THE 154TH OPEN

July 17, 2026

Mason Howell

Mixed Zone

Q. How did you feel about that round?

MASON HOWELL: Yeah, overall if you would have told I would have shot under par today, I would have been really happy with it. Just kinda stinks to finish the way I did; just off the green on 18 and ended up making bogey. But hopefully the wind blows a little bit this afternoon and maybe I can slide into that top 70.

Q. What did you notice about the differences between playing today in the morning group and playing yesterday? How did the course set up for you?

MASON HOWELL: Yeah, absolutely. Until I got to about hole 14, there really wasn't that much wind today. The greens are fresh. It's almost like playing a different golf course. You're hitting different shots. You can hit a lot of higher, softer shots. But this place is unbelievable and it's crazy how firm and fast it's already playing.

Yeah, just hopefully be here for two more days.

Q. Obviously we don't know what the cut line is going to be, but when you look back on this week so far, it must have been an incredible experience for you at such a young age. What was it like being around the top players and obviously with Tom Kim today? Did you learn a lot from watching them?

MASON HOWELL: Absolutely. These guys are really good. It's definitely cool to playing alongside them and see where my game stacks up. And yeah, the last two days, the difference in weather they played in like this morning, just pretty calm, not much going on, and then when I was teeing off yesterday, the wind was whipping. I was definitely happy with my performance over the last two days. Just hopefully it'll be good enough.

Q. Have you been able to speak to any of the guys on the range and ask for tips or something like that?

MASON HOWELL: Yeah, I mean, this is such a different style of golf than what we play back in the States. In some of the practice rounds, some of the guys I've played with, I've been just kind of picking their brains, what clubs they think I should put in the bag and also what I should hit off some of the tees. These greens are pretty easy to figure out. They're pretty flat. You've just got to get to them.

Q. What would you say is the biggest thing you've learnt from this week?

MASON HOWELL: Yeah, you've got to stay really patient. I made some really good pars today that if I let myself get frustrated that easily could have taken me out of my round. To be able to shoot under par today, that definitely gives me a lot of confidence going into this fall, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next two amateur events and starting up the collegiate season.