U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 29, 2024

Richard Green

Newport Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome Richard Green to the interview room here at the 44th U.S. Senior Open hosted at Newport Country Club. Richard, 1-under 69 today. You're in third right now. How did you steady the ship after the back-to-back bogeys on 5 and 6?

RICHARD GREEN: Yeah, that was a bit unfortunate really. A couple of average shots into the greens and didn't really get the slopes to feed them down.

Yeah, I think it's just patience on this golf course. It's difficult in the final group to press, so I just kept saying to myself patience, patience. Wait for the opportunity to come.

Fortunately, a couple presented themselves on the back nine, so I got it back to at least giving myself a chance for tomorrow.

Q. Could you maybe talk us through those two birdies on the back nine to get you to 1-under for the day.

RICHARD GREEN: Yeah, a good drive down 14. I've been hitting the driver very well down that hole last couple of days. Set up a really nice wedge shot into the green and had perfect yardage to spin it in there.

It was a tough pin on the front, so lucky to have a good number, and the wedge stuck 4 feet left of the pin, which was nice. Then a really good putt.

16 was another great opportunity. Hit it down the fairway off the tee and hit it hybrid into the green from 250 yards, something like that. Hit it to the back of the green, left quite a difficult putt. You think you have two shots on the green, you might get a fairly, not simple two-putt, but you think it would be a little easier than that.

It was a lot of break, 8 to 10 feet left to right. Got it to within 4 feet and knocked the putt in again. I was happy to do that.

I hit a poor shot on 17 but recovered well.

Q. Did today feel like more of a grind for you than the first two days?

RICHARD GREEN: Not so much today. Actually yesterday was more of a grind actually. I felt the game was a little bit not as under control, but even those couple of bogeys on the front nine set me back. I felt like I hit the ball better, putted better. I felt better in myself.

I'm a pretty low on the stress scale. I was probably where I needed to be to perform today. Hopefully I can feel like that tomorrow.

Q. The wind seemed to shift in a different direction today than yesterday or in previous rounds. How difficult is it to adjust your game when you just don't know?

RICHARD GREEN: Yeah, it's just a matter of being -- doing a bit of rehearsal what you think the wind direction might be on the holes.

I feel like this wind direction for me is actually, being left-handed, a couple of holes it really suits me. If it's like this again tomorrow, which I think it is, I think that will be okay.

Yeah, you've just got to factor it all in and hit the ball well, as usual.

Q. Richard, you saw Fujita play today. What did you see in his game, and what's it going to take to catch him tomorrow?

RICHARD GREEN: He just didn't make any mistakes. When he was a little out of position, he recovered really well. It's going to take some beating if he plays like that tomorrow. It's going to take a good round from the guys coming from behind to catch him.

You never know in the pressure of a U.S. Open at the end of the week what might happen, but I'll just play my game and see where it ends up.