THE 152ND OPEN

July 18, 2024

Dean Burmester

Mixed Zone

Q. Can you talk us through, it was quite a rally from 4-over to get it back to even par.

DEAN BURMESTER: Yeah, I don't know. A bit scratchy to be honest. I was not at my best, and really haven't been since the first round of Valderrama. Obviously the two rounds after that weren't great.

I felt kind of similar today, that I didn't have it, and then all of a sudden I hit a great shot into 12 and made the putt, and I just felt like, okay, we got a little bit of momentum. Coming downwind home, anything can happen. Then holed that bunker shot and it changed the whole course of the round for me.

Although on 17 on my second shot, blocking it in the bunker, wasn't ecstatic, but that gave me an amazing moment I won't forget. It was really cool to have a full grandstand there, and to hit a shot, have it one-bounce in the hole was cool.

Q. When you stepped into the bunker, what were you thinking? Did you see something there?

DEAN BURMESTER: I was trying to get it out was the first thing I was trying to do. It kind of bounced back on to the downslope and the right side slope. Years ago Brett Rumford said, if you're on a right-hand lie, try and draw your bunker shot, so I took that advice and I tried that, and whoop, one bounce in the hole. That's all.

But it was really tough firstly to get it out, and to get it in the vicinity of the pin was pretty cool.

Q. Did you have any kind of self-pep talk after you went 4-over, and what was going through your mind at that point?

DEAN BURMESTER: Jason and I, we just agreed this week that I'm not going to be too hard on myself. I'm not going to get down on myself. If I hit bad shots, so what. Last week that's what I did, and it ended up costing me a chance of contending at a tournament.

For us, it was just a matter of, okay, so I'm 4-over, so what, kind of thing. Then hit a great shot on the Postage Stamp, and Darren Clarke said to me, come on, go on and roll it in, and rolled it in, and he waited on the green and he said, wasn't that nice, walking off there with a 2. Yeah, that kind of changed my mood a little bit. I hit a lot of good shots from there, and some not so good. But that's links golf. You can get away with it, and sometimes you get punished.

Q. Did you have a score in mind when you teed off based on what happened with the earlier starters today?

DEAN BURMESTER: It was just hang on on the front nine. I figured if we could get in level par through nine holes, you could have a chance of shooting something under par, and anything under par is pretty good by the looks of it. Yeah, I'm happy to be level par at the end of that day, being 4-over through 7. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for tomorrow. I think tomorrow is going to be even more test by the looks of the weather. Should be fun. Scotland is proving to come.

Q. Have you ever played with Darren before?

DEAN BURMESTER: I've played a practice round with him before. I've never played in a tournament with him. What an amazing day that was. He's one of my good guys I used to watch. What a great golf swing he has, so consistent, so solid. It was really fun to be out there, and he's still got so much game. So that Champions Tour is keeping him sharp.

It was cool to chat stories and hear a lot of his Open stories and a lot of other stories. He's a super man.

Q. What was the most interesting story that you can tell?

DEAN BURMESTER: I wouldn't tell those ones. But he likes a pint of Guinness. We'll put it that way.

Q. Did you have to learn to feel comfortable on links courses or did you think right away that this was something you were going to enjoy?

DEAN BURMESTER: No, it took me a long time. It took me a good five years before I really started to be comfortable on links courses. I remember coming over for my first Scottish Open, Irish Open, things like that, back in the day, and I just had no idea. Just did not know how to -- I didn't know what to do around the greens. I didn't know what to do into the greens, how to be able to hit a 2-iron instead of trying to hit driver over here. 2-iron is going to go just as far as your driver into the wind kind of thing. Those things take time to learn, and I learnt all those and I've had some good weeks around links golf before, and I'm hoping to have three more good days here.