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June 12, 2014
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
Q. You survived out there.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it wasn't too bad.
Q. Did you sense the course was getting harder as you guys were playing?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it was -- the course was pretty dry. It definitely dried out this afternoon. But I thought it was set up really nicely. I thought that the greens were responding well and it wasn't out of control for Thursday, it was -- I thought the USGA did a great job setting up the course today.
Q. What do you think of your position and should it have been better or worse, based on your play today?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: You always -- it always can be better, but I'm happy with my position. I thought I played really solid. I made two bad bogeys that I thought on 13 and 15, but other than that, I played really solid. I putted well, hit a lot of good putts, and I'm very happy with the round.
Q. Were there any shots out there where you hit the green and it didn't respond the way you thought it would or it was a little more firm than you thought it would be?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, all the balls I hit I think reacted the way I thought they would. When they would land short on the up slope they don't bounce very far. If you fly it too far into the green, they run out. No, nothing crazy, though.
Q. (No Microphone.)
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, the golf course is still tough. No matter how you play it, you can make the greens really soft and it's still going to be tough. But I think the firmness was very good today. I thought they did a great job.
Q. How aggressive can you be off the tee here?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I kind of play the course how you should. I hit driver on a lot of holes, but only the short holes, 1, 3 and maybe 13 I hit iron off the tee there. But it's just nowhere to drive it, so -- but other than that, I'm pretty aggressive off the tee. I feel comfortable with the driver and I like hitting driver.
Q. Based on how Wednesday played, were you surprised how it played today?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I thought it might be a hair firmer, just based on yesterday, but I can't complain with the way it was setup. It was nice.
Q. The golf course is so different than what you see week-to-week, what's the best way to prepare for something like this?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Nothing. Just get good lines off the tee and get a good game plan around the greens. Just how I prepare for every golf tournament.
Q. You say you are playing aggressive, is that aggressive relative to it being a U.S. Open as compared to a Regular Tour event?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I'm just being a little more aggressive off the tee, playing a lot of drivers. But going into the greens definitely not. Trying to always miss it on the correct side, where I'm not short siding myself. I think I did a good job of that today and I'm going to continue to try to do that and there's, you might have a couple shots around where you can, where you feel like you can kind of attack the flag, but other than that, it's not, you don't have many opportunities to do that.
Q. (No Microphone.)
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Not really. I just, I hit some good shots, I made about a 20-footer on 1, but I hit it right where I was looking with a sand wedge. I had sand wedge in my hand and I was still aiming kind of 15 feet right and hit it pretty much right where I was looking and made the putt. Then birdied both the par-5s, but those were just good up-and-downs from just short of the green. Then the other birdie I made was about a 15-footer from just behind the hole.
Q. Did you get good reads off the other two guys. One guy was kind of on your line, the other one was to the side.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, because he was kind of coming off a hill, so I still, it wasn't really on my line, he was quite a bit left of me. Out here, a lot of times even if they're just off your line, you can't really pay attention, because your putt might do something completely different.
Q. What iron and distance did you have on 14?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I made birdie on 14. I had a hundred yards hole, I think. I hit 60.
Q. 15, how short did you come up?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I was just on the left fringe in a really good spot, I just didn't hit a great putt, left it about eight feet short. Then I just hit the next one a little too hard and burned the edge.
Q. Can you hit more drivers here than a normal U.S. Open?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: It just depends on the golf course, but I definitely hit more drivers here than I did at Olympic Club.
Q. What about Merion?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, probably. I didn't know where I was hitting it at Merion, so you couldn't see the fairway there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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