Q. You got off to a good start and it just kind of slipped away a bit. A bit of bad luck with the tree as well.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I didn't get off to -- I got to have to a best possible start, I played great the first few holes and 4-under through 8. Bogeyed 9. But I felt like I was going very well and got it back at 4-under on 12 and I was just disappointing to come down and seeing my ball is stuck up a tree. To be honest I was very lucky to find it and lucky I didn't have to go back to the tee box. But it's a bad break and something that I hope it doesn't cost me at the end of the week. But I fought hard coming in and I believe that that putt for par on the last is big. I think that hopefully I'm standing here tomorrow evening I can look back on that putt and go that was kind of the thing that kicked me on and gave myself the opportunity to go on and try and win a medal tomorrow because obviously I'm three back now, the three lads have the 18th to playing if I'm three back in the final round that's where I want to be. I came here at the start of the week and all I wanted was a chance to win a medal. A chance to go out on Sunday and be in contention. That's been in my head all week. I've got that chance now and it's very exciting.
Q. You obviously play in America all the time. What was the heat like?
SHANE LOWRY: It was warm today. Yeah it was up there with some of the hottest I played in. I was fine though, I stayed hydrated. And I always judge myself, I went to the toilet a couple of times on the course, so that's one way to look at it. I thought I stayed hydrated and I did well I thought. I'm fine. I played in this an awful lot. I think it's going to be similar to this in Memphis next week so it is what it is.
Q. Are you feeding off the medals that are being won?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's nice to see a couple of medals been come back to Ireland. We obviously it would be nice to get a couple more. Myself and Rory have a great chance to do something. It would be great to see two of us on the podium. I think that's something that we obviously will talk about over dinner tonight and we'll go out tomorrow and give it our best. Like I said, it's a huge opportunity for me to do something very special for Irish golf and Irish sport I think.
Q. You said yesterday you weren't sure how the dynamic was going to work. How was it out there?
SHANE LOWRY: It was great. I don't think the two of us played our best on the back nine. I think we probably should have shot better scores than we did. But weather there. You don't win tournaments on a Saturday, but you can lose them. So we're there. We're there going into tomorrow and we're both very excited. You can see Rory as the week's gone on the more excited about the Olympics he's getting and the more it means to him. So I'm sure he's going to go out there all guns blazing tomorrow and try to win a medal and I'll do the same.
Q. On the second hole you were having a chat over your putt.
SHANE LOWRY: We weren't consulting over any putts. We're not allowed to do that. I don't know what we were talking about. We weren't talking about that. Look, I almost felt sorry for Jazz playing with us because he probably felt a little bit left out today. Especially as the two of us got off to good starts and played quite well and he obviously didn't shoot the best score. But that's the way it is. We went out there, we competed today and he got the better of me today, which I'm not too happy about but we'll see tomorrow.
Q. Are you mom and dad staying up all night watching you?
SHANE LOWRY: I'm sure they are. It's probably now, what is it? It's 8 a.m. in Ireland so I'm sure everyone's going back for a morning nap after watching this and I'm sure everyone will be staying up tomorrow night to watch it.
Q. Does it feel different out there, compared to a regular tournament? Do you feel like you're playing for something different?
SHANE LOWRY: It feels like when you kind of -- I watch the leaderboard a lot and you kind of look where the leaders are and you don't want to get too far away from them because you know you got those top-3 spots. At the end of the day every week you're playing you're playing to win the tournament, but here especially it's one, two and three and that's it. I think obviously gold medal would be very special but just a medal here would be something very special and to be able to hang one of those around your neck would be pretty cool. So it is a little bit different and tomorrow look we have never -- well some of the guys maybe have been here or were there in Rio, but speaking for myself and Rory, we have never been in this situation where you need to go out and finish in the top 3. So we'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm just excited I can't wait to go out there and give it a good run tomorrow and hopefully do something very special.
Q. You're smiling about that. Is it easy to keep that out of your head when you're actually playing?
SHANE LOWRY: It is, yeah. You're out there like it's so hot out there all I'm thinking about is trying to keep my hands dry and keeping the sweat off my forehead and trying to hit good shots. Then try and make as many birdies as I can and go from there. And it's tough out there. It's hot and the golf course is pretty gettable, so it can get frustrating at times. But like I keep saying I got a chance to do something very special tomorrow and I'm very excited about it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports