Player Interviews
Friday, June 19, 2009Graeme McDowell
GRAEME MCDOWELL: I'm fascinated by the major challenge in general. I think it's what we measure our games by. As you keep getting better you want to try and compete in these things as much as you possibly can. You're playing against the best players in the world on the toughest setups I've been intrigued by this setup and trying to learn hard to prepare myself as well as I possibly can and obviously get my game as ready as I can for the toughest test. So I feel like I'm learning as I go along.
Q. On a scale of 10, how are you in terms of coping with this?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Five or 6 out of 10. Pinehurst, my first U.S. Open, I was a deer in the headlights five out of 10, starting to work hard to get around these things. Obviously guys like Tiger and Padraig Harrington, major winners in the past few years, they've learned how to do it and prepare mentally for it. There's no doubt you've got to serve it up and learn how to do it.
Q. In early days for you now, how do you stick around until the end, whenever that may be?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: I've played a few majors after day one. It's not really what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to stick around for the weekend. I'm trying to position myself as well as I possibly can and compete in Sunday afternoon. That was one of my goals starting out the start of the year putting myself in contention Sunday afternoon as a major. I realize there's no point being up on the leaderboard now but you're jockeying for position posting a nice number on Thursday it's not going to hurt as long as I don't get ahead of myself mentally. I've got to stay in the present, keep doing what I'm doing all weekend and realize it's going to be a tough slog.
Q. The 63 last week, was that important to you?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Memphis last week was a great week to get my game ready. I was very fortunate to get an invite from the sponsors there, and I used the week well to work hard on my game and obviously 63 on Sunday.
Momentum's everything in this game. Confidence is everything. And coming in with a nice little number on my belt was certainly big.
Q. Watching the golf tournament?
DREW WEAVER: I'll be watching a bit of the coverage this afternoon, seeing how the guys are getting around. But I'll be putting the feet up and relaxing.
