THE 153RD OPEN

July 17, 2025

J. S. Olesen

Mixed Zone

Q. I was over at Ballyliffin about a year ago when you won the Amateur, and you said that you'd got your spot at the Masters, but you were thinking you'd have to turn professional. Are you kind of thinking you made the right decision right now when you've got the lead in a major?

J.S. OLESEN: Yeah, I thought already -- I had made the decision to turn pro when I signed up for Q-school. If I got through and got a DP card, I'd turn pro. I was pretty at ease with that decision.

I think also with having gotten a fairly decent good start on DP, it's kind of helped make me feel like it was the right decision.

Q. When you came over to this part of Ireland, did your mind drift back to Ballyliffin? Did you fly into the same airport, to Derry?

J.S. OLESEN: No, we flew into Dublin actually both times, so it was the same airport. Yeah, a little bit. It's obviously a different setting and different everything, but obviously good memories from this island over here.

Q. You experienced also some weather this week, so that's going to be a big help this week I would imagine?

J.S. OLESEN: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Having played in those tricky conditions, in rain and wind like they're having now, it sounds like it's pretty brutal out there now, yeah, it's something that I'm prepared for, we prepared for, and it's obviously nice to get a round without the rain, but if we do have to play in the rain, we're ready for it.

Q. What happens the rest of the day? Will you tuck yourself up and enjoy that everyone else is out in this weather?

J.S. OLESEN: Yeah, probably. I was thinking about going to the range just for a little bit, but not in this rain. I don't want all my clubs to be soaked tomorrow. Probably just going to do some recovery and rest up for the day.

Q. When you teed it up at Burnham & Berrow a couple weeks ago, did you think it was possible you'd be the first-round leader at The Open?

J.S. OLESEN: The way I was playing, I wouldn't say it was in the cards. I would say I always feel like if I play my game that I can do well, especially around here, around links courses. Kind of shape it around with some good short game as well.

But yeah, it isn't been very good golf the last couple of months. I've been driving it well, but my approach game has been quite awful to say the least. But I think that -- I wouldn't say suits links golf, but it's been good off the tee definitely suits. You can get it up quite far with the firm fairways compared to if you land it in the rough. Yeah, it's nice.

Q. I know bogeying the last is a bit sour, but how cool is it to walk up that 18th fairway, see that scoreboard and see J. S. Olesen on there?

J.S. OLESEN: Yeah, it is cool. I didn't really look at it. I was trying to see where my ball had actually ended up. Yeah, obviously annoyed to finish off with a bogey and not getting it up in two from there. But it happens, and whether it happens on hole 7 or hole 18, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter for the full round.

Q. A lot of guys out here are turning pro younger now, at 19, 20, 21. You went a little bit later. What was the thought process about staying amateur a little longer?

J.S. OLESEN: I wasn't good enough. I was in college in the States as well. I wanted to get my degree and work on my game and played very strong fields in amateur golf over there as well, which I think helps prepare you for pro golf.

Yeah, I just wasn't good enough. I was never in college thinking I'm going to quit college and go pro now because I wasn't at the level that was required.

Q. What was the determining factor in passing up on the Masters and turning pro?

J.S. OLESEN: I'd say my age was there a little bit. I think it would have been a different decision if I was 19 at the time. But also getting out on DP has always been a dream of mine. It's what I watched all the time growing up, Thomas Björn, Anders Hansen, those Danish guys before us that are there now, so it's always been a dream. I had already made the decision before even going to second stage of Q-school that if I got through, it would be a no-brainer to turn pro.

Q. Did you watch Augusta this April gone? Did you watch it all? Did you get any thoughts while you were watching it?

J.S. OLESEN: I watched a little bit of it, not as much as probably I normally do. I was actually there on Monday trying to -- because I played the Georgia Cup where the Amateur champion plays against the U.S. Amateur champion, and we had gotten tickets for Monday. Right as we got to Augusta, we could just see everyone flooding out, and checked Twitter and it had gotten cancelled, so we never got to get in. I guess maybe that's a sign for I'll get in there as a player instead of as a spectator.

Q. Are there any particular holes with this wind direction that felt challenging or shots that were particularly hard?

J.S. OLESEN: Yeah, I'd say the start. As a lefty, the right-to-left wind isn't the nicest wind for me. I've been working on it. I thought I did fairly well on those holes. I felt like if I could make some pars on those right-to-left wind holes, that would be good, especially hole 3 with that front on the right as a lefty with the wind off the right, it's really hard to try and hit a high draw up, and it's hard to get it to really stop compared to if you can hold a little softer cut up into it.

That was a tough one, and we were in between clubs, which does not help either.

Q. How did you originally find a college in the U.S.?

J.S. OLESEN: How I got over there?

Q. How did you choose or get recruited?

J.S. OLESEN: Well, I didn't really get recruited. I started at a junior college. Whoever was the coach there at the time had messaged my coach on Instagram if he had any players that were willing to go, and I decided quite late that I wanted to go. I always thought I didn't want to go but kind of when I was half a year out of being done with high school, I was like, well, I'm not close to being good enough, and it's hard to do university and high-level sports in Denmark. It's like, we'll have to go. Then that was my only option. But worked out fine from there.