THE 154TH OPEN

July 19, 2026

Marco Penge

Mixed Zone

Q. How do you reflect on your round today?

MARCO PENGE: Yeah, obviously starting out 2-over through 4, I didn't feel comfortable with the putter, and conditions were quite good at that point. Yeah, I was behind the 8-ball early on. Then obviously dealt with it great and shot 4-under from there. Really happy with the week.

Q. Did the wind get up quite a bit?

MARCO PENGE: Yeah, it did. Definitely coming down them last kind of seven, eight holes, yeah, some of the pin positions are pretty tough on the wind direction. Myself and my caddie were trying to strategically find our best way around and try and make some angles and stuff like that, and we did a great job.

Q. What did you make of some of the pin positions?

MARCO PENGE: Yeah, some of them are smelly. I think if you think about it and you can hit it in the right spot of the fairway, then you could get at them. But if you're on the wrong side of the fairway and you had the wrong side of the wind kind of playing downwind, then it's really hard to hit it close. I was just trying to get the angles where I was coming back into wind or I could turn the ball into the wind.

Q. Just a word about the crowds? Record crowds this week.

MARCO PENGE: Yeah, the crowds are so good. I feel like this is the first Open Championship I've played where maybe people know who I am a little bit more than before, and the amount of support I was getting out there, even the whole week, even on practice days, it's just a really good feeling to feel so respected and honoured, I suppose. Yeah, I couldn't thank the crowd enough for that.

Q. What's coming up for you next?

MARCO PENGE: I'm having a week off next week and then back out on the PGA TOUR for a couple of weeks before the playoffs. Hopefully have a couple good weeks in there so I can be at the playoffs. I'd love to go out and play next week, as well, but with the kind of health things that I've been going through lately, my team wouldn't let me do that. A nice couple of days at home with the kids and the family and then head back to the U.S. for a couple of weeks.

Q. Are you completely back to your best or still managing yourself a bit?

MARCO PENGE: No, I've still got some dysfunctions there that will just go over time. Body-wise, I feel really good. Just a couple of -- some days I might wake up not feeling as well as I did the day before. But we know what the answers are now and we've got things in place to make sure it doesn't go beyond that. It was great to play the last couple of weeks and play some good golf and feel like my game is starting to trend in the right direction.

Q. On the fans again, this is your fourth Open, second time playing in front of the Merseyside crowd. Is there anything different about the Liverpool fans?

MARCO PENGE: Yeah, whether it's the Merseyside crowd or whether it's because I live an hour away from here, obviously a lot of the locals from my area have come over, I just think English crowds in general, the support you get being an English player is just unbelievable, and even the support for the other guys that aren't from the UK. Yeah, I've been used to the U.S. crowds the last kind of six months, and it's a lot nicer playing in front of my home crowd than over there. Yeah, they're the best.