The third round of the 150th Open at St Andrews produced some brilliant golf on the Old Course and plenty of great quotes afterwards in the media centre. Here’s some of the best to set the scene for Sunday:
CAMERON SMITH (73, -12): “It was just one of those days. Unfortunately, the golfing gods weren’t with me today. I felt as though I hit lots of good putts. Just nothing was really dropping. Yeah, quite the opposite to the first couple of days, which is pretty hard to take on the chin.”
SMITH AGAIN: “I love making birdies. I love making putts. That’s what I need to go out there and do tomorrow. I need to stay aggressive. Maybe a slightly different game plan off a couple of tees and just try and make a ton of birdies.”
VIKTOR HOVLAND (66, -16): “I don’t know [if it will be a two-way shootout with Rory McIlroy]. There’s a lot of things that can happen. In these conditions and these pin placements, you can play fine and shoot around even-par, and then that brings in a lot of other guys as well. So it just depends what the conditions are going to be like tomorrow, the pin locations, and just frankly how we play.”
RORY MCILROY (66, -16): “Because it makes me play better [his new process-oriented approach]. It really does. Going all the way back to Augusta in 2011, I got out of my process. I got out of what I did for three days and it was a tough lesson. It was a really tough pill to swallow. And I went to Congressional, and that’s all I focused on all week. I sort of called it my little cocoon, just trying to stay in my little cocoon for the whole week. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do this week as well.”
Everything has led to this. Sunday at #The150thOpen.
Full tee times on our website 👇
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2022
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (69, -11): “Yeah, I mean, guys are pretty good at golf. There’s a lot of talent out here. And I’m hanging in there. Outside of a few putts going in today, I could have been a lot closer to the lead. But that’s how it goes.I hit a lot of good putts out there. They’re just dodging the cup. But looks like I’ll probably be about six shots back going into tomorrow. Never know what can happen.”
ROBERT MACINTYRE (69, -3): “I mean, last night [after his second round 74] I was sitting at the dinner table just slouched, didn’t know what to do. I was trying to eat, but I was just, I was done. I could have curled up in a ball when I finished and cried.
MACINTYRE AGAIN: “Obviously I’m wanting to compete every time I tee it up, but I’ve not mastered The Old Course yet. I don’t know quite how to play a few holes, and it’s driving me insane right now.”
JORDAN SPIETH (68, -8): “That’s why being at 8-under, I would need to finish my round and have some kind of crazy monsoon tomorrow to have a chance. Even if I shoot 8, I still think I lose by more than three. I’m in a position where shooting 7-, 8-under would have a really strong finish and I would gain a lot of momentum. There will be no give up.”
SHANE LOWRY (69, -7): “Yeah, it was a very emotional day. I felt like through the middle of the front nine I was just going along okay, not doing anything great. Obviously, 9 and 10 happened [back-to-back hole out eagles] and I felt like I was in the tournament. And did well to play my way out of the tournament from there.
UNBELIEVABLE SCENES!
Back-to-back eagle twos for @ShaneLowryGolf 🦅#The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/WF28OPAbow
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2022
LOWRY AGAIN: “Pretty annoyed and pretty pissed off, to be honest. And I keep telling myself and you keep saying all the time that you want to get yourself to the back nine on a Saturday with an opportunity to do something great. And I got myself there today and I didn’t perform. So that’s very disappointing.”
TOMMY FLEETWOOD (66, -9): “Like I said yesterday, after a disappointing first round, all I could do was kind of stick in, try to get the most out of it, stick around, and then today shoot a good round and see where we end up and go again tomorrow. Today was great. Just getting something going in an Open on a Saturday is really, really cool when you do that and you have the support. I was just really pleased with how it was going out there.”
MATT FITZPATRICK (69, -9): “Yeah, this golf course is one that you can go low round. Obviously, the only issue is most of the low scores tend to come in the morning when the greens are soft. It will be harder tomorrow. I’ll need guys to come back to me. But if I get off to a hot start, who knows?
FITZPATRICK AGAIN: “Listen, I’ve never won from seven behind before, so there’s always a first time. But I just think, looking at the golf course, how it plays in the afternoon, they’ve got to come back to me, in my opinion. It’s difficult for me to make a real charge without someone else up there as well doing the same thing. I just think that’s kind of how the golf course plays.”
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU (67, -6): “Look, I’m trying to win a major, so I’m trying to play where I can have the best opportunity to make birdie. It’s fun. I know I’m going to get booed. I have no problem with that whatsoever. If anything, it’s good banter.”
BARCLAY BROWN (77, -1): “I didn’t quite have it. And the course was playing difficult and things just weren’t quite going. So I was fighting it a little bit, like you said, especially on the back nine, then just kind of got going in the wrong direction.
BROWN on being three behind Italy’s Filippo Celli in the race for the Silver Medal: “Absolutely. I need a good one tomorrow, obviously. But yeah, of course, I believe I can do it.
