U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2023

June 16, 2023

Collin Morikawa

The Los Angeles Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Three straight birdies. Get yourself within the cut line. Just talk about the round today and that stretch to end it there.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, obviously the start wasn't what I wanted and we were working a lot on the range yesterday to try to find something consistent. I knew it was there. I just had to give myself chances.

6 is obviously a very birdieable hole. I think a lot of guys I'm sure made birdie today.

But 7 had such a good bounce off that. Had to make the putt.

Then 8 we wanted to lay a little farther back. A little too far from what we thought we were going to have, so played an old school par-5.

And it was nice to get a string of birdies and make some birdies out here, knowing that I can make them, and just got to get rid of the bogeys out there and make my up-and-downs when I need to, and hopefully we can get in a rhythm again heading into tomorrow.

Q. How noticeable was the course difference wise? You played it overcast yesterday and then sun came out today and kind of dried it up. How much of a difference did you notice out there?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: You can see the bounce. A few of the greens out there are just so much firmer than others.

Hole 5, for example, is just so much firmer, and that first bounce coming in just absolutely ricochets away. I had to lay up on that hole today.

But you can just feel it. So it's kind of like a guessing game on certain holes whether they're going to rip back or you're going to have a big bounce. But you just got to hit your spots and just kind of hope and if it's, if you hit a good shot and it goes through, you take what you got and you go on from there.

Q. What are some of your takeaways from the first two rounds?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's been a grind the first two days. I kind of put myself behind the 8-ball each round starting each round and been 2-, 3-over every round and I think if we just clean that up hopefully we can post a number tomorrow and see where the weekend can take us.