and one friend of hers. I think the positive vibes, they're still there, and I'm really, really happy.

Q. I believe it's your birthday today. Will you celebrate with a beer tonight?

MARCEL SIEM: There's no time for that. I'm going to have dinner. This week is too important. It's my 14th week in a row. I'm tired, so I might have one beer with Guy later, but a lot of sleep is really important.

Q. You were 1-over heading to the eighth hole on a course that's playing probably two or three shots harder in the afternoon. To come out at the end of it 3-under par, you must be delighted.

MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, thank you very much. I played decent before, and then on the par-5 where I made the bogey, I couldn't hit my driver further than 205 metres and I had a bit of a rough lie there. Made bogey.

But I think this is the biggest key at the moment for me, that I'm not getting that upset anymore on the golf course.

I was happy on the golf course, and yeah, I turned things around. I'm just so grateful to be here now. There's no reason to give up, and I felt my iron play was good enough to turn things around, and I'm really, really pleased to be 3-under par now.

Q. Your iron shot into 16 was something special. You must have been delighted with that.

MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, the back nine were playing a little easier for me because the wind was mostly out of the right, and I'm hitting my three quarter shots are all little hold-up fade shots. That was just a perfect setup for me, as well.

On the front nine the wind was out of the left. I was struggling there a little bit off the tee, and I was very delighted with that shot.

Q. Are you hoping that this round now might help you to kind of kick on tomorrow and over the weekend and put in a challenge for a good finish?

MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, thank you very much. It's always nice to have a good start. It takes the pressure a little bit off. I think you have to be patient on this golf course. They can set it up so tough with the flags, and just try to make as many pars as possible tomorrow and then we'll see what happens.