U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2026

June 20, 2026

Keith Mitchell

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Keith Mitchell, even par round of 70 today. Can you talk us through the round out there?

KEITH MITCHELL: Yeah, it started playing really firm at the end. I hit a great tee shot on 18, and my caddie and I were trying to land it two or three short of the flag to use the backstop, and I tried to stick my tee in the ground where the ball mark was, and I couldn't even get it in the ground. There's a few spots out there that are extremely firm already. It changed all day. Depending on what they do tonight, tomorrow is going to be wild.

For today's round, just grinded, made a bunch of par putts from 3 to 7 feet, so that's what kept me in it.

Q. You're sitting in the top 5. What's the game plan for tomorrow knowing you've got a shot?

KEITH MITCHELL: Same ol'. I'm staying with a great family this week. They're taking good care of me, the Fritz family, so I've got to shout out to them, making me dinner every night. So I'll just hang with them, just go about normal routine, and try and do what we've done the last couple days.

Q. What could they do differently, faster greens, harder pins, what in particular?

KEITH MITCHELL: I haven't looked at the wind forecast, but there is some spots in the greens that are getting really, really firm. If they put the pins around those spots, it's going to be really hard to get the ball close because you're going to have to aim away from the pin to make sure it doesn't go over the green.

Just based off the last hour, the golf course can get as firm as they want it to get by tomorrow afternoon, depending on what they do tonight.

Q. Scottie mentioned before you he might watch the broadcast. I'm curious how often you guys do that, how much you can learn from that, are there certain tournaments, courses, conditions you might learn a little bit for from the others?

KEITH MITCHELL: This one is the perfect example of why you should watch the broadcast. You can see where the pins are, how the ball is reacting when it lands on the green to those pins because these greens are big but they're effectively small. The square footages are deceiving because there's so many slopes and false fronts. So when you watch the coverage, you can see where the guys are landing the ball and you can see where it rolls out to and then you can see where -- if they can get up-and-down from short side or not.

It's kind of like seeing the test before you actually have to take it.

Q. What do you think it is about this golf course that kind of suits your eye? You've been putting together some great rounds here for three days.

KEITH MITCHELL: Pars. You've got to make pars. I played good in Dallas this year, which is somewhat of a birdie-fest, which was pretty good for me because that means I'm making some putts. This week I'm making some putts for par.

I've tended to play better on harder golf courses for some reason, and it makes you be -- you have to be very disciplined, and I feel like I've done that this week, and my putter has been performing better than usual.

Q. Have you seen the meme of yourself from Thursday that's going around?

KEITH MITCHELL: It's the most accurate meme of all time. I felt exactly how I looked.

Q. Last year at this event, we had a lot of guys bunched up at the top of the board heading into the final round. Right now it looks like we could have one guy out in front. As one in that chase pack, how does that change the dynamic or how you approach the course and what you need to do tomorrow?

KEITH MITCHELL: It's not. This golf course is so hard that there's very few places you can try to make birdie. So the only way that that you catch somebody like Wyndham is the golf course start to win against him.

It won against me on the front nine when I started. Felt like I was hitting some good shots. You just get incredibly penalized.

I would say that if you play steady and you play solid and shoot 1- to 3-under, it means he's going to have to come backwards. You never wish that on an opponent, but there's no way you can, quote-unquote, go out and attack pins at a place like this. You've just got to hope you can make 30-footers all day.