Q. How tiring, how physically demanding, mentally demanding was today?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, it was a tough golf course. Certainly firmed up a little bit overnight. Obviously a fresh 10- to 15-mile-an-hour north wind helped with that, dried everything out. You really had to be spot on today. That's the name of the game around this place. A lot of slope around these greens, and you've really got to be precise going in to leave yourself in the proper spots, and I felt like I grinded kind of the whole day. I certainly didn't hit as many fairways.
I didn't make it easy on myself, especially on that back side. But chipping in on 13 and then really honestly 17 and 18 were four of the best shots I've hit all day. Hadn't hit many fairways, and I hit two fairways in a row on those two holes to finish it off felt pretty good.
Q. How did your game today compare to what you had yesterday and what are you going to have to bring to the weekend if you're going to have success?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I felt like I played pretty solid yesterday, maybe gave a couple back around the greens and missed a few. I thought I probably could have been around 70 yesterday. I thought I gave away a couple. Today it was a tough day. I think 73 is a pretty decent score. Again, that front nine I've played actually really well. Incredible save on 8. I'd still say overall the putter has kind of let me down a fraction, but it's going to be a grind all weekend. The course is just going to get firmer now that there's only 63 guys playing, they're just going to bake it out and they can finish on time. It's a U.S. Open, right; you've got to bring your best stuff and grind it out all week.
Q. How tough is it to measure how well you're playing when the course is this difficult?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, no, it's fair. You can hit a lot of good shots that don't end up in good spots. The fairways now are firming up and running out, so with some of the slopes there you're going to have to pick like right side of the fairway to hit in the fairway, whereas Thursday we didn't have to. Man, it's just -- again, I've said it like 14 times now, but I mean, it's the U.S. Open, right; it's designed to be more of a mental test than anything, and so I feel like I've done a really good job of staying patient, staying in the moment, hitting shots at targets, and that's all it's going to be this weekend.
Q. How close were you to not finishing?
ADAM HADWIN: Well, Corey asked me on 17 whether or not I had thoughts of finishing, and I told him yes. I don't know, I mean, we've all played in this. If it had been 10 minutes later I might not have putted on the 18th, but I'm a guy that always wants to hit the shots while I'm warm. I know it's supposed to be cold overnight, too, so the last thing I want to do is come out and play the 18th with a cut line in mind or something like that when it's chilly out. I would have always hit the shots into the green, and we'll see how dark it was to putt, but we got it in.
Q. Well, you did it at Congressional.
ADAM HADWIN: Exactly. A little easier hole, though. I had a par-5 to finish. I said to Joe coming up, I said, man, I loved having a shot to spare, but I would have much rather have come in with more on 18, that's for sure.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports