U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2014

Brendon Todd

Q. 79 to 69. Pretty nice 24 hours?
BRENDON TODD: Yeah, it was a nice swing today. Got back to playing my game, hitting fairways and holing par saves.

Q. What do you get big picture from this whole experience?
BRENDON TODD: I think big picture I shot three rounds in the 60s in my first U.S. Open. I've been playing well and I think it just shows that when I come ready to play and my game's on, I can compete in Major Championships.

Q. What was different for you today as far as maybe your mental tee, just at ease a little bit more?
BRENDON TODD: I was definitely a little bit more relaxed. Another terrible start with the double bogey on 2. I think really the only difference was I was able to make a couple birdies to rally back from that and get some momentum back in my favor. Then I feel like the golf course was set up a little bit more fairly today and that allowed me to maintain it around par.

Q. The guy that you played with yesterday has added a shot to his lead today. How difficult is it going to be to chase him down?
BRENDON TODD: It's going to be difficult, because shooting more than a couple under out there is always really, really hard on this golf course. But I will say, I think the setup today is going to allow birdies. I made five, I think Phil made three or four. They have got two tees up there on 3 and 13. Those are pretty easy birdie holes if you play it right. Then the par-5s are both birdie-able and I feel like on the difficult holes on the back nine, like 12 and 14 and even 15 and 16, there, the pins are accessible today. If you landed the ball 10 or 15 feet on, you could hit it really, really close on all those holes. So can you make some birdies coming in.

Q. Some of the earlier players talked about birdies being out there and it seems that held up well into the round. What was different today that maybe wasn't there yesterday and maybe not there specifically for you?
BRENDON TODD: In regards to the setup or the way I played?

Q. Well, the way you played and the fact that birdies seemed to be a little bit easier to come by?
BRENDON TODD: The pin locations made the holes more accessible. Yesterday we probably had at least 12 pins sitting on the back edge of the green. If you did hit the green, you had a putt you felt like you could putt off the green if you were aggressive with it. So that really makes it impossible to make a birdie. Today they were all sitting in the first sort of first half of the green. If you hit a decent shot to the first half of the green, you had a makeable putt.

Q. Have you seen any of the LPGA girls walking around?
BRENDON TODD: Yeah, there's been some ladies walking around.

Q. How unique is that?
BRENDON TODD: I think it's pretty cool. They get to come in and see how the course is playing, see what the setup is like, see where guys are attacking, maybe where guys are playing more conservatively.

Q. What do you think they're going to be able to do out here? I know the course will change a little bit as far as tee boxes, but what are they going to be able to do?
BRENDON TODD: I think they would shoot around par. I wouldn't be surprised if the winning score for them is maybe a couple under. A lot of people shooting between even and 5-over for the tournament.

Q. If an LPGA player came up to you and said, give me some advice on what to do, what would be a quick CliffsNotes version of your thoughts on how to play the golf course?
BRENDON TODD: I think it's probably similar to most U.S. Opens, you want to hit the ball in the fairway first, that was important this week. It probably wasn't as important as it usually is. I did see a lot of good shots out of the waste areas. I even saw Martin make an eagle on 5 out of the waste area, which there's never been a U.S. Open where you can drive it in the rough and make eagle on a par-5. So that's a little different. But then I would just say a shot in the center of the green is always a good shot out here. It's always going to give you a chance to make an easy par and potentially make a birdie. So putting the ball in the middle of the green is really important.

Q. What was it like playing with Phil on a U.S. Open Sunday?
BRENDON TODD: It was fun. It was great. I think we had more people watching us today than I did in the last group yesterday with Martin, so that was unique. It really shows how much the fans love him and how big of a star he is in the game today. It was nice to go out there and play well in front of a big crowd.

Q. You said yesterday you can't remove your experience from the score you shot, obviously you had a positive day today, now that it's over though, did this feel different than a run-of-the-mill tournament for you?
BRENDON TODD: Yeah, it did. A Major Championship, that's what we all play to win. So the fact that I put myself in position to play in the last group on the weekend in a Major, I think that's going to be a huge experience for me going forward. And then to put up a round under par on Sunday and three rounds under par for the week is a priceless experience that I should be able to really use this momentum going forward.

Q. We all make a lot of Majors versus the inside the ropes, is it that much tangibly different?
BRENDON TODD: Yeah, I would say the golf courses are always. This golf course is more difficult than a regular event. The crowds, they really seem to show up to watch golf this week compared to other events. Some events can be a little bit of a party and this event really feels like the fans are really there cheering on good golf.

Q. Did you ever envision -- I guess when Pinehurst hosted in 2005, did you ever foresee you would be in a U.S. Open at Pinehurst? Did you ever think it's so close to my home and maybe I can play there some day?
BRENDON TODD: Yeah, definitely. Because that year actually, in 2005, I missed the U.S. Open by two shots at the sectional qualifier. So I was hungry to play it that year. I was excited to have a chance to get back this year. I will say, I never thought I would play a U.S. Open at Pinehurst when the course would be brown. That was weird. I would say, actually one of the interesting things about the golf course was that they let the sides of the fairways die out. I don't know if they anticipated the grass running off of there and it becoming almost like sand, because there were a lot of times you would hit it in the side of the fairway, and you would basically be in like the waste bunker anyways, because it was so sandy.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports