Q. How does it feel to shoot a nice little 68 in your first U.S. Amateur?
DAVID FORD: I mean, honestly, golf is golf. Each course is different, but my game is always the same. It doesn't really matter what stage I'm on as much as it is the course and how my game fits it.
Out there today, my game fit it really well. I had a rough start, but bounced back nicely. I didn't really let the thought of this-is-the-U.S.-Amateur creep into my mind. I've been working for it for a while, so I know that if I've worked hard enough, then I'm prepared to do whatever it takes.
Q. Your brother was in the Amateur last year. Did he give you any advice about what the experience is like to help you get prepared for this?
DAVID FORD: No, he didn't -- well, I didn't talk about it with him. I was a little jealous that he was playing, so I wanted to make sure I got in this year. But no, he didn't really talk to me about it.
Q. When you start off with a double bogey, mentally how did you overcome that?
DAVID FORD: I was just basically thinking -- I mean, it's a double bogey, but it could have come on the 16th hole, the 18th hole, the 9th hole, whenever, and if my game was good enough, then I'd make enough birdies to get myself back to where I wanted. So I didn't really stress about it. I knew it was just the first hole.
It honestly might have loosened me up a little bit, like okay, it's a double bogey, I know how to bounce back from that. I've made a ton of those in my life, I've made a ton of birdies in my life, so let's go make some birdies.
Q. You did really well on the par-5s here. What was so appealing about them other than making a birdie on them?
DAVID FORD: I mean, my game feels really good right now. The fairways on the par-5s are fairly wide, so it takes the pressure off the tee shot and makes it more of a second-shot and a chip-and-putt or a long-iron golf course, and I did all of those really well today.
Q. Was there any particular hole, could be a par or birdie, that you felt was a key to the round?
DAVID FORD: Yeah, I think hole 2 -- I mean, I made a lot of big putts today, a lot of putts that were four to 12 feet. I made probably eight or nine of those and didn't miss inside 12 feet. I made a lot of putts on the first few holes, which got me confident with the putter going forward.
Q. And then how about this up-and-down to finish, and how long was that putt?
DAVID FORD: Yeah, I plugged it in the bunker, hit an okay iron, just the wind caught it and took it a little left. I figured I could still get it up-and-down. It was plugged in the bunker, but I hit it to 40 feet and then made the downhill slider, so that was nice.
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