THE 154TH OPEN

July 16, 2026

Joe Dean

Mixed Zone

Q. How do you reflect on the round?

JOE DEAN: A couple good points in there. But a lot of bad, to be honest. I'm not very happy at all with how I played. Again, had a couple of good chances, on 16, seven feet and barely hit the hole; 18, just a nice opportunity for par, what would have been, and just got the read completely wrong.

Yeah, a bit of work to do before tomorrow, and hopefully I can do something about it.

Q. That must be particularly frustrating given how well you played to get in The Open?

JOE DEAN: Yeah, look, it's links golf. Some days you have good bounces, some days you have bad. Some days you have an all right lie and some days you don't. Just try and accept the rough with the smooth. Yeah, just a lot of wayward drives today and not enough putts holed. I've got a bit to work on for the rest of the day, and hopefully come back tomorrow better.

Q. What kind of score do you think is out there today potentially?

JOE DEAN: I'd be surprised if I didn't see anyone get to 6, 7 maybe. Then again, I think you've still got to have a bit of luck involved, as well, with some good bounces. I do think that there's at least 6 out there.

Q. Were you able to enjoy it when you were out there or were you just grinding?

JOE DEAN: If I were telling my friends, I don't -- there's so much pressure and there's so much anxiousness -- that's not the right word. There's just so much pressure on each shot, and obviously you want to do well. I could do with climbing up the Order of Merit on the DP World, as well, so there's that. Yeah, it's hard to take pressure off yourself, but at the same time, it's not healthy putting a lot of pressure on myself.

Yeah, we'll see. I don't know.

Q. How do you try and get that off your shoulders tomorrow to go and play a bit more attacking and carefree?

JOE DEAN: Yeah, I was speaking to Tommy on the way around, and obviously quite a few pins are tucked. I've just really struggled with aiming away from flags. It's almost like if I aim at a flag and it's tucked left, it almost feels like my body auto corrects and pushes it a little bit. But when I aim 10 yards right of that flag, I'll then push it another 10 yards right of that.

It's been frustrating today, and I've tried to play a few shaped shots and they haven't particularly gone well. Yeah, just get on the range -- I think my coach is still hanging around. I've got to try and be productive and not sort of hit reaction shots one after the other.

There's a bit of work to do. Again, we'll just see what tomorrow brings.

Q. The one on 16, very close to the pin there. Were you aiming for that, on that narrow corridor?

JOE DEAN: Yeah, I was. Just sadly I got to a point where I was like, I'm missing the green by trying to aim slightly away from the flag, so I may as well take the risk and aim at the flags, and if it ends up short-sided, I'll just have to deal with it. At least if I hit a good shot, it should be within 10, 15 feet and be a good birdie chance.

Q. Which is why you're so angry at yourself for missing the putt?

JOE DEAN: Yeah, because it was just such a simple putt. I've been pulling putts a lot. The putt 18 was similar to that putt on 16, just center, start it left and go left.

Q. I suppose if it doesn't work out tomorrow, at least you've got two more days of wedding prep?

JOE DEAN: Yeah. If I'm being honest, I'd rather have two more days at Birkdale, but I won't mind the wedding prep, so we'll see.