THE MODERATOR: Matthieu Pavon, even par 70, 3-under for the championship. Talk about your round today. At one time you were in the lead.
MATTHIEU PAVON: Yeah, that was a super nice round. I think even better than yesterday, to be fair. The only difference is that I eagled twice yesterday. Wasn't the case today. Only one birdie on the par 5s. That's the main difference.
But striking was pretty good. Obviously dropped two shots on my way back, 8 and 9. But tough hole, good shot, it happens.
Q. You tied for 12th in the Masters. Did that give you a lot of confidence coming into this major championship?
MATTHIEU PAVON: To be fair, my confidence was a little bit low. I mean, I've been not playing that great on tough golf courses so far. I had a very bad time at Quail Hollow, very bad time at PGA and Memorial. So confidence was low.
But it is golf. You keep working. You keep being disciplined and the games come back, and the confidence, too.
Q. You've won in Europe and in the United States within the last year. What turned a switch? What has made you better in the last year?
MATTHIEU PAVON: It's just work. As I say, work, discipline, learning from the past mistakes you've done. The most dangerous guy is the one that learns from mistakes. That's my opinion.
I failed a lot. Helped me to understand a couple things in my game, in my swing. I finally got my first win in Europe. Bring me a lot of confidence because it was showing to me and myself that we were on the right road on everything we were, like, doing in terms of training and stuff like that.
Then I just came to America, enjoying every moment because it's a dream come true for me. Since I'm kid, I'm dreaming about America. I came with very little and low expectations. I think probably this is what made the difference so far.
Q. What do you like about this golf course? Usually when you play well somewhere, there's something you like about a course. Is there something you see here?
MATTHIEU PAVON: Yeah, it feels almost home. I mean, where I grew up in Bordeaux, we have a lot of kind of pine tree like this. It really looks the same. It looks linksy. In Europe we used to play couple tournaments on links golf course. It's really the type of golf course when you miss the green, you putt instead of really carrying the ball and chipping.
There are a lot of things that make me think I'm in Europe right now.
Q. What do you have to do well to win this championship over the weekend?
MATTHIEU PAVON: Everything. Everything. I mean, major tournaments are the toughest tournaments in the world. You have to be pretty dialed in on every compartment of your game, and even more mentally.
I think being patient and relentless will be the key because the course is tough. You're going to have to live with some mistakes you're going to make. This is how you overcome the ones that are going to make a difference this weekend.
Q. What do you think it would mean to you and your country to win the U.S. Open?
MATTHIEU PAVON: Would mean everything. I mean, we are all competitors. We are all chasing the same dream: winning majors, winning Ryder Cups. It would be huge. We had Arnaud Massy back in the days at the Open. In the news days, we don't have a major champion.
That's the dream every French player has been chasing so far. Having someone capable to lift the trophy like that would be pretty big for me and my country.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports