THE 149TH OPEN

July 16, 2021

Dylan Frittelli

Mixed Zone

Q. Dylan, another nice round for you here at The Open. Can you talk us through it?

DYLAN FRITTELLI: Yeah, solid round. First hole bogey wasn't great. Massive flier and then knuckled down from there just to hold it together.

Strung a bunch of pars together. I can't remember which hole I birdied, 10, and got on the clock there on 10. That sped things up and really helped. Felt like it forced me to take less time.

Usually when do I that I play better. That was helpful. Made some birdies on the back nine. Just felt really good coming in and managed to hole the putt on 17 and 18, which I was a little bit nervy about for sure, but I'm glad they both went in.

Q. Dylan, just on today's round, you seemed to have kind of a consistent level between yesterday and today. Did you feel that it was probably similar enough to yesterday or was there an improvement or disimprovement?

DYLAN FRITTELLI: I think today I faced some adversity. Yesterday was pretty plain sailing. I was a little bit nervy the first few holes yesterday and similarly today, but I thought today I had to battle a little bit more to come back. Definitely through the back nine making the late birdies helped.

If anything, yeah, some adversity to get through that and maybe thinking about the cut line at stages and what's going on on the back nine, are other guys making birdies.

Yeah, pretty similar level. Obviously 4-under and 3-under are very similar scores. In my mind everything evens out in the end when you look through each facet of the game, but, yeah, pretty similar all in all.

Q. You must be delighted when you see there are four South Africans in the Top 10. What kind of, let's say camaraderie, will bring you all kind of together and challenge for the title?

DYLAN FRITTELLI: Yeah, it's awesome having South African up there. Louis is obviously right at the top. Myself, Danny Van Tonder, and then I guess Harding. Yeah, I think I saw Justin Harding up there. It's a good mix because obviously Louis is the OG right now, the guy that's been there the longest. Who's the next oldest? Justin Harding is probably four or five years older than me and I'm two years older than Danny, so it's a nice spread of guys to show we've got good players across generations.

If we could get in the same pairing on the weekend that would be pretty fun. Definitely make us feel at home or relaxed. At the end of the day I'm trying to beat those guys. I don't want to see them do too well.

Q. Back nine 31, that just puts you in good stead with a bit of momentum heading into the weekend.

DYLAN FRITTELLI: Yeah, for sure. It's going to be tricky tomorrow. I'm sure the wind will be blowing, some tough pins. I am sure the R&A will come up with a few plans tonight to bring the scoring down. They don't like to see low scores like this. I'm exacting some really tough pins tomorrow, and if I can just keep hitting driver down in the fairway I think the wedges will come in handy trying to get to some of those pins.