U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2024

June 14, 2024

Sergio Garcia

Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 2)

Quick Quotes

Q. Even par for the championship; how do you like your position at this point, knowing that the leaders are not that far away?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I mean, obviously you always want to be a little bit higher on the leaderboard, but I felt like -- yesterday I played really well. Today I played okay. I didn't play quite as well. Obviously the course was playing tougher, and I kind of fought hard in the middle of the round there to keep it together.

But I'm still in there in a great position. I'm here, I'm on the weekend. I've been very fortunate to play, I think this is my 99th major. But I'm realizing now as I get older and you're not automatically into all of these majors, I'm realizing how hard it is to get here.

I'm very proud of how I played to get here and the way I played the first two days. It's not easy out there, so I'm very happy with it.

Q. Obviously you had the double bogey, but you came back with two birdies. Can you talk about how you mentally got yourself back into it?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. That's one of those moments where a lot of doubts were creeping in my head and I kind of stopped swinging a little bit. I just kind of talked to myself, and I said, okay, come on, we've got to try to shoot even par at worst coming in. There are a few birdie opportunities if you're hitting the ball well like you've been hitting it. So let's try to do that.

Obviously I was able to make a great birdie on 3. Felt like I should have made birdie on 5, obviously didn't. Then made a great birdie on 7, and just had a good opportunity on 9, but unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be.

Q. What do you have to do well on the weekend? Obviously you have to play well, but what do you have to do well in all parts of your game?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, this golf course is asking you to do a lot of things well. I think that you have to drive the ball very well because from the weeds, first of all, you have to get very lucky, and second of all, it's super firm, so it's even difficult to get a grip on your feet. The shots are not that easy to hit from there.

Obviously driving it well, like I did yesterday, pretty much hit every fairway. I drove it okay today, but I think I probably missed four fairways, something like that, four or five fairways. That obviously puts you in a little bit of a different spot. Hopefully I'll be able to drive it well, then be nice and confident with my irons.

Q. You said you appreciate being in these majors. You had to wait a little bit to find out if you were even in this one. Do you feel a little rejuvenated once you found out you were in it?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I felt terrible after the qualifier in Dallas because I had it in my hands twice and I kind of let it slip away. Then obviously you know that being first reserve you have a good chance of it, but I tried -- last week in Houston, I tried not to think about it because I wanted to play well last week there in Houston, and I did.

You're always hoping, but it was really nice to get that call on Monday morning and knowing that we were in. Just excited to be here for the 25th time in a row, and I think I made 20 out of 25 cuts or something like that. So I'm very proud of that.