THE 154TH OPEN

July 16, 2026

MJ Daffue

Mixed Zone

Q. Great start for you. 3-under today. How does it feel?

MJ DAFFUE: Tiring. It felt like it took forever out there. Played a nice pace of play and then just hit a wall.

Yeah, I guess that's what links golf does. If you focus what you need to focus on on every shot, it wears you out because it's like constant going. You can never relax.

Yeah, it was a good day. I honestly made a few more putts because I had a lot of good looks. But trying to stay patient and understand that maybe you got lucky here, so it's a give and take with links golf. But yeah, good start.

Q. Got off to a slow start and caught some heat there on 6, 7, and 8.

MJ DAFFUE: Yeah, great. On 3 I had a good look. On 4 I missed a short one. On 5 I missed a short one. But I was rolling good putts.

So on 6, kind of matched the line and the speed exactly like I wanted, then made a long run on 7 again and then hit it really close on 8.

Obviously that's how the game works. If you stay patient and keep doing the right things, it will come together. Yeah, it's tough not to just try to hold on, but keep your foot on.

Yeah, the wind picked up and swirled all different directions. It was a tricky day.

Q. How satisfying is it for you to be at this stage considering everything that's happened in your career? Winning on the Sunshine Tour and now you're competing in major championships.

MJ DAFFUE: Yes, super satisfying. Even when you're not playing well and when you're struggling with injuries and things aren't going your way, you're always working to get to this spot and try to win these events. It's all about having a good team, having a great wife, just making sure you get up every day and doing the right things.

Yeah, it's not always easy, the travel. You miss your family and you're all over the world. But it's a lifestyle, and you have to commit. I love it. I love playing these tournaments.

Q. You talked about playing on different Tours across the world. When you come to a links setup like this, do you change anything in the setup in your bag?

MJ DAFFUE: Yeah, I added one club. I added the driving iron. The links golf will have you use your imagination in a different way, but I don't think you have to change too much. I think you stick with committing to shots, and then when you get out of position, you can then rely on your imagination.

I think that's what links golf does to me. It activates a different part of my brain and just gives me the imagination part of things.

Q. What does it mean to you to qualify for this at this point in your career?

MJ DAFFUE: It means a lot. I just watched this tournament growing up. I feel like I should be way further along in my career than I have been, but certain things you don't have control over -- infection in your finger, bone disease, certain things you don't have control over.

I just think that, like Justin Rose is showing, if you do the right thing, what is an age? What does career mean? I'm 37. That doesn't mean anything. If I can stay fit and if I can -- I mean, careers are different, but you look at Rory is my age. He's obviously a superstar, but I'm not comparing myself to him, but like it's still doable. You look how good he is right now. So it's doable if I can keep doing the right things and work hard.

Right now I'm happy where I'm at. I'm enjoying golf again. I'm enjoying the challenge. Yeah, I think I'm playing golf from a gratitude standpoint right now, from playing well and then struggling and then playing well and then struggling. You can never take it for granted.

Q. How difficult were the last couple of years?

MJ DAFFUE: The thing is I played a lot of golf. I played a lot of golf tournaments, but it was always searching. My swing got so off, confidence got off, always playing with pain. Yeah, it's easy to give up. Starting this year, I had nothing, like seriously nothing. All I had was belief and know there's things that I've been working on.

Yeah, there's big props right now. To be honest, the Sunshine Tour, they gave me all the invites to go play, and I took advantage of it. I am here because of the kick start they gave me. There's a lot of great people around the world and a lot of people that help out. I have a great team and a lot of people that's helped me throughout my career.

It's props to everybody. It's me reaching out and then me saying thank you and using it, you know.