THE 149TH OPEN

July 17, 2021

Richard Bland

Mixed Zone

Q. Richard, I wanted to ask you your thoughts on the round.

RICHARD BLAND: Yeah, not great. I played okay. I put myself in some good positions off the tee, but yeah, there's some tight flags out there, so you're kind of having to tread cautiously, and I've just not got the putting working all week. If the putter is not working, then you're never really going to do any good.

Hopefully I've saved them up for tomorrow.

Q. Is that something that can just click with the putter?

RICHARD BLAND: You know, I think I'm just struggling with the pace. Obviously they're quite undulating so you can get some very, very slow putts and just very, very hard to get it to the hole.

Yeah, I've hit some good putts, they've just not gone in. But while they probably haven't gone in, they're probably lacking a little bit of pace. I've struggled with it all week. As much as I'm trying to make myself hit it harder, it's still not the right pace. Just one of those things.

Q. Is that something now where you'll go away and have a bit of a practice or are you just going to have some food and come back tomorrow?

RICHARD BLAND: I don't know. I don't know. Tomorrow is my last game of golf for a while, so I don't know. I don't know if half an hour on the putting green is going to make a huge amount of difference, to be honest. Yeah, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.

I think I'll have some food and then see how I feel. I can't imagine too much will be going on.

Q. Obviously you're frustrated with the putting today, but can you still enjoy it a little bit being out there?

RICHARD BLAND: Oh, yeah, yeah, I loved it. Playing with Rory, the crowd was fantastic. They were cheering us on the whole way. The front nine, Rory was lighting it up a bit, so the crowd were really getting behind him. They were getting behind me, and I just couldn't -- I just couldn't get anything going.

But yeah, it's great to play in front of these kind of crowds again. Yeah, it was a real buzz.

Apart from the score, I loved every minute of it. Yeah, it was a good day from that point.

Q. Have you got a few friends and family with you?

RICHARD BLAND: Yeah, yeah, I've got a few up here. Obviously you don't really see them. I can't go and see them now, which is crazy, obviously all this inner bubble and outer bubble rubbish. But it is what it is.

Yeah, I just kind of -- and obviously today you don't really see them because the crowds are six, seven deep down every hole, so you can't pick them out.

But yeah, it's nice to know that they're here and cheering you on. Hopefully I can give them a bit more to cheer about tomorrow.