THE 153RD OPEN

July 19, 2025

Justin Leonard

Mixed Zone

Q. You've played so many Open courses. How do you compare Portrush to the rest that you've played?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I would put it in the top -- I'm not going to name names, but I'd put it in my top 3, yeah.

Q. Why?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Just the variety of holes. It's in immaculate condition, and it's just a very, very interesting and strategic golf course.

Q. Do you think that's the general feeling amongst the players?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Absolutely, yeah. I don't think anybody -- maybe depending on their play, but I don't think anybody would have harsh words about Portrush.

Q. What about the atmosphere out there? It's electric?

JUSTIN LEONARD: It's fantastic. I was here in '19 working for NBC and could sense that even from the booth. You can feel a bit of the energy and things like that. Yeah, this one certainly has it. It did in '19, and it does again this year.

Q. Obviously Rory is the big local hope out here. Can you feel everything about it out here and how much they want him to win?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, you can. You can sense it. It's kind of everywhere up here. That's quite a burden. I'm just glad he did what he did back in April so he could come here a little more free, I guess it would be.

Q. This is your first major championship weekend since 2014. What sense of pride has this week given you, and what were your emotions last night as you were thinking about that?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Not really emotions -- yes, there are emotions. Just happy that I came over here and played the way I did the last couple of days. Yesterday didn't get off to a good start. It could have unraveled pretty quickly, but I played some solid golf on the back nine.

Yeah, to come over at my experience -- and age -- and make the cut is pretty special. Then to come out and play pretty solid today felt good.

I don't know -- obviously I didn't play here for, what, eight years. I can't say that I'm going to play every year. It depends on my family and where the Senior Open is and that kind of thing. I think playing well and making the cut this week, when I do come back, I'll kind of have that great memory to think that I can probably do it again.

Q. When you haven't made a cut in a major championship in 10 years, how do you maintain that self-belief that you can come out here and compete?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think just playing on the Champions Tour and all that, obviously staying competitive. It is different. A, it's links golf, so I feel like a player like me can get around. As long as I'm hitting enough fairways and those things, it requires a lot of creativity. Sometimes you can almost throw the yardage book out the window.

That's something that I've always enjoyed over the course of my career is coming over here to play links golf. There's been a couple guys in the last 20 years -- Greg Norman, Tom Watson -- who contended in their 50s. Not that I'm in that category, but I felt like, if I came over and played well, that I'd have a chance to make the cut, and here we are.

Q. You're giving up speed to a lot of these guys out here. Are there any holes in particular where you feel you have the biggest disadvantage?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Golly, there's so many. Like 11, guys are hitting it over the corner, and I've got to play it out to the left.

Where else? 4, I'm able to get it down there, but it would be nice going in there with a 7- or 8-iron versus a 5-iron or 4-iron, whatever. I hit 5-iron today there.

There's always going to be advantage for guys that hit it farther and certainly that carry distance and things like that. They can take certain bunkers out of play that I can't, but I can use the ground and get it out there in certain instances.

The problem is when I miss the fairway. If the ball doesn't land in the fairway and just lands in the rough, I'm way back because it's only flying 250. If I can hit it in the fairway, at least then if it trundles into the rough, at least it's going another 20 or 30 yards.

I've been way behind some of the guys that I've played with on certain holes, and there's other holes where I'm there with them, where I've been able to use the ground or that kind of thing. That's what's fun about it.

Q. Do you believe you can contend in an Open Championship, and does this week change how you feel about that?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I'm not going to answer that question. I feel like me making the cut is kind of contending. Looking back on the rounds, I squeezed a lot of it -- squeezed most of the juice out of the orange on Thursday.

Yesterday if I get off to a better start and hit more fairways, I could have been a few better. Today, granted I got it up-and-down three times from 60 yards, but I also lipped out three or four times. In there, there's a score that's further up on the leaderboard than I am, but we don't play perfect world. So I try not to do that too much.

Q. How has your Northern Ireland experience been, Justin? Off 18 you got a wonderful reception there, but even just the whole experience of the week, how's that been for you?

JUSTIN LEONARD: It's been great. I'll be honest, last night was the first time I haven't eaten here at the club just because of early starts and late finishes and things like that. We walked around one afternoon in Portrush. We had dinner in Portrush last night.

Q. Where did you go?

JUSTIN LEONARD: We went to the restaurant in the Adelphi Hotel. Had a great meal and walking around. There's a fun energy obviously. I'm not going to be walking around in Portrush tonight from what I understand. No, it's been a great week for us.

Q. You're still a very popular player on Tour, that's for sure.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think people appreciate coming over here. Even when we come over and don't play well, I think there's an appreciation for former champions over here that is nice as a former champion.