Q. Anna Nordqvist, 3-under 68. Can you talk us through your round today?
ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah, it was very solid today. I feel like the wind got really gusty there at the turn. Didn't make a few of those holes easy, but I felt like we left ourselves in good spots. I hit a lot of great mid to long irons to, like, the 20-feet range.
A few times I felt like I either had to max out to get there or hit a three-quarter, but the three-quarter obviously I had a chance to leave me a quick down-hiller.
But I had a really good pace on the putts again today and just was very happy that it's been very solid for the first few days.
Q. This is your 14th straight appearance here at this championship. What have you learned during that stretch?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I mean, I love the majors and certainly love the U.S. Open. It's always the toughest test we have all year usually, but just trying to stay patient.
And usually I love a bit of a challenge, so coming into this week -- obviously, I had to pull out of last week, so maybe didn't have the best preparation, but I think at those times you just have to trust the work that you've been doing and the experience you might have from playing in those 13 previous championships.
Q. How are you feeling after two days of competition now, a quick turnaround given all that time off not feeling well?
ANNA NORDQVIST: Yeah, today was a little bit of rough this morning, but I was able to stay in bed until as long as I could, but just try to power through.
It was pretty slow out there. A lot of waiting, so I feel like I just tried to pace myself. Obviously, just very happy. Not trying to do much, and I didn't practice a ton the first couple of days just to kind of save my energy.
Q. Is the Grand Slam something you think about much?
ANNA NORDQVIST: No, it never really crosses my mind at all. I guess I've been lucky to win three majors so far, and it just happened so to be three different ones. Even if I would have won three of the same I would have been extremely proud of myself.
At this point it's just never really has crossed my mind. It's an amazing compliment for those few players that have done it, but I'm just trying to tee it up every week and just trying to do my best and we'll see what happens from there.
Q. We see the rain coming down now. What do you expect for the weekend? Do you think the course is going to get harder, stay the same, get a little bit easier? At this point do you start to see a score in your mind of this is what might win the tournament?
ANNA NORDQVIST: No. I mean, there are so many good pins -- tough pins out there, so if you get a little greedy and you miss on the wrong spot, you're really tough. I mean, I missed it on 4 today, and I thought I hit a decent bunker shot, and it just kept rolling, what, 20 yards off the green. If it carries a yard further, then it's probably ten feet for par.
I think this golf course is tough, and we've seen some of the pins, and if you have longer irons in, you're really going to have to be hitting good shots. It's a lot of good players out there, and I'm just going to try to do my best this weekend.
Q. Are you rooting for the rain? Would you like a whole night of pouring rain to soften it up?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I'm just happy that we finished today. I've seen the forecast, and my caddie had to caddie all the rain gear and umbrella today, but I'm just very pleased that we could finish today.
Q. Do you write down goals at the beginning of the year or small goals, big goals, and what are your big career goals that you might have left?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I don't really write it down. You know, I can dream of things. I feel like the feeling when you win a major, there's just nothing else that can describe it.
Solheim Cup is huge for me. It's something that I always look forward to, and those are my highlights of my career, so probably I would say the majors and Solheim Cup are the tournaments that get my adrenaline pumping a little extra.
Q. Obviously, people are going -- you're going to have to make birdies to go win this, but you talked about having to be conservative as well because it's a dangerous course. How do you balance the two to kind of pick your opportunities?
ANNA NORDQVIST: I felt like I've been hitting a lot of mid irons today, some longer ones. A 6-iron or 5-iron. You know, you are happy to leave yourself 20 feet, so I think it's just trying to be patient and when you have a few opportunities, maybe try to capitalize on them.
But you can't be too greedy out there because it's going -- the course is going to bite back.
Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports