THE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

June 13, 2022

Haydn Hopewell

Quick Quotes

Q. 4-under here to start The Amateur championship playing at St Annes Old Links. Are you happy with that performance today?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: Yeah, I'm very happy with that. Considering I've been pretty sick the last three or four days. I was in bed two days ago. So just to get out on the course and make some good swings out there, and to get a good round to go, even though the course is firming up pretty nicely, a little bit of wind out there but I'm very happy with the 4-under.

Q. What's been wrong?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: I don't know. I think just a bit of the flu. A lot of the Aussie guys, it's been going around last couple weeks, so I caught it at the wrong time. Got a lot of Nurofen, a lot of Vitamin D, Vitamin C, so we're not too bad now.

Q. You put yourself in nice position heading over to Lytham tomorrow. Do you feel like you have a bit of breathing space being so high up the leaderboard after the first round?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: Yeah, definitely. When I seen my tee times and the draw, I was happy with that. I can go and post a good score out here, which I have, which I'm happy about. Now I can head over to Lytham and feel just a little bit more comfortable out there playing. It was a challenging course but a little breathing space is nice.

Q. Obviously we're heeding into the match play stages and I know you play a lot of match play in Australia. Do you feel like that gives you a good base to work from this week?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: Yes and no. I think we do play a lot of match-play tournaments in Australia, and like Men's Interstate Series, we come off that a month ago. So match play is still in the back of the mind.

But all these players, they still play tournaments and they have that match-play experience. I think it's pretty even across the board.

Q. Thoughts on the courses and are they to your liking? Obviously it's a bit different when you come over and play links golf.

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: This is my first time in England, first time links golf. So yeah, it's very windy and I guess I have to stay out of the pot bunkers which I managed to avoid all of them which I was stoked about. It's interesting golf. You have to really think your way around.

But yeah, just sort of same thing tomorrow and avoid the bunkers, and I think I'll be all right.

Q. Aside from successfully avoiding the bunkers, what were the highlights for out there today?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: I started off hot. I started birdie, par, birdie, which was nice just to get like a good momentum out there going. I hit a lot of good iron shots into greens and probably the shot that sticks in my mind the most is the putt into 12. It was about 35, 40 feet and went straight in the centre.

Q. Always makes things feel nice, doesn't it?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: Yeah, it does.

Q. You mentioned the other Aussie players, we have a big Australian contingent here this week. Is it nice to have camaraderie amongst the boys and be travelling together?

HAYDEN HOPEWELL: Yes, it is. There's not too many events where there's 12 Aussie guys travelling with you. It's good to just chat, relax, have fun and just play some golf.