Q. Did it get smelly enough out there for you?
SHANE LOWRY: It only was towards the end. The first -- most of the round was actually fine. It was somewhat playable.
Obviously the ball wasn't going very far, but there wasn't that much rain, and there wasn't much wind as well, which was nice. I felt like the course, once you hit it in the fairways, was very scorable.
Yeah, I'm very happy with my day. To par the last two holes -- like 18 was brutal. I couldn't reach it in 2. Yeah, to make 4 was nice. Yeah, pretty happy with my day's work.
Q. Do you think these conditions against the rest of the field play a little bit to your advantage?
SHANE LOWRY: No. Everyone says that to me every day when it rains. I live in South Florida, and I plan to be there now.
No, I think I'm able to handle them probably better than a few people, but I don't particularly like or enjoy going out and playing in these conditions, but yeah, I handle them well.
Q. Does the 14 remind you of any other golf holes you've played?
SHANE LOWRY: The par-3?
Q. Yes.
SHANE LOWRY: Is it almost like -- is it 13 at Merion? Like not far off. I haven't played Merion since 2008, but that's the only one that comes to the top of my head.
But I think the best par-3s in the world are all short ones. Obviously I'd say 14 is playing pretty easy this week because the green's soft, but I'd love to see this place firm and fast and see what it would be like set up for like a U.S. Open.
This is one of the cooler golf courses, I think that we play. I've enjoyed it. Straightaway when I stepped on the property here, I knew I was going to like this place.
Q. When the ball doesn't go as far like it did today, do you get a better sense of how it was supposed to play when the architect built it when the ball didn't go as far?
SHANE LOWRY: I don't think about it like that. You know, every hole you're standing there trying to hit it in the fairway.
Yeah, I'm sure, for the longer hitters, the bunkers that are not normally in play are actually in play for them now. But no, I never think about it like that.
Q. We've heard Rory talk the last few days about like resetting his goals, resetting kind of himself for the rest of the year here. As someone who's won a major yourself, how do you go about kind of like rebuilding the competitive fire, whatever it is? I'm sure it's still there, but how do you go about restoring that after you've had like a really huge win?
SHANE LOWRY: I found it hard in 2019 when I won The Open to kind of come back out and -- you almost want it too much sometimes to almost forget about that and move on.
I think there's a part of you that should enjoy what you've just done and allow yourself just kind of -- I suppose not try too hard to backup what you've done. Look, I'm sure Rory's won enough times, enough big tournaments to reset his goals and move on. So I don't know why I'm answering that question.
(Laughter.)
Look, you try to put it behind you, but it's such a big win, it's something that is there to be kind of, I guess for the next while when the tough -- you know, when you have tough days, it kind of is there in the back of your head that you've achieved something great.
Look, I keep saying to him, no matter what he does now, it doesn't matter, but obviously he's a very driven individual. I'm sure he doesn't think like that. I'm sure he's very driven to win more.
Q. You played with Jason Kelce in the Pro-Am, and it seems like there's a lot of Philly fans out there even with the weather. How's the energy out there?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it was great. The crowds are good. I was playing with Keegan, so we were getting a lot of USA chants. Me and Rosie weren't enjoying it too much. Yeah, I was talking to Keegan about it. He said he gets it everywhere he goes. It's pretty cool.
The crowds here are great. I'm looking forward to the weekend here. I think we're going to have a great tournament here this weekend.
Q. You hit it closest to the pin on 8. Can you walk us through club selection, what happened there, the par-3?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, with the tees up, it's a 220 pin today, and it was slightly downwind, and I hit a perfect 5-iron. I actually pushed it a little bit right, and it got a little nudge off the slope there and went around to three or four feet, whatever it was. That's it.
Q. How was it playing with Kelce? How was that day?
SHANE LOWRY: It's cool. I always say in golf we're very fortunate to meet the people we do, traveling the world and coming to different places. To be able to go out in the Pro-Am and play golf with someone like that, I enjoyed the experience. Great fella.
Obviously I knew who he was before, but I'll be honest, I had to read up quite a bit the night before about what he'd achieved and all that. Look, everybody knows who the Kelce brothers are now, but yeah, he was a great guy.
It seems like, wow, he's loved around here, isn't he? That's pretty cool about him. That's what I really liked about him is how much of a hometown hero he is here and how much he embraces it all was pretty cool.
Q. You had some fun with the similarities between, I guess, your beard maybe and Travis?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I got it trimmed last week. I wish I'd have kept it longer. Yeah, they're a little bit bigger than I am. I wouldn't fancy them running at me.
Q. Did you get any feedback from anyone that counts on your suggestion to cool off a little later and give some more interviews later after the round?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, everybody, and even talking to some media, are in favor of players having a period to cool down after if they need it. I think that would be very welcome. Everybody, bar none, has been very supportive of what I said.
I think there's certain times where -- and I'm talking, you probably only need it -- nine times out of ten, you're going to be fine, but there's that one time that's not going to be great. I actually think the media and the general public would get a better perception of what the player actually thinks going into like the final round of a major or the weekend of a major if they need that cooling off period.
That's my suggestion, but who knows?
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports