THE 149TH OPEN

July 16, 2021

Andy Sullivan

Mixed Zone

Q. Andy, first of all, another good performance today. How do you reflect on that round?

ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, I felt like I was really disciplined out there today. Didn't really try and chase too many flags down. Just put it into areas where par was an easy score to make and you might have a sneaky chance at birdie.

I felt really in control of myself today, and it was obviously nice to hole that clutch par putt at the end there on the last hole to really make things sweeter.

Q. That really puts you in contention for the weekend. How confident are you of making a challenge now?

ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, you know, I've got to go out there and just do what I did today, be disciplined, be patient. St George's is going to through some challenges at everybody on the weekend. I'm not disillusioned by it's going to come my way. It's just going to be how I'm going to handle that challenge when it comes to me.

Q. Does it give you an extra lift to have the home fans cheering you on?

ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, massively. I really love this event at the Open. It's really special, and when the fans are here it adds that extra buzz. And with the weather out there being absolutely fantastic, there's such a buzz out there, and when you're holing putts and you get the roars and the screams, it's brilliant. You can't describe it. It's an amazing feeling.

Q. I'm just wondering, how does your mindset change playing a major versus just a regular tournament?

ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, we had this conversation a minute ago with my caddie. We had a pin on 17 where he said, You've got to put it right of it, and I put it to the right of it, and I walked off after the shot, and I just went, If it was the Irish Open we'd have probably been going straight at that, wouldn't we. He said, Yeah, that's where things have got to change.

For me, I'm much more disciplined with how aggressive I am into flags at major tournaments to what I am regular events, and I think that's something I need to learn and get better at. The best in the world are patience personified all the time. I think we just need to learn a little bit more of that. But today was definitely a bit more of a coming-of-age for me today and being patient and disciplined.

Q. Obviously two rounds, and now the lead is currently at -9 and conditions are looking like being fairly similar over the weekend. Could you at all try and predict what the winning score might be?

ANDY SULLIVAN: You just don't know. Some guys shot low scores out there today, so you never know. Whoever is leading might run away with it. You just don't know. That's the beauty of The Open Championship. You don't actually know what's going to come out of it and how the guys are going to handle it. I'm just going to have to go about my business and hope I'm there come Sunday back nine.