THE 149TH OPEN

July 18, 2021

Jonathan Thomson

Mixed Zone

Q. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us. Just a thought on the round. You started with a birdie and ended with a birdie. You pretty pleased with what you did today?

JONATHAN THOMSON: Yeah, very pleased. I've taken -- I've got to take a lot of momentum now going forward. I played some awesome golf over the weekend. Certainly I haven't got the best out of my game, but it's tough out there. It's clearly set up like a major, obviously, my first experience with it, but the pins were tough, and it's really starting to firm up just nicely out there for them as well. It's playing more like it's true links, and it's been a great, great event for me.

Q. It's given you a little bit of extra belief, hasn't it, that you belong in this company and you can get back here?

JONATHAN THOMSON: Yeah, absolutely. I think I've played with two of the best players in the world over the weekend. I managed to hold my own and made myself realize that, yeah, I can be here again. I've been on Tour and lost in a playoff once, and I think hopefully this is the start of the comeback. Yeah, I'm really excited going forward now.

Q. When you've played, obviously, in a major like that, do you go away, or are you the sort of player that goes away and reflects on things you can do better, things you can improve on? Or do you think your game's there and it's just about consistency?

JONATHAN THOMSON: Yeah, I think to get better. I think every professional will turn around and say analyze it a little with your team and see where I can fractionally improve. I was really, really pleased with the way I was hitting the ball, and probably put too much emphasis on the putting over the weekend, but it was tough to get back to the flags, and you weren't really getting in close.

So, yeah, I will go back, I'll analyze, and try to get better in certain areas, but that's all part of the job really.

Q. And I guess one of the really special memories you're going to take from this is that hole-in-one on 16. How do you look back on that a few days on?

JONATHAN THOMSON: Yeah, I mean, it's awesome, but I've had to put it in a box and not think about it really. Certainly going to stick with me forever. What a great experience in your first major to do something like that. So onwards and upwards.

Q. What's coming up for you now? What's the next event you're going to play in?

JONATHAN THOMSON: I'm not sure right now it's meant to be. I'm going to Italy, but I don't know if the plan's going to change ever so slightly. We'll see. But for the foremost, I'm going to be sort of getting my head down on the challenge Tour, trying to get my European Tour card back.