U.S. Open Championship 2017

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Jamie Lovemark

Flash Interview

Q. Windy day, dry course, not a bad round, was it?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, windy day, still a wet course. Played pretty easy, as you can see, the scores are pretty low. Just so much rain, I'm sure the USGA is bummed about it. Hopefully it firms up even more.

Q. There's always a strategy on how you're going to play and you know it's a U.S. Open course and it's going to be difficult. What did you think you'd need to do today after practicing this course and how did you?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, I've just got to keep the ball between the fescue. That is the biggest fescue especially when it's so soft like this. Greens are perfect, nice speed, not too fast. Obviously, it's very wide, but with these crosswinds and a lot of doglegs against the wind, it's not super easy keeping it out of the fescue. I did it a few times, so, yeah.

Q. You said it's not super easy getting out of the fescue?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: No, it's not super easy keeping it out of the fescue.

Q. I was going to say, yeah. How was it getting out of the fescue?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Not good. 80 yards max, maybe, sometimes less. I watched the kid in front of me hit it on the green from the fescue, so I think it's possible. I didn't quite see it, but it's thick.

Q. How happy are you with the round?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Pleased with my score. Going to go tighten some stuff up on the range. Anytime you shoot in the 60s at a U.S. Open, you're happy.

Q. Dru Love used the word easy and he sort of dialed it back a little bit. But is it possible that it's as easy as you would expect U.S. Open golf to be?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Most likely. I'm not sure how many inches of rain they got, but they got a ton. You've got four par-5s that are reachable because you can't really hit driver off a lot of them. It being a par 72, they're going to see some low scores.

Q. (Inaudible)?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I did. I was teeing off on -- oh, shoot, maybe No. 5. I was teeing off and I looked up and saw it on fire, and I felt sick to my stomach. I had the shakes. I felt terrible for the people inside. I didn't know what was going on. It was a horrible sight. I don't know what happened. I hope the guys got out okay.

Q. Parachuted out, one guy.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: It was a horrific scene. I've never seen a plane crash, blimp crash, anything like that. So it was pretty awful. I thought they might stop play. I don't know. It was scary.

Q. (Inaudible)?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: A decent amount. Got here on Saturday. It was so windy, I couldn't do much. The course has changed throughout the week, it was firm early and now it's getting soft, and the wind has switched around. So that's definitely helped us see different winds, different conditions.

Q. How receptive were the greens today?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Extremely, it's as soft as you can get. The mid-irons are holding pretty well. You've got to be concerned about spin with short irons, so I mean they're very soft. Chipping was real easy, too.

Q. So you expect them to get firmer and faster as you go along?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, with the forecast, it should get firmer, but I think it's going to rain tomorrow. So you never know. Hard to say.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #170 at 2017-06-15 17:54:00 GMT

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