CHRIS DEVLIN: You guys got me looking pretty enough?
THE MODERATOR: Here with Chris Devlin. Chris, 2-under 68 today. Can you just start by talking about the eagle on hole 12?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Yeah, I had a great drive there. I've been driving it great all week. I got it to where it's on the upslope of that hill. It's one of those holes, when you've got a chance to take advantage of this golf course, you've got to at least try.
I hit a great 3-wood in there to about 12 feet and was able to take advantage of that ball. There's very few of them out here. You have to be careful where you leave the ball in certain spots. That was a great bonus to get early in the round.
Q. Second U.S. Senior Open for you. Do you feel like having last year's Senior Open under your belt helped you prepare for this week?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Absolutely, yeah. Just the magnitude of all the USGA events, they're first class events. It's such a great experience to play in any one of them. I've been fortunate enough to play in probably about maybe eight of them now, and every one of them is a learning experience. Every golf course is set up in a fairway, but a very, very difficult way. So your preparation has to be first class as you come into it.
Certainly last year, just the magnitude of the events to get used to, especially for someone like me who's not used to playing in all of the big events, it's been certainly a great experience.
Q. Then grew up in Northern Ireland, but now you live in Alabama. Is this heat anything new to you? Are you used to it living in the South now?
CHRIS DEVLIN: 30 years ago it would have been, but no, it's been easy to adjust. I don't want to say that. It is a heat wave, and it's pretty steamy out there. But no, it's been -- I'm used to it, the humidity in Alabama is pretty rough too this time of year.
Q. Is that an advantage -- because Charlie Wi was in here yesterday saying that mentally it's hard to stay focused when it's this hot, but if you're used to it and going out a little earlier, it's only going to get hotter. Take the breaks where you can.
CHRIS DEVLIN: I wouldn't say you get used to it. It's definitely hotter than normal for sure. I mean, you're used to being at home and riding in a golf cart. You get a little wind in your face. Out here there is nothing, it's very difficult to me.
You have to stay hydrated. I mean no matter -- even if you don't feel thirsty, you're constantly having to keep drinking.
I don't even know if I've used the rest room since Monday. I'm just kidding. It is, you just have to do everything you can to keep your focus. My caddie does a good job of keeping the Liquid IVs and the LMNTs and me to make sure that I'm staying as hydrated as possible.
Yeah, your focus level has got to be top out there because there's no letup on that golf course.
Q. What do you do the rest of this day? You could be leading this thing.
CHRIS DEVLIN: Yeah, I'm lucky I've got some friends coming in here from Florida and Alabama, so I'll get to hang out with them a little bit. But take it easy, try to get some rest, try and stay in the shade, not do too much.
I mean, if this was the old me I'd be out there beating golf balls and putting all day and just beating myself to death, but no longer.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about your days at UAB? You gave up some of our scholarship money to allow a certain future U.S. Open champion to come there. Can you go through that situation? What went into that decision?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Yeah, Graeme's a good friend of mine. We kind of grew up playing golf at Royal Portrush. We were both members there growing up, so we were very fortunate to play one of the best courses in the world growing up.
Obviously I've lived in Alabama now for nearly 30 years, so I've moved over here. People say to me all the time, why would you ever move away from Ireland? I say, there's a reason it's so green. It rains every day.
No, Graeme was a little younger than me, so I had had the advantage of coming to UAB, and we have some great golf courses in Birmingham. They've got great climate obviously, and I just talked him into it to come over. I was due -- I had fortunately done really well in college and I was due a raise in my scholarship. The coach came to me and said -- I wanted Graeme to come, and he had come to me, and I just said, you know, you could just give him my raise so he can afford to come.
It ended up, he came over and struggled a little bit his first year, but after I left, he went nuts. He acclimatized, put on some weight, and started hitting the ball harder, and it worked out for him.
Q. What makes this course challenging? What would you say, anything specific that you have to be careful about or that -- yeah, just --
CHRIS DEVLIN: Everything. No, you've got to put the ball on the fairway. The rough is very, very penal. Fortunately, that's what's allowed me to score this week. One of the strengths of my game is obviously driving the ball straight. I was able to keep it in the fairway for the most part both days. For a start, you've got to be able to do that.
Secondly, going into the greens, they're such small targets, and even in the quadrants in the greens are even smaller because of the -- I mean, yesterday afternoon -- the greens were a little softer this morning of course, but yesterday afternoon when that wind gets up and they start to dry out and there's certain landing areas that you've just got to hit.
So it's all about strategy of being able to do that. That's where the prep came in.
I was fortunate to come up here a couple of weeks ago and play an extra practice round. So that really helped me because it just -- the more you play it, the more you're going to get to know it, but it's something you just have to do around these courses. They're such a difficult test. You have to be spot on of where your landing areas are.
Q. You hit all 14 fairways today. How did that help you with that attacking mindset?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Obviously it's the only way you can. Even at that, you're still trying to hit it into certain areas of the greens. The greens are -- the real difficult task is the small target setting into the greens and leaving yourself below the hole where you can.
If you're coming out of the rough, there's no question where the ball might go. It could be anywhere. It's so difficult out there if you're not in the fairway. So it was definitely a big bonus to be able to do that today.
Again, that's one of the strengths of my game, so I'm quite happy to be able to do that.
Q. As a quick follow, you finished yesterday afternoon. Did the round yesterday maybe help you mentally just attack today?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Yeah, I was always looking for -- when I seen the draw the first time, I wasn't -- I was kind of pleased because I would have an early draw on a Friday. Nobody wants to be out last on a Friday afternoon when you get the crusty greens and everybody's been tramping on them for two days. It's always difficult.
So I really thought I had a good draw getting the 12:30 on Thursday and then of course first out this morning.
So I was really trying to take advantage of that where I could, and luckily enough, we were able to get it around. So we're in a good place. We'll see where it takes us.
Q. Just have a quick question about your timeline. You turned pro after college and you got your amateur status back and then you turned pro again when you were 50?
CHRIS DEVLIN: Yeah, so last year I was debating whether I would turn pro again. I'd started a company called Priority Care Connects. I'd gone into healthcare. I'd hurt my back and I'd gotten into healthcare about nine years ago, and I retired from playing professional golf.
So I wasn't really playing much, and then as I got closer and closer to 50 I started playing in a few more USGA Championships and things like that. I was lucky enough to qualify for the U.S. Am a couple of times. I wasn't playing golf full-time at all.
I'm still not. I'm still having to run the company, and it's been a blessing to be able to do that. We manage high-risk patient populations for physician groups all over the nation, and luckily enough, we've been growing. So that's helped me to be able to play golf when I can.
Certainly last year, as I turned 50, my goal -- I had too many people at home and friends saying, you need to go play golf. I was like, don't tempt me. But then when I qualified for the U.S. Open last year I decided to just go ahead and turn pro again.
Unbeknownst to me, I didn't realize the PGA TOUR were going to cancel the qualifying school. Had I known that, I probably would have second guessed it, but they didn't let anybody know until late in the year.
It was kind of a shock they were going to cancel The Q School, and there's really no way to get onto the Champions Tour, which is disappointing.
Again, there's nothing that I can control about it. All I can do is try to do well in these tournaments where I can and where at least the USGA lets us qualify. That's a good thing.
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