Q. A lot of birdies today. What was making it go so well?
JULIAN PERICO: I struck my irons unbelievable today. I hit 17 greens. I was iffy with the driver. I hit 12 fairways. I mean, I hit a lot of fairways, like don't get me wrong, but I was like borderline in the rough. I didn't hit it that good. I mean, I was in play basically most of the day even though I wasn't hitting it good. The lines I was taking off the tee were pretty safe.
Made two bogeys, I think it was 11 and 12 or something, two bogeys in a row. Nothing, man. I knew I had to play well here to just have more of a stress-free round out there tomorrow. It's going to be stressful because I haven't checked at the scores, but Dunes is low because it's really hard. But again, I don't mean to sound like a perfectionist by saying that I hit 12 fairways or hit the driver bad, it was just iffy, so I've got to work on that.
I part from that, I took care of the par-5s, didn't make any silly mistakes. I drove it in trouble on 10, I think, or 11, I don't know, dogleg right. I don't really know the order. 11 with the water on the right. I could have like sliced one and I said I'm just going to lay up to like 170, hit the middle of the green, make bogey, because you don't want to put yourself out of the tournament for a stupid decision. I just want to keep it together.
Q. You must have had the putter working then.
JULIAN PERICO: I had the putter working. It's not like I drained everything, but I had like -- I don't even know how many birdies I had today.
Q. You had seven.
JULIAN PERICO: I had seven birdies? I think four of them were inside 10 feet, so I was hitting the ball really good.
Q. What did you think was your best birdie?
JULIAN PERICO: 15. Yeah, 15, par-4. I hit it to like eight inches.
Q. What did you hit and how far?
JULIAN PERICO: I had 120 yards, I hit a 9-iron. And then I birdied 16, hit driver, 2-iron to the middle back of the green and two-putted.
Q. This is your first U.S. Amateur, but obviously you've played a lot of international competitions. What's this like for you?
JULIAN PERICO: It's the best. I mean, it's the best amateur tournament I've ever been a part of. Of course the LAC in Latin America is great, and it's a great opportunity, but this is the best of the best. I mean, it's the best field you can ever have because it's based out of the rankings. It's just special for me to be here.
I've tried twice to get into the U.S. Amateur and I've played great both of my qualifiers, and I've never made it. I'm just glad it worked out for me, and hopefully I can just play pretty good tomorrow and just have a couple bonus rounds in match play or something. I just want to make it to match play. You never know in match play.
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