Q. How would you encapsulate that round?
ADAM HADWIN: Pretty much the same as -- I mean, it's been pretty standard all week, although I continually hit it worse as the week has gone on. Man, I don't know. I felt lost out there, to be honest. I scrambled really well at times. I thought I kind of gave maybe a couple back on the front, but it probably should have been a lot worse than 4 over given that finish.
Given the way I hit it coming down the stretch, I kind of scrambled my way in.
Q. How important was that up and down at 18 sort of for your mood right now? And how severe is that slope on that green? Looked even more than we can see on TV, I bet.
ADAM HADWIN: Of course. It's incredibly severe. I would imagine, if I stood at the front edge, it's got to be at least as tall as me, if not taller. You're looking at six to seven feet of elevation from the front edge to the top of the slope there.
Yeah, just I finally got one in the fairway on 18 and just gave up on an 8 iron. You know you're going to have to work for par. I hit two unbelievable pitches the last two holes to save par from 30, 40 yards and a bogey on 17, but I don't think a bogey would have changed my mood. I still feel pretty terrible about the state of my golf game now.
I feel good mentally. I feel like I've done a good job of sticking to the process, trying to pick targets, trying to hit shots. Beyond that, it's been a bit of a struggle this week.
Q. How much of it is your golf game, and how much of it is Winged Foot?
ADAM HADWIN: I haven't hit a ton of great shots out here, to be honest. I shouldn't say that. I've hit some great shots, for sure, but I'm not striking it solid. Consistently. I'll hit a few good shots here and there, and I'll get on a couple runs like I did like 5, 6, 7, where I'll hit a few decent shots in a row, and then I'll just go right back to kind of slashing it around.
Yeah, again, I just kind of grinded it out. I stayed patient. I didn't really get too upset until 17 kind of let the emotions show a little bit there, but I was able to bring it together and make bogey.
I'm not sure where to go from here, to be honest. I'd like to think I could find it out there on the range, but I've been doing that for three days now, and I haven't. I'll continue to grind it out, and see what I bring to the table tomorrow.
Q. What do you tell yourself after a bit of a tough start on such a tough course when you said you didn't have your best stuff? How do you keep yourself in it for the long haul on such a tough golf course?
ADAM HADWIN: Well, I feel like in conditions like this it's a lot easier to do than, let's say, playing an event like Vegas in two or three weeks where everybody shoots -- well, not everybody, but a good score there would be 55, 56. You know that anything around par, pretty much between par and 2, 3 over is going to be about par for the day give or take, with even being a great round.
So you get off to a bad start, there are a few birdie opportunities. You have 6. You have 9. You've got 11 if you hit a good shot or a good tee shot. So there are a few opportunities, you just know, if you start to press by the 3rd hole, it's going to be a long stretch on the golf course.
Q. First five holes the most difficult stretch on the golf course?
ADAM HADWIN: First three for sure are up there, especially with this north wind. 1, 2, 3 are really good. It helps if 5's downwind, but off the left, it's such a tough tee shot to keep in the fairway. 4 is a pretty decent hole. I think 4 is easier than the other ones. Yeah, it's a good golf course.
Q. What do you do tomorrow when you come out here? What's your plan of attack?
ADAM HADWIN: I haven't figured that out yet, to be honest. I wish -- like I wish I knew. I wish I had a direction to head in right now. I'm right on the -- teetering right on whether I go try and find something on the range that maybe I can bring to tomorrow, but I feel like I've done that the first couple days, and like, okay, maybe if I do this, it might help, and then I try that, and I still hit it terribly.
So I'm right on the edge of going to try to grind it out or just rest and take the afternoon off and maybe try to get away from it a little bit and just forget about it and try and come up fresh tomorrow.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports