THE 154TH OPEN

July 19, 2026

Rickie Fowler

Mixed Zone

Q. Besides the bogey, some level of satisfaction with finishing the week like this?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, a nice solid day, especially after yesterday. I got off to a nice start and went the wrong direction.

Yeah, it always makes the week nicer to finish with a good round and at least salvage a decent finish.

Q. What were kind of the main challenges this week and the things that you want to work on or figure out?

RICKIE FOWLER: I drove the ball, I felt like, well enough to be playing later today, but iron play was a little bit off, put myself in a couple shots where I shouldn't have been. Short game was below average for me.

I actually hit a lot of good putts, saw some go in. Unfortunately, had more that probably missed. All in all, I felt like everything was close.

It's a fine line out here. I don't necessarily need to go dwell on it too much and put in any sort of extra work. Just go tighten some things up a little bit.

Q. Can I ask about the 18th hole? I feel like that's maybe one of the harder finishing holes in the majors the last two years. What do you make of it and the challenge of it?

RICKIE FOWLER: Well, it's a very small and narrow landing area. You're seeing a lot of guys bail out left because that's kind of the somewhat safest option, a lot of drops from the fence over there.

Yeah, it's just tough. Even if you -- depending on what you hit off the tee, and if you hit the fairway, if you choose to hit something a little shorter off the tee, you might be hitting the same club into the green.

Par's a great score there. I ended up making a great bogey. No, it's just a hard hole.

I think, as you'll probably see later in the day depending on situations where guys are at, you may see a few more balls up that left and over by the fence.

Q. I don't know, have you been hitting driver on each day?

RICKIE FOWLER: I've hit -- I think every day I hit mini driver because primarily the wind has always been off the left. I pretty much primarily only hit mini driver when it's off the left.

Q. You've been coming out here for a long time now to The Open, to these types of golf courses. How is the challenge this week where it's a golf course that's white in a lot of places. Does that remind you of any other Open you've played in comparable to this?

RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, Carnoustie would probably be close, maybe Hoylake one of the times. I thought they did a great job with the golf course and setup this week. We saw it rewarded good play. There was plenty of good rounds and a few low ones, but it wasn't like it was necessarily just playing easy.

You still had to hit quality golf shots, make putts. Plenty of those times when guys are shooting 62, 63, 64, there was still plenty of guys shooting over par.

It's a fun place to play. I always love playing links golf because the options that you have and different shots that you can hit. Yeah, I thought it's been fun for me this week. I feel like a lot of the guys have definitely enjoyed it, at least the ones that are still here playing this weekend.

Yeah, it was fair. You knew what you were up against. You knew where you could hit it and couldn't hit it. Like I said, it rewarded proper golf shots and guys playing well. If you were a bit off, it's going to pick you apart.

Q. You mentioned the setup out there. When you have conditions like this when it's quite dry and quite firm, that also takes a lot of course maintenance from the greens staff and the greenskeepers. In weeks like this, do you ever get an added appreciation for those guys who have to get up early, prepare it for all of you, and deal with the beating hot conditions?

RICKIE FOWLER: No, they've done a great job. I know typically at tournaments, and especially majors, they bring in some extra staff. Yeah, I don't want to know their hours this week or leading up to the tournament. They do a great job at all the events we play, but especially the majors because there's a little bit more emphasis of trying to present them the proper way and make it as best as possible.

Yeah, hat's off to the maintenance crew. I know they've put plenty of hours in this week and are ready for maybe a cold one or a few after the tournament's done.