MAKING HISTORY IS SOMETHING VERY FEW PEOPLE GET TO DO, SO THAT’S A VERY HUMBLING FEELING

The only time I was a little bit upset at myself was on 16 during the third round. I three-putted 13 and 15, and then I hit a terrible tee shot on 16 and made a bogey, and I felt like at least one of those shots was avoidable.

That’s the only time I ever felt like I was truly upset at something. But, you know, I reeled it back in and made two good pars on the last two holes to put myself in the nal group, which is all I needed to do. All I asked for was a chance. It was a tough day out there. It was windy, and all those wind gusts are not easy. You can hit good shots that are going to end up in bad spots, and it happened to everybody.

A lot of people describe you as a bit of a street ghter, in the most positive sense. What does that drive come from?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a determination to be the best that I can be. When I’m out there, I have a job to do and I put in a lot of e ort to try to beat the best guys in the world. So maybe that level of intensity and that determination is what you see and that’s why I’m characterized as a ghter.

I’m also never going to give up. Even if I’m out of contention, I’m always trying

Finally, how exciting is it to be halfway towards the career grand slam? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I mean, it would be amazing. It would be great. But there’s a lot of people who have won one or two and gone no further or won a bunch of the same major. Winning all four takes something special, to perform across all those di erent types of courses and di erent conditions. When you consider that Arnold Palmer and Phil Mickelson haven’t managed it, it puts it into perspective.