U.S. Adaptive Open

Monday, July 8, 2024

Newton, Kansas, USA

Sand Creek Station

Juan Postigo

Quick Quotes


Q. Here with Juan Postigo. 5-under 67 out there. That's incredible playing. Can you talk us through your round?

JUAN POSTIGO: Yeah, thank you very much. Played pretty solid during the round. Hit driver very well. That's key here around really. If you are in the fairway you have many wedges into the greens, so we managed to scramble a few of them.

The morning was great to play golf. There was no wind at all. There was so accessible pins on the front nine.

Then the back nine the wind start to pick up. Wasn't in opposite direction to the practice days so was quite -- was not very windy but was quite a challenge to change the direction of the wind.

Made a few putts; didn't make -- just made one mistake. So very solid round. Very happy.

Q. It is your first time at this championship. What are some of your early takeaways and how much fun are you having?

JUAN POSTIGO: I love your food, guys. First of all I love your food. The players lounge with those burgers, I just love that.

Everything is very well organized. The golf course has been great. I think they've managed to do a golf course accessible to all the players in the field, which is something pretty important on this occasion, as you can see with all the players here.

Yeah, everything is smooth. So many volunteers helping us around, which is very good and very helpful. To have a referee on every single game today was very -- making things easier.

Q. And you are at the top of the leaderboard, so what is your plan coming back tomorrow and then hopefully on Wednesday to stay where you are right now?

JUAN POSTIGO: Yeah, I don't know the leaderboard very well. I know up my friend Kipp Poppert shoot 7-under I think. I'm very happy for him; not that happy for me. He's a great player. We knew was going to be low shooting on this golf course.

It's a putting contest at the end of the day for us. So it's just roll a few putts in if they want to go in and try to battle against Kipp as hard as I can.

Q. What's it like for you to be able to play with other adaptive athletes? Just everybody has different impairments here or there. What's it like to see everybody together and playing at this championship?

JUAN POSTIGO: Yeah, it's so different because when we play in the DP World Tour we just play top 10 in the world or there we play against similar disabilities, like very low shooting players.

But today playing with -- I play with a wheelchair, a woman, and they were great players. I play with a one-hand player which shoot pretty low as well this week as well. So that's great.

You can understand the greatness of the game we play, that really everyone can play the game of golf. Don't matter your disability, your age, or gender.

So I think you realize how good golf is.

Q. Does it make you can your own disability of yourself, like you said, 5-under is a great round today, but when you see other people, whether it's a cart or whatever their disability is, when you see them playing golf are you in awe of them, too, just depending on the disability?

JUAN POSTIGO: I admire all of them, really. I think they are really battling every single shot. I've seen really humble things around the golf course today, to be fair.

I played with Dennis Walters, and it's amazing how he make that big wheelchair going into everywhere, hitting out of bunkers. He had two birdies in a row. That's crazy if we think it's a man that cannot move his legs.

So it's really humbling for me. Obviously I had a very good run, but seeing those things, it's just amazing.

Q. What does a week like this do for you? Obviously it's a competition; you want to win. Do you take some just -- does it make you feel good being out here for what you guys are playing for?

JUAN POSTIGO: Yeah, I think it's -- our missions are important. We need to show everyone what sport can do, game of golf can do for them. I think that's great. That's very important.

But at the end of the day we are really selfish and really thinking about win the tournament. (Laughter.) I understand we are doing much more than that, but my target is just shoot as low as I can and try to get that trophy back to Spain.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
146096-1-1041 2024-07-08 20:46:00 GMT

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