BETFRED BRITISH MASTERS HOSTED BY SIR NICK FALDO

August 21, 2025

Thomas Aiken

The Belfry Hotel & Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Opening round of 66 today. You must be absolutely delighted with your day's work.

THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, it was a nice day out there. Nice to hole some putts finally. Kind of got off to a good start, which helps. I hit it pretty much give on the first two holes. It was a nice momentum-starter and kind of just built from there.

Q. You mentioned about being nice to hole some putts, looking at the distances in your round, seems like the distances in and what you were leaving yourself, you kind of took the strain off your putting game.

THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, the modern game of golf has changed quite a bit. I'm not the longest hitter anymore, so it's kind of hard to get proximity to the hole from certain distances. But the nice thing about The Belfry is they force to you hit into certain segments. Where other guys are taking less club, I'm hitting driver. So I'm getting up to where they are hitting from which kind of helps, and allows me to hit it a little closer.

So today was a good day. I hit some really good iron shots. I drove the ball pretty well. The last couple, 17, I got a little unlucky with my driver. Hit it right off the face of the bunker. But 18 was really my only poor tee shaft the day because I can't carry on the left.

All in all, very pleased with my round. You know, I think the conditions are pretty benign today for this time of year and England. I would expect some decent scores in the afternoon as well.

Q. 159th in the rankings coming into this week. What could a good week here do to really ignite your season?

THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, golf is a strange game. Doesn't feel like I played as bad as 159th. I hit the ball pretty well. Just really haven't scored. Every time I've missed cuts, it's been by one or two shots, and for guys that I watch on a week-to-week basis, you can see how bunched the scores are. If you just make the cut, you have a chance to win on the weekend. It's been nice the last couple of weeks to finally like make a couple of cuts and feel like I've had a lot of chances to score, although I didn't the last two weeks.

But today, things kind of clicked and I held some putts, and it's really the difference is keeping the momentum going and rolling a few in.

Q. Lastly, on that, looking at your form coming in, the first round you broke 70 in your last two outings and have struggled to do so afterwards. With that in mind, what's the plan for tomorrow?

THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, I broke 70 the first round in Scotland, which was a really good achievement on that golf course. We've had two really tough golf courses the last two weeks. They have been pretty brutal. So if you look at under-par scoring, try and not look at it, it's kind of like how we look at it, it's how you are hitting the ball and when you miss, how you are recovering, and everything has kind of been there. I just really haven't kept that momentum going in one facet, whereas today, everything kind of worked well. I chipped well. I putted well. I hit my irons well. So I think just stay patient and kind of keep the ball in play around here. It's so dry off the fairways but it's so soft on the fairways.

So it's very difficult to kind of get used to seeing the two differences. You've got really thick rough just off the fairway and if you miss it wide, there's hardly any rough at all and the ball runs like a hundred yards.

So the key around here is really not hitting in that thick rough, keeping on the fairway, because the greens, albeit they look really green, they don't stop as quickly as you think because they are a little spongy and it takes the spin off the ball. It is kind of hard to hit it close but hopefully I can keep doing it.