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THE 148TH OPEN

July 20, 2019

Gary McNeill

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Q. How did you feel this morning?
GARY McNEILL: It's crazy. It really is. I've kind of been preparing for it in the back of my mind for a long time. But when you get the call up it's nuts.

I slept okay last night, actually. I was up early and ready to go. I hit a few balls on the range this morning, I hit them quite well. I kept good pace and hit the ball well off the tee and hit some decent shots. The putter was a bit jiggy early on, but other than that it was okay.

Great fun. Paul was lovely to play with, I have to say. He's a great guy.

Q. What do you think you shot?
GARY McNEILL: I don't know, I had a couple of doubles. Probably around 79 or 80 or something like that.

Q. Were you looking at the leaderboard last night, 72, 70, 73, oh, God?
GARY McNEILL: How do we look at it? About half past 8:00, I couldn't change it. 73. So it was up, odd or even, toss-of-the-coin situation. I'm really glad I put myself -- I need to lie down after all that.

Q. How were you feeling on the first tee?
GARY McNEILL: I was actually okay. I went down to the range last night and warmed up a bit. I hit them okay. I hit the ball quite well this morning when I went down. I felt okay on the first tee. As soon as I took the club back it felt foreign. It was a bit low left off the heel. After that I drove the ball really well. I didn't miss many fairways after that.

It was just great fun. So many people. So many of the members are out there, friends and people that we know. So it was great. The reception was unbelievable. The players are getting out there, they must be having a ball.

Q. What was the best moment of the round?
GARY McNEILL: Probably the putt on 17. I holed a big putt across the green. I drove it on the left-hand side of the ball, way above my feet and kind of pulled it a bit left. It was on the green on the left-hand side and I holed it right across the green.

I hit two really good shots on the last hole that I was really pleased about. Got a 4 on the 18th. It was good fun.

Q. How is it playing now compared to normal member play?
GARY McNEILL: Firm. Really firm. It's long off those back tees for an old fellow like me. But the greens are fast. There's some really tough pin positions out there, as well. We got through it all right in one piece.

Q. Who was the caddie today?
GARY McNEILL: The Rocket, Paul Rodich. He's been a member here over 50 years.

Q. Would you ever imagine that you'd have a chance to do something like this?
GARY McNEILL: It happens at The Open. I've been heavily involved here with the shop and retail merchandise, and so I was linking in with the other pros at the host venues, going back three, four, five years. And one or two of them had an opportunity to do it. So they said it was a fabulous experience.

The R&A tend to pass that responsibility on to the club professional. And it doesn't always do it, might pass it on to an assistant or maybe a club champion or something like that to take care of it. Really glad I took it on. It was good.

Q. What does it mean to Portrush to have The Open here?
GARY McNEILL: Everything. Everything. It's fantastic. It really is. All that's happened here.

I've been here as club pro for almost 20 years now and right from the outset, the idea of the Open coming back here when I started certainly wasn't in the cards, and to see it all come together and be part of it as well and be part of the Championship Committee here as well, it's been amazing seeing it all come together.

And the changes to the golf course, as well. We had to make those changes to accommodate the tented village. And the holes constructed and new tees and greens. It's been incredible.

But playing the golf course there, it's a tough golf course. It's a cracker. A perfect Open day, sunshine and a bit of breeze. Lovely. Spectators are having a fantastic time, too.

Q. When was your last competitive round of golf, the qualifier?
GARY McNEILL: The qualifier, yeah. That must be two or three weeks ago now. That's the last round I played, actually. And I didn't hit balls until Tuesday night I went down to the range and hit a few shots and I hit a few shots yesterday.

Q. You're going to play tomorrow, as well?
GARY McNEILL: Yeah, well, as long as everybody turns up and there's the odd number again. If somebody pulled out injured today then I wouldn't need to do it. I'll go again tomorrow if called upon.

Q. What was that walk up 18 like?
GARY McNEILL: Amazing. I've sat up in grandstands and watched players do that. Over the years I've been to a lot of Opens. But to actually experience it, it was unbelievable, it really was. It was quite a moment.

Q. How would you describe Ricky Elliott's knowledge of Portrush? Such an asset for Brooks.
GARY McNEILL: Well, he grew up playing his golf here. And links golf courses take a while to learn. There's a lot of lumps and hollows and the ball behaves differently nearly every day out there. His knowledge I'm sure will be a huge asset to Brooks.

But Ricky, on top of that, he's a very knowledgeable person. As a player, he's a really good player, too, good junior player. But certainly he'll know pretty much every inch of the place.

The two new holes he's probably not seen very often but it could make the difference come tomorrow evening.

Q. Have you got that recorded at home?
GARY McNEILL: I hope so. Last night it was -- I was just trying to get some sleep last night.

Q. There are tons of people in town the last few days saying the effect will carry on for a long time, just the impact, the legacy, as well.
GARY McNEILL: Yeah, in Portrush, it's not that it wasn't on the map. There's a lot of people come to play golf here and we're very highly rated in World Rankings, et cetera. But I'm sure a lot of people are watching the event and watching no doubt the fantastic pictures of the coastline and the town and everything.

There's just a great feeling out there. So many young people on the golf course, as well. It's great to see so many kids out there watching the golf and enjoying the golf and potentially being inspired by the game and to take it up or even have a go of it themselves.

Q. This is an area that's always been accessible to play golf.
GARY McNEILL: We reach out -- my senior assistant, Charlene Reid, does a very good job with very young kids. Five- to ten-year-olds she does a lot of work with local primary schools. We're very proactive in getting golf into the primary schools. We're seeing so many of those kids coming through as junior members here, as well. And of course they have the opportunity to play -- first of all, on the Valley Links, which is where they cut their teeth and progress up here once they reach a good standard.

But we've got lots of public facilities, not just here at Royal Portrush. But between here and Portstewart, lots of municipal courses, places where people can tee it up and enjoy themselves.

Q. You're in the mix zone a couple of hundred yards, a couple of yards away from the champion golfer.
GARY McNEILL: It's pretty surreal. I didn't realise it was there. But I can hear the deep voice now. Francesco Molinari.

I looked back a couple of times because you're very conscious about the pace of play. The reason they bring the marker in is to keep Paul going at the sort of appropriate speed. And I looked back a couple of times and Francesco was well behind us. It's good we weren't holding him up at any point.

Yeah, it's just an unbelievable experience to be out there playing on the course with these guys at the same time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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