Q. You spotted the guy two holes early, birdied the first two --
STEWART HAGESTAD: I didn't spot him. He just kicked my butt. The putt on 1 was sick, and so was the putt on 2.
Q. Then actually you got on a roll on 4, 5, three birdies in there. You played a pretty solid round of golf today.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, I played solid. There was a stretch on 9 and 10 where we both kind of gave each other -- I guess 11, too, where we both gave each other holes. I should have capitalized on 9, and he should have capitalized on 10, so that was a push. I don't know, I played solid.
Q. Are you starting to get a little bit more comfortable? You struggled a little bit in stroke play on the course but now you've had two more rounds on it.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Well, it doesn't help when you make a 7 on 1. You take that out, and I played okay.
Yeah, what the hell.
Q. I'm just asking the question; you shot 75. I didn't realize there was one bad hole.
STEWART HAGESTAD: I made 7 on 1, so it was kind of chaotic.
Yeah, and then I don't know, I didn't play that bad in stroke play.
Q. Well, it doesn't matter --
STEWART HAGESTAD: No, I know, but --
Q. You qualified for match play.
STEWART HAGESTAD: I played the Am here, I played the Open here. I would have thought I would have been fine and just made a mess. But yeah, I don't know.
Match play is a little different, too, though. You're more playing your own game and then reacting to what someone else does.
Q. Four matches now away from getting into rare company, joining Nathan and Jay --
STEWART HAGESTAD: That's so far away. I have to play some guy tomorrow morning. Yeah, everyone is really good.
Q. Has that crossed your mind this week, the fact that you can join that elite group of guys --
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, it's crossed my mind, but I haven't really given it a lot of thought. Listen, everyone is really good.
I talk to Nathan a lot. We're very close. To be one step closer, that would be really cool. But just go back to the U.S. Am. It's not even that you can get ahead of yourself, it's just like everyone is really good.
Q. You know what the guy that won it said.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, the same thing in 2020 when I lost to Tyler. I've lost in the semis here twice, too, and like that stinks. Both those years I was playing great and thought I had as good a chance as anyone.
The round of 16 is tomorrow. I don't know who I'm playing, but everyone is really good.
Q. Potentially two rounds tomorrow. How about the fact that you only had to play two rounds --
STEWART HAGESTAD: One round in the morning and then hopefully another round in the afternoon.
Q. The fact that the first two days of this match play was a little bit abnormal --
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, it's weird.
Q. Has it helped you in terms of your pacing?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I have no idea. I mean, I think everyone is kind of like, it's not playing A, B, C, D. We're in the high letters of the alphabet. It was certainly a little chaotic early in the week, and I know that you guys, the USGA, and both courses and maintenance staffs and management, I mean, shoot, the members didn't sign up to have their golf course for two less days, so there's a lot of moving pieces.
I think everyone is kind of just making the most of it, and whatever is thrown their way, they're just kind of trying to deal with it as best they can.
Q. You had some pretty good weather. Outside the rain and the fog this morning, this weather has been pretty nice to play in.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Pretty good, yeah. I think it's typically supposed to be pretty windy around here, and it's been fairly benign. But yeah, it's been great outside of, again, the chaos, outside of the not-great weather.
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