The norwegian talks with the press after the second round of the US Open 2025
as tall as Scotty couple more years appreciate that victor you’ve been obviously talking about your swing changes and the progress over the past year or so how did you feel coming into this week and then how has it felt now playing uh definitely felt better about it um but um still haven’t been overly uh confident in my in my ball striking um up until recently but last week we saw some really good progress and earlier this week was very happy with some of the shots that I was hitting out there in the practice rounds so um super excited that I was able to to take that out with me in the in the tournament on the second hole it seemed like you got a couple bad breaks there um how do you kind of like get through those like reset and make sure you’re not compounding errors that are in your Yeah that was that was frustrating um obviously played really well up until that point and didn’t want to miss it left on the off the tee so I kind of slice oversliced it and uh foot in the rough and I was expecting a lie that I could just chase up the green there but um couldn’t even cover the bunker and then it’s up against the lip and did a good job just to get it out in the fairway and then hit my wide shot too short and actually made a nice two putt for a double bogey and I just told Shay uh yeah just got us opened right there it’s Not much you can do about it um at least I was playing really well up until that point so you just got to get back to what you were doing before and like in the moment you have to remind yourself to reset or something how you processing when you’re going from shot to shot yeah for some reason I’ve just been in a really nice mental state this week it’s like my uh both my rounds have been very up and down um feel like a couple times if it would have been h if it would have happened at another tournament for example I could have uh potentially lost my mind there a little bit but uh I felt like I uh kept things together very well any other questions if you could just please use the mic so we can transcribe over to Brantley on the left uh Vic uh so many players talk about this week and patience being important i’m I’m curious is there anything differently you do for majors and US Opens in terms of preparation that doesn’t involve a golf golf club in your hands like not really yeah I mean I I do treat it as a regular tournament i mean I every week I’m just trying to prime my game so I can play my best and that’s uh that’s what I do every week so I’m going to do the same for a major i I guess how do you toughen yourself mentally like is is there a way to quantifiably get mentally tougher or I’m sure there is uh but that’s not a that’s not something that you really do the week before or the during the US Open it’s like preparations is what you do leading up to the event it’s what you do on a regular basis like just discipline I guess uh is a good way to prepare yourself but on top of that it’s uh you know if you’re playing well it’s a lot easier to think well as well if the ball’s going all over the place it doesn’t really matter how tough you are what’s the closest you came to losing your mind today uh didn’t really come close i was pretty happy with that even after the double on two um yeah kept it together really nicely right victor you mentioned in a weird way was the pace of play maybe helpful to help you not lose your mind because you have time to collect yourself after a bad hole as frustrating as it might be to take a round that takes five and a half hours that’s probably a fair point i’d say like just personally when I’ve uh had a couple bad holes back to back I tend to rush i tend to really get quick and out here when the rounds are so long you can’t really do that you as you said you have to reset and yeah you might have had a bad hole in the last hole and then you’re sitting on the T- box for 10 20 minutes uh at least it gives you a good opportunity to to get that out of your system and reset and think about the next shot victor what was different with your putting today did you just put yourself in better positions what led better results uh I think the positions were about the same uh because some of those three putts that I had yesterday they weren’t even that difficult putts they were kind of uphill they were just slow and I just hit him through the break um and left myself a tricky kind of comebacker down the hill today I just felt a bit more comfortable um for no real reason it’s nice when you see a 55-footer go in on the first hole that usually helps and just felt comfortable i think it’s just more feeling comfortable and trusting the reads and just when I’m over the ball solely focusing on the pace i’m not standing over the line or standing over the ball and thinking I’m not so sure about the line maybe I should a little bit more here and there you’re just kind of trusting the line and and trying to execute better few questions over victor what’s been the turning point on the golf swing for feeling comfortable and having a really good ball striking day like you did yesterday really hasn’t been a turning point because that’s uh been the fascinating thing about it i’m not really consciously trying to do anything that differently i’ve been trying to really work on just getting off the ball a little bit better because I’ve been getting into some bad habits off the ball so um as soon kind of the last couple weeks I started really working on getting off the ball similarly that I used to a lot of the the rest of the swing kind of has fallen in place um from there which has been very helpful because then I don’t have to overthink when I’m out there because you you can’t play at your best at a US Open at this golf course if you’re having to think mechanically too much so um um yeah just kind of um gotten off the ball nicely and just uh seeing the shots and somehow the balls are uh for the most part uh um behaving itself you’re likely going to have a late tea time tomorrow how are you going to spend the next 24 hours just relax we’ll see uh got my family in town so we’ll hang out and and uh yeah just just relax a couple more victor when you come off a course as difficult as this on a day like this what are your reactions fatigue pleasure uh tell us what they are a few adjectives it’s uh combination of a lot of different things yeah definitely tired exhausted because you’re just focusing so much on every single shot um you know I’m very pleased with two under par but also I know that I was four under at some point and missed a short putt on on six and uh three putted number eight even though I did make really nice two putts on seven and nine so it’s like very pleased but also man that could have been a little bit lower as well um but we’re in a really nice spot after two days so I’m just kind of happy thank you when you when you see so many guys get us opened as you use the word how much do you marvel when someone goes five under on a day like today given the conditions given how much everybody struggled yeah super impressive um you know I I I was four under at at one point myself and it it does feel like man if you’re just executing and you’re getting some nice bounces and you’re making some putts it’s you can definitely shoot a low score but you’re just not very far off before you’re making a bogey or a double bogey and that can happen multiple holes in a roll uh in a row so it’s just feels like you have to play absolutely perfect and have some good breaks going your way as well but it’s it’s definitely doable how different are these greens from what y’all play week to week yeah I mean we don’t play a whole lot of poana greens and um I mean it’s just uh just amazing how many holes or how many greens you can have that are slope front to back and uh usually that’s that’s a pet peeve of mine i almost automatically think it’s a bad hole if it’s slope front to back but um somehow they they make it work here it’s I think it’s a it’s a fun challenge it’s a fun fun test um you know but it’s uh it’s it’s just super dicey because you obviously want to be below the hole but on holes like number one it’s kind of hard to do especially with today’s pin so it’s just a lot of strategy you have to be super precise on your distance control and and obviously speed just your your lag putting is just uh um the importance of lag putting goes up uh significantly compared to other weeks two more questions left and then I think along the same lines how do you find the driving test this week it seems like if it’s not in the fairway you’re grabbing a 60 that fair unfair do you like it not like it yeah I mean that’s that’s the US Open I guess i mean it’s the same for everyone largely i mean uh another credit to Oakmont is uh I don’t think I’ve ever seen more consistent rough throughout the property i mean the the rough is the same everywhere it seems like now some some places it’s a bit more trampled down you can have some some some down grain and sometimes you can advance it on the green um and uh usually when the rough is like that the bunkers are kind of an escape but man those uh those lifts uh out of almost every single bunker they’re so high that you’re you’re just pitching out almost every time so just puts a big emphasis on on the driver um but as well when the fairways are getting firmer and there’s some slope in the fairways it’s it’s almost a little too much it’s almost like especially I do like to cut it and uh I think it’s like three of those fairways you got um number nine number 12 and then number 15 they’re getting a little bit dicey you almost have to be all the way up in the left corner to maybe have it stop on the fairway so it’s uh it’s getting it’s going to get tougher and tougher um Victor in the past you’ve had really low rounds and then you still come in and tell us that you know your swing sucks in your words um what what I don’t know about really low rounds or won a tournament or whatever it might be but comparatively now like you’re saying that you’re having a really good ball striking day or round how different does it feel to those other times where you were surprised by yourself yeah definitely feel a lot better about my game i mean um some of the shots I’ve been hitting the last couple of days it’s been it’s been just uh fun so even if I make a double on number two it’s like it’s way easier to handle those moments because I feel like okay I can just go back to hitting good shots and I can make a few birdies coming in versus before I it didn’t feel good so I had to get max out of my game so then when I get a bad break it just it frustrates me even more so um yeah I’m I’m super happy with where we’re going we’re still not quite there just day in day out i’m seeing a couple of just drives for example just on number seven I aimed in the left side of the fairway there and it started pretty far out ride and and and sliced all the way on the right side where the crowd is staying there and that’s that’s one of those old misses that I’ve had but they’re happening less and less frequently so I I just got to take that with me and and um keep progressing and have fun last question victor did you have any expectations coming into this week i mean they weren’t overly high to be honest with you but I I know that I can do something like this if I uh find a feel and and make a few putts and stuff I can I can go around here and and play some good golf but it wasn’t like I was feeling overly confident but um you know that’s that’s kind of how this this year has been do you ever go into tournaments with expectations uh yeah I’d say so yeah um you know 2023 was certainly a year where I felt like entering every week I’ve you know maybe got a little bit of a taste what uh Scotty Shuffler feels like uh when he steps on the first tea um so that’s certainly like to be in that place but it’s um yeah it’s uh yeah just a different perspective thanks for the time you got it
2 Comments
Why does he look like he’s 5’2” lol
Stay off the weed