THE 154TH OPEN

July 19, 2026

Russell Henley

Mixed Zone

Q. At one point on Friday, it looked like you might not even make the weekend, now put yourself up on the front page of the leaderboard there for a while. Just kind of take me through how you kind of got it in gear over the weekend.

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yeah, I didn't feel like I was way off with my game the first two days. I just kind of felt like maybe I wasn't attacking the course, not enough drivers or whatever. Was just enough off to where I wasn't giving myself birdie looks close enough.

Yeah, I just felt like everything was there, but this course is tricky. I just felt like I was just enough off to not make a bunch of birdies.

I feel like I played well yesterday but still could have been better. The conditions were a little bit easier, but the course is still hard.

Today I felt like I played really well. I had one bad hole, and other than that, I played really solid. I was just kind of just hoping that eventually my game would show up and that I would get the scores that I knew I could shoot.

Q. Do you start getting a little bit more aggressive in terms of taking a little extra club, pushing a little further down on some holes?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yeah, I did, because I realised watching it on TV guys are just hitting it everywhere and getting away with it. I just started hitting some more drivers.

Yeah, I mean, some of the lines I saw off the tee this week with driver on TV and stuff, and then guys would still make par or birdie, I just realised I've got to be a little more aggressive and not go back to playing back so far.

Q. How did it feel making that run? I'm not sure if you ever felt like you were fully in it today, but just getting low, pushing yourself up there?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yeah, it was good. I didn't really think I was in it, but just because there's so many guys right around the top. It felt good to play well. Anytime you can get a good round going over here, you're doing a lot of things right. You're managing your game well. You're managing the wind well. You're managing the spin well. Everything is clicking when you can get it in the hole here. So that felt really good.

Q. Just wondering what you think of Sam; he's right up in contention. You've gotten to know him obviously well, some of the team events and stuff like that. Just your impressions of him.

RUSSELL HENLEY: I love Sam. It's been awesome to play on his team for a few years and just really since even on the Tour I've been friends with him and get along with him great. He's an easy guy to be around. He's got a lot of game obviously. He's very competitive, and he wants to win.

I hope the best for him.

Q. What is it like that we don't know about him or personality-wise what is he like behind closed doors? It seems like he has a dry humour. Just him as a person.

RUSSELL HENLEY: Something you don't know about him. I don't know, is he pretty dry on interviews or something?

Q. Just a little here and there. Some of the people I talked to says he has a dry sense of humour. Some of those team rooms, have you seen any side of him that maybe we haven't?

RUSSELL HENLEY: Yeah, he likes to give me a hard time.

Q. For any reason?

RUSSELL HENLEY: He can find any reason, that I'm old or whatever. He likes to pick on me. I think he has a great personality. I haven't really watched any of his interviews, but I think he has a great personality, and he's really fun to hang out with.