U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2021

Stephen Ames

Omaha Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You're in pretty good shape still here. Only two strokes out of the lead.

STEPHEN AMES: Correct.

Q. You may be a little unhappy.

STEPHEN AMES: I wasn't unhappy at all. The conditions completely changed. We were at the back end of the field, obviously, and the greens were soft. Obviously, the next thing you're going to notice is you've got a thousand footprints to putt through. That made it difficult for everybody in the afternoon, and it showed in the scores. It wasn't just me.

Q. You were grinding away pretty good there.

STEPHEN AMES: We had to grind. It was the only way to get around, yeah.

Q. What were you doing well?

STEPHEN AMES: Ball striking is what kept me in play. Putting was horrendous, obviously. Couldn't make a putt. Missed a lot of putts, hit a lot of putts, but I didn't make anything. That's the nature of the game, unfortunately.

Q. You hit a tough stretch there, 4 through 6, on your back nine. What are some of the things that --

STEPHEN AMES: Birdied 3. 4, missed a three-footer. 5, three-putted. 6, three-putted. 7, parred there. 8, missed a little one. 9, up-and-down. It was all putting. Basically all putting; that's all it was. It was the same on the back nine, my first nine.

Q. And that was the difference between the score of yesterday and the score today, it was all putting?

STEPHEN AMES: If you look at the scores, that will tell you the same thing too, it's all putting for everybody. It wasn't just me. I think you'll see that.

Q. And what do you have to do now -- here you are in the weekend.

STEPHEN AMES: We're just going to go out and play golf. Tomorrow unfortunately we've got rain coming in. So it might be a bit of a waiting game. Whenever we get the chance to play, we'll go out and play and go from there. The whole golf course is going to change now because, if the rain comes in like it's supposed to, it's going to be softer. Depending on how they set it up, it's going longer, more receptive. So it's going to be a lot more of a shootout now.

Q. How much patience do you have to have with the weather coming in too?

STEPHEN AMES: That's normal. You just sit around and wait. Can't do anything about it. That, unfortunately, is completely out of your control. So just make the most of it. I'm 12 minutes from here, so I'll probably stay there and wait, see what happens before I head to the course. That's my plan. I'm not planning on coming out here early.