Q. What was working well today?
HAYDEN BUCKLEY: I got off the tee well, and until the end there, I think the last couple holes, I was losing it a little right. But the driver feels really good. Kind of worked the ball left to right. I think that's really good out here. A lot of the holes kind of go that way. Just hit it where I needed to. The couple times that I missed the greens I was in good spots. I had room.
But made a huge putt on 17 from about 10 feet for par that just kind of put the stamp on it.
I didn't finish well on 18, but just found a way to keep it in play and keep it in front of me and just had a lot of good looks. My one bogey is a three-putt from 20 feet, of all things. So yeah, I really grinded it out and played pretty steady besides that.
Q. How did you feel your game was coming into the week?
HAYDEN BUCKLEY: It was great. I played Korn Ferry TOUR last week and made the cut on the number and finished eighth. 11-under on the weekend. Obviously, on the Korn Ferry TOUR, you're hoping for a top 10 after that. But it's been a struggle the last two months since my win. I haven't really found the hole, but got some things working last week that really felt good on the greens. But out here it's just a grind. You don't see a lot of guys making putts unless they hit it close, and hitting it close is the hard part.
Just kind of stayed steady all day and found a way at the end to just solidify a good round.
Q. The U.S. Open is known to be a grind. Par is your friend. Talk about why this week does feel different.
HAYDEN BUCKLEY: Well, you play the last eight weeks and know you have to shoot 20-under par to compete, especially on the Korn Ferry TOUR. Even with a win I'm still outside the top 25 trying to get my card. It's a lot different.
It sets up good for me. I played like this in college, unfortunately, I made a lot of pars in college, hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, so I kind of tried to rekindle that feeling that I had in college of just, I don't have to hit it that far, I've got to hit my shots and guys are going to hit it past me and guys are going to make more putts maybe, but I'm going to find ways to have those chances, and I'm just going to find a way to put solid rounds together, and that was the goal.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports