THE 153RD OPEN

July 17, 2025

Nicolai Hojgaard

Mixed Zone

Q. What did you think of the round and conditions and how it played today?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: Yeah, I had to grind pretty hard to shoot a score today. I felt like I squeezed the most out of it, and sometimes those days are really nice to have.

It was tricky; I thought the course was tricky. There was a lot of crosswinds, and I felt like it was tough to hit the fairways.

But yeah, the course is playing exactly how we want it. It's tricky. The wind is tricky. But if you're in control, you can make birdies out there.

Q. Were there some shots or holes where the specific wind direction made certain shots particularly difficult?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: Yeah, 11 is a tough hole. I hit a poor tee shot and got punished straight away. That's probably one of the trickier holes today. It's going to play into off the left. It's a tricky tee shot.

But there's going to be so many tricky shots out there. You've just got to go out and do your best, and I managed to bounce back pretty quick after.

Q. How many drivers do you think you hit today?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: How many drivers did I hit? I hit a handful of drivers maybe. Thinking about it, I could have hit probably a couple less or maybe a couple more. I feel like you've got a game plan until you get out there, and the wind is howling in from left and right and you've got to figure out on the fly how the course is playing a little bit. We had a game plan but there was a few times where I was like, what do we do here, because the course is firm. On 10 I hit through the fairway with a 3-wood. It's good fun figuring out this golf course.

Q. It feels like walking around like it would be hard to pick a line off the tee; is that right? There are some forced carries because stuff is so thick, but then there's bunkers that come into play. Is that fair?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: Yeah, I just feel like you're trying to avoid bunkers. You play links golf, we've got the bunkers and we say, we need to be here, we need to carry sometimes. You get away from the fairway somehow, where other golf courses you're focused on left side of the fairway. I think links golf puts you in those situations at times where you're just trying to avoid all the trouble.

I hit some poor shots out there today where I probably bailed out a bit too much, but I'm well aware now, so hopefully I can do a bit better the next few days.

Q. What were one of those times where you had a plan but then you had to change plans?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: 17. We were talking about it's a driver when it's playing into the wind, but I didn't hit many good drives in that left-to-right wind so I felt like I needed to hit a 3-wood. Hit a decent shot, just I was a bit too far right and was in the rough and got away with it. I think on the fly, you've got to feel what you're comfortable with, and definitely when you get those crosswinds.

Q. Can we get some comments on the Spider Cam technology on the 18th?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: I haven't noticed it.

Q. When you walked on to the green it swooped down to about three metres.

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: I didn't even realise it. I didn't see anything. I didn't even notice it.

Q. You are aware it's here this week?

NICOLAI HOJGAARD: Yeah, but I didn't see it, to be fair.