THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 19, 2013

Tom Lehman

TOM LEHMAN: Really ugly golf. From the beginning to the end, just seems like I got progressively worse. Not happy with it. I was hanging in there, actually it felt like I was getting something going, and then I made a stupid bogey on 12. I had 6-iron and a wedge and I made a bogey. And then hit a pretty good second on 15 that almost went in the hole and snuck off the back bunker, and made double from there, so disaster.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOM LEHMAN: Well, you know, very. I mean, obviously I feel the fact that the course was there, if I'd shot I a good score today. I'm sure there will be good scores; the greens weren't as fast. But I hit it way better yesterday. I put the ball in position and made some good putts, and today I hit it in some really bad spots.

Q. What do you think about your play yesterday and Mark's (inaudible.)
TOM LEHMAN: Probably nothing. You know, it's a four-round tournament, so I think we'll see where we finish at the very end, but I think anybody can play well one day. I do think, though, quite frankly, that the conditions we had yesterday were so firm and so fast that experience does help. And I think there's an element of patience that really suits that kind of course we had yesterday.

Q. It was fast with Augusta, too, with Freddie and Langer and someone else (inaudible.) 58 is not really 58.
TOM LEHMAN: No, it doesn't seem that way. I think as you see it, I think when you're older the bad rounds on a difficult course like this tend to be worse than they were when you were 35.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOM LEHMAN: I think the good rounds are as good, but the bad rounds, you don't hit it as far or bring more of those bunkers into play or start to miss it a little bit. Bunkers that are out of play for the younger guys are in play for me. You kind of get it. Today is a good example.

Q. Is the course any different today than yesterday?
TOM LEHMAN: Just that little breeze is opposite. And so it kind of gives and it takes. The greens were noticeably slower. I'm not sure if they were this slow yesterday morning early or not, but they were really slow, at least starting out today. I think we all were leaving them not three feet short, but six feet short on 40-footers starting off the day.

Q. Do you like this course setup-wise?
TOM LEHMAN: I think the setup is good. The setup is really good. And yesterday's greens were as fast as they were. There wasn't one pin out there where I felt like the ball was -- I take it back, the 18th hole. The 18th hole, for the speed of the greens was a terrible pin, just because you couldn't go long. Anything past the hole was going to go six to eight feet by coming back. And I don't know if that's what you want.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOM LEHMAN: Just over that knob, so you're coming from the back of the green, you're coming up the knob and then you're going away. The wind was helping. So it simply was the speed. It got so quick, it got so fast, that there was no way to keep it close. I hit my second shot on the front of the green, and that's kind of what makes those greens so good when they're that fast, you have to really pay attention. You don't get above the hole.

Q. I think the thing about yesterday that the people that were complaining were not the younger generation (inaudible).
TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, you've got to be unflappable, no doubt about it. So to get frustrated with the greens would have been counterproductive, you know. I mean, you see it in any kind of frustration with your swing, with the lies you're getting in the rough or you feel like you got lucky and your ball went into the bunker, any kind of emotion that you just give to that works against you. So to give any kind of emotion to the greens yesterday would have been counterproductive of what you're trying to do.

Q. (Inaudible.)
TOM LEHMAN: I don't think so, no, I don't think they will be. There's only one pin out there that I see getting really nasty and that's No. 15. It's a really tough spot. It's downwind, and I hit a wedge that almost went in the hole and just trickled off to the right and ended up going in the bunker and I made 6. I'm thinking 2 and I ended up with 6.

Q. Looking back at yesterday's score, a lot of really good scores by Americans, any particular reason for that?
TOM LEHMAN: Who knows why.

Q. There are 49 from America.
TOM LEHMAN: That's quite a few.

Q. There are only 19 from England.
TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, arguably with a few exceptions, the top 49 Americans are here. You have some older guys like me and O'Meara and everybody, Calc, but you have the cream of the crop from the U.S. Tour. So say 45 of our top players, you would expect to see some good scores. You know, there's an element of that home tournament, playing in your home tournament, that can either work for you or against you. And you can either embrace it and really feel the love and draw the energy from the crowd or you feel that added pressure that doesn't allow you to perform. And I think there's a lot of that. I think there's a lot of that. I think it's more so of that here than it is in America in the U.S. Open.

Q. I think that's very true in the Scottish Open. Tremendous feeling when you're playing in a Scottish environment. There's so much pressure on you.
TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, like I said, I think there's times when it inspires you and makes you stronger. And there's other times when it works the opposite way. Look at Luke yesterday and the way he struggled. I think there has to be an element of that, him wanting so badly to play well in this tournament. And the expectations are so high and everybody is saying, this is a great course for Luke Donald, a great course for Luke Donald. Hey, it's a great course for somebody who is hitting it well. But everybody has a bad day and the added pressure sometimes isn't good.