U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 2008

Sergio Garcia

SERGIO GARCIA: I felt like I played solid, not great, nothing as good as yesterday. And unfortunately I didn't make a whole lot of birdie putts, but overall a decent round. I would love to have been probably two better, get it close to even par or around even par to have a little bit of a better chance tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SERGIO GARCIA: I guess it depends on what they do, hopefully if somebody doesn't run away with it, but I think we'll finish somewhere around 2-under or so. I think I can still manage to do something.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SERGIO GARCIA: I think probably the hardest bit of the course is probably the first 7 holes today. After that you have 16, maybe 14 or something like that that are playing into the wind. But there's some good birdieable chances there if you drive the ball well. 9 is playing downwind so you can reach in two. 13 is playing downwind. 18 obviously you have to hit a good drive, but you can reach it.

There's good opportunities, but we'll see. It's the Saturday of the U.S. Open, so hopefully nobody runs away with it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SERGIO GARCIA: Like I said, I would love to be a couple better, just to make sure that I was a little closer, but like I also said, you know, every time you shoot under par here you shouldn't be too greedy, I guess. So it's not too bad, and that's what I did the last few days. Unfortunately I just had a bad start on Thursday. But I'm slowly coming back.

Q. You are able to have a bad start and come back with two solid sub-par rounds. Is this part of your game plan, you're able to recover from some earlier mistakes, is that part of the maturity?

SERGIO GARCIA: That definitely wasn't the plan, I can tell you that. But, yeah, I think that, you know, when you're comfortable with your game, when you have confidence in your game you know you can come back. Obviously my putts are better, even though I didn't make a lot of putts, I definitely didn't miss a lot of the short ones you can miss on these conditions, and that's nice. And I've just got to hopefully keep playing well tomorrow, roll some good putts in and see what happens.

Q. Nice birdie at the end.

SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. It's always nice to end with a birdie.

Q. Can you remember where there's a birdie on the 18th hole?

SERGIO GARCIA: There's always a birdie, it's just a matter of how difficult it is to make it. So -- I mean obviously it's a much easier birdie hole than we usually have at a U.S. Open, but I think it's also exciting.

I think it gives you the gamble of if you're one back, going for the green in two and trying to make maybe eagle to win it or birdie to go to a playoff. So I think it's exciting. So at least it gives you maybe a little bit more of a chance going down the stretch.

Q. How confident are you on this golf course going into tomorrow?

SERGIO GARCIA: It's getting there. Like I said, I played very nicely yesterday. I felt very, very good yesterday. Today I felt like I hit a lot of good shots, maybe not as many as yesterday, but it's not easy. It's a U.S. Open. That's why it's a Major. But I'm pretty happy and looking forward to hopefully having a good finish tomorrow.

Q. Talk about your birdie on 13 and how dangerous that front pin is?

SERGIO GARCIA: On 13, I was hoping it was going to hit the pin and stay a foot from the hole. I had a great drive just down the right side of the fairway and had 219 to the hole, a little bit downwind. I hit a beautiful, just sky-high 5-iron just straight at it, and this thing, I don't know how it missed the pin, because it probably flew about four or five feet short of the hole, straight in line, and obviously quite close to it and it probably ran about 25 feet behind the hole and made two good putts for a birdie.