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June 13, 2014
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
Q. What was that like?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: I don't know, I haven't had time to think about it. It was quite tough, actually. It was different yesterday, probably didn't play quite as well. I still never felt like I holed any putts or anything, so that was slightly disappointing, but, no, overall just happy to make the cut.
Q. The experience at the Masters when you missed that by a shot, that must have been a heck of a relief.
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yeah, absolutely. I mean I was walking up the last trying to look for a friend, really, and see if he would tell me something this time. But I hit a good drive and then hit it to sort of front edge of the green and one of our mates just screamed, "Yeah," actually, so I presumed that it was okay. And then fortunately the electronic leaderboard showed me where I was, which was quite nice.
Q. What were your goals coming into the week? Probably making the cut versus anything else?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: No, making the cut was first priority, really. Then just to push on from there is sort of the thing that I always say when I've played the professional events so far is just make the cut and push on. So, yeah, I made the cut and now I'm trying to move up the leaderboard.
Q. How would you describe that atmosphere, the National Open, you're playing with Phil, you have a defending champ, how do you describe that?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: It was fantastic. The crowd was brilliant with Phil, they're really supportive of him. It was great to play with Justin. He was really supportive, himself. He's a great guy to play with and just a great guy in person. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it and it was nice to have such a big following.
Q. How are you able to hold back the nerves?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: I don't know, really. I didn't feel nervous on the first tee, actually, I think I was more concentrating on just trying to hit it down the middle. When I think about it, I stood over my second shot and then I felt the nerves a bit, but I never feel like it sort of affects my performance in terms of like gives me shaky hands or anything like that, just more to do with just being overwhelming, I guess.
Q. (No Microphone.)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: He is, yes.
Q. (No Microphone.)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yeah, no, actually I found out this morning that he had done it, he's double century and that was obviously very impressive. And I've actually just got his number from one of his best mates who is with me this week, so I sent him a well done and I think I've got a text back from him as I've come in.
Q. (No Microphone.)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Absolutely.
Q. How do you react mentally to a severe examination like this?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: I don't know, you just sort of just try and learn from it, just use -- probably most important is look at my stats and what I've done right, what I've done wrong, and learn from that. I think that that's -- another thing is, could I have done anything at all mentally better, really, whether that was mentally or chip better, putt better, just things like that, really.
Q. What do you think you learned from playing with Phil?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: He's great at getting out of trouble. He's fantastic at getting out of trouble. He hits some great shots from the middle of the fairway and from in the rough or in the bunker. Yeah, I would probably say he's the master at it, really.
Q. Do you feel your performance here over the first two days sort of vindicates your decision to turn pro? Do you think you've shown that you can compete at this level?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yes and no. I think I still got a bit to go. I think everyone can say that, I guess, whether they're trying to win a major, keep their card or win a first event. But for me, at the minute it's just try to keep on making cuts and taking it from there, really.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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