THE 152ND OPEN

July 20, 2024

Russell Henley

Mixed Zone

Q. Can you take us through your round?

RUSSELL HENLEY: The first five or six holes was light wind, mainly downwind on the front, and not any rain. Made some birdies there, gave myself a lot of looks, and made some good putts. Then the rain just picked up and got harder and harder.

I'm very, very happy. I don't know how much better I could have played. I hit my driver as good as I could hit it.

Links golf has really humbled me as this is my 10th Open and never really feel like I've known what I was doing exactly. So today was a great round for me, and I'm just really excited about it.

Q. Talk about playing well, the first round was good too?

RUSSELL HENLEY: It was. It was. I've had a couple of good rounds this week.

Q. What do you see working for tomorrow? Different weather again, plenty of experience with the links. Kind of the attitude you want?

RUSSELL HENLEY: You've just got to be in the present moment. Each shot is just so important. Each shot requires so much focus for me personally, and I just try to do the best I can on every shot. Every shot's going to be probably different tomorrow than it was today, and you just have to be able to try to adapt and do the best you can.

Q. Shooting under-par on a links golf course is hard enough anyway. In these conditions, you must be really satisfied with that?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yes. About as good as I probably could have played. I got two good breaks on the front, avoiding some pot bunkers. Feel like I hit my lines really well. Left a couple birdie putts short right in the heart.

Overall just feel like I did everything really well today. I'm really happy about it.

Q. To go under-par on the back nine as well when the conditions have been horrid the last two hours or so, that must be an unbelievable feeling?

RUSSELL HENLEY: It is. I wish everybody had to play it like that, but that's not links golf.

Q. Has it changed your mindset playing at links golf where 1-over might be considered a good total and you have to sort of remind yourself that getting in the red and getting those low scores isn't always achievable, but today it was?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Absolutely. It's a mental battle over here. I've shot a lot of scores over par out here. I'm not as familiar with the red numbers. I'm just excited to be here for today.

Q. You mentioned you're not familiar with the red numbers here at The Open. Does that change your outlook for tomorrow? Just go out there and have fun and it's a great feeling?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yeah, I don't know how many more of these I'll get to play in, hopefully a lot. It's been a fun challenge to try to learn and figure out different ways to play these courses over here in these really tough conditions.

Q. You say you're not familiar with these courses over here. How much has that developed your game from the experience of playing Open Championships over the years?

RUSSELL HENLEY: I've really tried to take things I've done wrong and learn from them, and I've done a lot wrong.

This week I was asking Ernie Els some advice on what he did on downwind shots. Every shot is unique out here. You have to hit different shots, all different sorts of shots. Back home sometimes you can be a little more one-dimensional.

I try to be open to hitting a shot that I'm uncomfortable with because it's the right shot.