GRAEME McDOWELL: I'm happy with the fight. It was tough to keep the momentum going with the breaks. I just asked Joaco's caddie what they did in the second break because whatever they did was good.
Listen, it's hard to play loose when you need it, when you kind of haven't been there for a while. But I was really happy the way I composed myself generally today. Drove the ball great. I felt pretty comfortable out there.
Hopefully a big summer ahead, and like I said in the presser, been so disappointed with my general performance on LIV this to point, this is what I expect of myself still. Really nice to get the juices flowing a little bit. I'm super excited about the week.
Q. I don't know what to say about Joaco right now --
GRAEME McDOWELL: He's just so good. He's so good. He's an absolute top 10 player in the world. You could argue top 5. Phenomenal, phenomenal player. Obviously can't wait to see him go and play great next week at Oakmont.
Q. Was there a moment today where you thought, all right, this might be my day, because you were pretty unflappable the entire day.
GRAEME McDOWELL: I think when the putt rolled in on 12 after the first restart, I was like, here we go. Because I felt like getting through 12 was big because that was like the last real dangerous hole.
But the second stop was -- I could have done without it. Like I said, Niemann, I don't know what he did. I was happy with my prep, but listen, just so happy to be in the mix. It's so hard to win. I knew in my heart that the last three or four holes were going to be pivotal because the greens were so soft and so birdieable.
But I knew that I needed two of the last four. That was the goal. Obviously we only made one and we came up one short. So we knew what we had to do. Just didn't quite hit it tight enough coming in. I kind of had a few little weird numbers, tweener numbers. I had a tweener into the par-5. I had a tweener into 15. Had a little one into 16. Had a good number into 17 and then I hit it down the slope on 18, which kind of hurt me a little bit. But 18 was a tough pin to make a 3 anyway. But great week. Like I say, this is what I expect of myself. I'm very proud of kind of what I'm doing out here and the way I've committed myself to continuing to work, continuing to grind, and sometimes you need a little something back just to remind you that you've still got something left in the tank.
I'm going to use this as momentum to take forward to Dallas and then on to the British Open qualifier. Setting my sights on those two weeks. Dallas is a course that I've looked at and I like it.
Q. You, Bubba, Phil, Joaco, Jon, Bryson, it's a pretty amazing leaderboard.
GRAEME McDOWELL: Nice to be up there with names like that. Those are pretty good names. I think it speaks to the golf course. I think it speaks to the fact that it was a -- it required a bit of thought. It required a little bit of cunning, if you like, and I think that's why so many experienced players played well. I think it's a wonderful track. Obviously shout-out to the maintenance crew for the work they did to get the course ready after the rain. I really enjoyed the golf course. It was a great setup and the type of venue that LIV deserves here in the U.S.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports