THE 152ND OPEN

July 21, 2024

Byeong Hun An

Mixed Zone

Q. A long time ago K.J. Choi finished tied 8.

BYEONG HUN AN: I'm the 13th. He's Sungjae.

Q. Anyway, you must be really proud of your performance. Talk me through the whole performance.

BYEONG HUN AN: Yeah, starting from last week and all the way to Thursday, last Friday Scottish until Thursday this week, I had some terrible ball striking days, which is not normal for me, I guess. I usually have one or two bad days, but leading up to those five days, it could not have been any worse. It was a pretty bad ball striking day and Thursday as well.

I was kind of not worried, but I was not in the best place, I guess. But I turned it around nicely, and Friday was tough conditions and i played pretty well, and it kind of gave me confidence going into the weekend.

Overall, I think, yes, it was a little disappointing on the last couple holes, but if I look back on Thursday rounds, if someone asked me would you take a cut? Definitely, yeah.

That's where I was. I had pretty low confidence in my ball striking tee to green, but I could not have saved it better that day to shoot 4-over. This is a tough place, and the wind is going to pick up on Friday. It's a tough round, but let's see what I can do. And my ball striking kind of showed up on Friday and into the weekend as well.

I wish it was a little bit better, but after the Thursday round, I'll definitely take what I finished at today.

Q. Do you enjoy the conditions, the test, the fans, the course? How do you feel about it?

BYEONG HUN AN: This is great. It's a great test. Especially yesterday, although I didn't play much in the wind, it was pissing down quite hard. It's only you can get it here. You don't see anywhere else, in the U.S. especially.

Yeah, I played in this weather before. I played at Dunhill Links. I played in many of the Opens. This is my tenth year Open, I think. I'm not used to this weather, but I'm kind of ready for the challenge, and I think I handled it pretty well yesterday and today.

Yeah, I don't think I would play in it every single week, but one or a few times a year, I think I can handle it.

Q. Finally, obviously the Olympics, it may not be a major, but do you see it as a big deal? Are you played the Paris course?

BYEONG HUN AN: I played it once. I played the French Open there back in 2016, but that's about it. I know a little bit about the golf course. They played the Ryder Cup there. I remember watching it a little bit.

It's such a tough golf course. It's very tight and a lot of waters here and there. For me it's a major, I think. It's just a little less field, I guess.

For me it's one of the majors. They treat you like a major winner as a gold medalist. I think that means a lot, and there are not many gold medalists as a golfer. Not just a golfer, for all the athletes, I think, gold medal means pretty big.

I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I can get some kind of medal in two weeks.