U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 9, 2021

Jacob Bridgeman

Oakmont Country Club

Quick Quotes

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: I played well. That's cool to have a tie for the course record. Course is pretty out in front of you. Tricky greens, but it's definitely gettable. They set it up today to give us chances to make a lot of birdies, and then holed out on a couple holes that were hard. Par-3s played tough.

But all around, yeah, pretty pleased.

Q. Your caddie was briefly talking to us about the eagle on 7. Tell us about the tee shot there.

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: Yeah, I mean, we dialed it up to hit over the left bunker and just hit it hard and see where it goes, because everything funnels left, and if you're in the rough it can kind of kick out.

Left rough was kind of easy chip. I hit it hard but heeled it so it kind of cut a little more and got right on line and I guess it just scooted up that path and got to like three, four feet, so that was cool.

Q. What were your thoughts on the course? Sounds like it's been a bit of a walk, but gettable today.

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: It was definitely gettable today. I don't know about the scores, but I would assume they're pretty low. I thought it was -- like I said, the par-3s, except for No. 10, the other four were over 200 yards and pins were in pretty tough spots.

I would assume a lot of guys struggle on those. But other than that, the par-5s were really gettable. Par-4s, a lot them they put in sloped areas where you can just kind of bring it right to it. There is definitely a lot of birdies.

Q. Was there a score you felt you had to shoot today?

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: No, I don't think so. I told my caddie, I said, we pretty much just have to come out here and play the game, just kind of play conservative. Obviously I had a couple more putts fall and hit it close a couple times, but if you play conservative out here you're pretty much going to shoot a good score if you don't mess up.

Q. Does today's round make Oakmont tomorrow a little less intimidating since you're at the top of the leaderboard?

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: It should, yes. We're going to do the same thing, see what we can do. Yeah, this one definitely helps.

Q. You don't have any Western Pennsylvania ties, do you?

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: No, I do not. No, sir.

Q. What's your experience with Oakmont? Played it much before?

JACOB BRIDGEMAN: First time yesterday. It's a big course. It's really complex, hard to learn. I kind of wish I had a week to prepare like the guys do for the Open.

Yeah, we got as much done as we could in one day; see how we do tomorrow.