U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 12, 2003

Stephen Leaney

STEPHEN LEANEY: The course is very fair today. It played surprisingly easy in the sense there wasn't very much break and the greens were very soft for an Open, which made it a little bit easier to go after the flagsticks. I drove the ball well today which sort of set up my round. I hit a lot of greens and made two very good saves, one at 14 I think it was, and that kept the round going. I think 17, which is probably hardest par 3 we play was a real bonus.

Q. I was talking to David Fay the other day and he likes you to feel when you guys finish 18 rounds of a U.S. Open you've been through a fist fight. Do you feel like this course is that type of a course?

STEPHEN LEANEY: It has that potential because today there's not too many scores under par and there's no wind. If the breeze gets up at all I think you'll find that. I think you'll see guys pulling their hair out. It's a calm morning and it's nice to get off to a good start.

Q. I heard some of your compatriots talking about this course reminds them of some of the courses in Australia and South Africa.

STEPHEN LEANEY: It was similar in the sense you can't hit a lot of drivers. You have to think about what you're going to hit. I've played a lot of long golf courses but here it's designed -- I hit iron off quite a few holes today and 3-wood. There are some doglegs out here, but the rough is not what I'm -- I'm not really used to the rough over here but I was lucky to stay out of it.

Q. How important is it to you to come over to the States and -- contending in a major is important to everybody, but the fact you're doing it here in front of an American crowd that doesn't know your game too well.

STEPHEN LEANEY: It's nice to sneak around this way because nobody knows who I am and takes much notice, which takes the pressure off. I can play my game. The crowd was very fair today and they were nice to me. I'm sure by the end of the day they might know a little bit more about me and hopefully I can still be there on Sunday.

Q. You said you snuck one in on 17?

STEPHEN LEANEY: I hit 2-iron to about four feet there, which I guess when you're standing on a hole that's that long you just try and hit it on the hole somewhere, and I got fortunate, I caught the slope and it ran down there nice and close. The finish is very difficult. There's not a lot of birdie holes but I managed to -- the last five holes I played three under.

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