Q. You bounce back from a couple mid-round bogeys; birdied on 5 and 7. How are you feeling leading into the weekend in the top five?
DICKY PRIDE: I really like the way I played last week at Dick's Sporting Goods. Gave me a nice boost. I played good. Last week at the Dick's Sporting Goods I finished fourth and played really well on Sunday. The momentum has come over here, and that's helped a lot. Yeah, made a lot of putts today. So that helped a lot.
Q. You averaged nearly half a putt less than the field today. Did you adjust anything consciously yesterday to today, or just kind of how the --
DICKY PRIDE: No, I was really happy with the way I played yesterday. I worked really hard on my bunker game yesterday afternoon. I think I was over three the first day, and I think I wasn't very good today. I think I was two or three of four, so not great, but getting there.
Q. You actually birdied 17 both days. Is there a particular feel for that hole or just luck of the draw?
DICKY PRIDE: I hit two good wedges and hit two good putts, you know. I drove it in the fairway, which always helps, especially on that hole because it runs out so much. Yeah, I'll take birdie on that hole any time.
Q. For sure.
DICKY PRIDE: A lot of times I'll take par, but I'll take the birdies if you'll give them to me.
Q. And just like the state of the roughs, how that maybe compares to other courses you recently played or compared to another U.S. Open.
DICKY PRIDE: It's just the Senior Open, but I think the rough is very similar to a U.S. Open. My last U.S. Open was 2016 at Oakmont, and I would venture to say this is almost thicker. We had much worse weather. We had a lot of rain and got really waterlogged. It's when Dustin Johnson won.
So it played really, really long, which at 46 is not what I needed at a U.S. Open, to play firm and fast. This is definitely very much a U.S. Open field.
Q. I see you're from Tuscaloosa. Are you getting a lot of people with Roll Tide?
DICKY PRIDE: No, I get a lot of Badgers, a couple of War Eagles. Mobley from the USGA, he went to Auburn, and he reminds me every day.
Q. You can remind him about the championships.
DICKY PRIDE: I don't know. It's kind of hard to talk big in front of Scott Parel right now. Georgia is kind of good.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports