U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 17, 2020

Preston Summerhays

Winged Foot Golf Club

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Preston Summerhays, 2-over 72. How was your round today?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: It was great. First round in a U.S. Open. Had a lot of fun and played some good golf. Like you said, I shot 2 over. Just hit a lot of good shots all day.

Q. How did the course play?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: Course played great. Rough is still superthick. They firmed up the greens and made them a little bit faster to where no matter where you were at on the green, you had to play defensive and just try to get two-putts.

Q. How would you relate this to playing in amateur competitions? What's the feel like? I realize there's no spectators. What's the difference between a high level amateur competition and playing the U.S. Open?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: I'd just say the course, the conditions of the course. No amateur tournament has this long of rough, these fast of greens and these firm of greens. So just -- yeah, just the course conditions is the main difference.

Q. Did you have nerves today? In your preparation for this, did you rely on your father, who's obviously your caddie, and did you talk to Tony Finau at all about what this would be like?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, for sure. Tony the other night, he was like, Hey, Preston, just go have fun tomorrow. You deserve to be here. Just no matter what you do, it's going to be a great experience. So that kind of calmed me down a little bit.

To be honest, I was really, really nervous off the first hole. After that, I just kind of settled in and started playing my game.

Q. You had nice birdies on 11 and 6. Can you talk us through those?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: Hole 11, I hit a 7 wood off the tee and barely hit it too far into the rough and hit this open face chip 50 degree that went to about six feet, played that six-footer about two cups out, and it happened to go in.

Then hole 6, I hit my drive left into the rough, just hit a great chip to about five feet. I had a five-footer that was probably ball out and made that.

Q. Any adjustments for tomorrow?

PRESTON SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, I'll probably go to the range and hit some drives. I think just the biggest thing out here is hitting fairways. If you're in the fairway, you're going to be able to have a good look at par, which are very valuable out here.

So for me, just try to keep on hitting fairways and putting myself in position.