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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP


June 16, 2013


Rickie Fowler


ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

Q.  Conditions gradually improved over the final two rounds.  Talk about today and the ability to shoot yourself a little closer to contention, if not outright get in the top 5?
RICKIE FOWLER:  Yeah, I just didn't finish the round like I wanted to.  I felt like I got off to a decent start, made a couple of bogeys, but it's understandable on the first six holes.  I missed a few putts to kind of keep‑‑ get some positive momentum going there.  I hit it close on 6 and hit it close on 7.
I didn't close as well as I needed to, made a couple of poor swings coming in.  I've been swinging well all week, but still had a finish of a great week.  I saw a lot of positives out of it.  And I move on, look forward to Travelers next week.

Q.  When you try to finish strong, there's certain things that you want to do, certain things that you try to avoid.  Do you temper your aggression to try to get that one shot to get you over the hump or do you have to try and see what happens?
RICKIE FOWLER:  At a U.S. Open you have to be patient.  It's not one particular shot, it's every shot.  You have to give each shot a hundred percent of your focus and concentration.  I three‑putted 15.  I thought I hit a good second and made a couple of poor swings after that unfortunately.  But still all in all, it was a great week, and my best finish in an Open.

Q.  How good a host do you think Merion was?
RICKIE FOWLER:  I thought it was great.  Being here for the Walker Cup in '09 and getting a sneak peak at it that week, it played different with the rough and some of the fairway routings, and the fairways being a little narrower, but I thought it was a great test.
Obviously I think it surprised a lot of people with some of the scores.  It didn't play easy out there.  It was tricky at times.  You had to be in control of your game and golf ball.  With the guys that drove it well tee‑to‑green, you're seeing some guys out there right now coming down the stretch that have played well all week.

Q.  Do you think they tricked it up too much or do you think they tried to go for that line between being the toughest but fair?
RICKIE FOWLER:  Yeah, it's definitely‑‑ like I said it was tricky out there, these greens are old greens, they're not built ten years ago where there's not as much undulation as other places.  But that's where it's kind of fun.  It's a shorter course but it's playing long, because there's certain holes you can't hit driver off the tee.  With those shorter holes, they have to put some pins in tricky spots.  You put them in the middle of the green, you're making birdies all day long.  It's a U.S. Open, it's meant to be a tough test.

Q.  That rain came when you were coming to that tough back stretch.  Was that hard?
RICKIE FOWLER:  16, I had a little struggle with it, but it came around pretty good.  I just made, like I said, a couple of poor swings.
But I hit a good drive on 18, which felt good.  Just unfortunate to make a couple of bogeys coming in.  All in all it was a solid week.

Q.  Were you looking at the board at all, Rickie, checking to see if these guys were backing up to you?
RICKIE FOWLER:  Not a whole lot.  I try to just focus on hitting quality golf shots.  I knew early on it doesn't really matter what's going on up until the last four or five holes.  I did my best to kind of hang around.
Like I was talking about earlier, I just had a couple of putts.  Two that I can really remember that stood out were 6 and 7 to really get things going.  And hit two great putts, I thought I made them both and just caught the high side on both of them.  Those go in and get things rolling, it could be a little different.  I tried to hang in there, a couple of rough swings at the end.  But it was still a great week.

Q.  It looked like you thought you made it on 13?
RICKIE FOWLER:  Yeah, I thought I had a really good chance.  I was trying to play out there to the left and let it drift in there a bit, and landed right behind it, but couldn't see it, but the crowd reaction usually gives you a pretty good idea.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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