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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2017

Billy Andrade

Washington, D.C.

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon, everybody, welcome back to the 78th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. I'm pleased to be joined by Billy Andrade, who fired a 68 today and has a two-day total of 9-under par. Through two rounds he has 10 birdies and one bogey. So I've been inside all day, but it looks darn windy out there. Maybe you could talk about the conditions and how your play fit into that.

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I obviously had to play seven holes this morning to finish up the first round. Then we got the news that we were going to play the ball down. I didn't know how that was going to go over, because it's still pretty wet out there. Then the wind started blowing about the second hole and then it became just kind of a survival test the rest of the day. Just trying to hit fairway, trying to get it on the green. Then the back nine it seemed like the wind picked up even more and the ball was kind of oscillating on some putts and it was really hard to putt.

So I'm very excited with the way I played, just making one mistake making the bogey at 14 with 10 birdies, very excited at the halfway point here. I love this golf course. First time I played it was Monday, really fits my eye, it fits my game. My first win on TOUR was here in DC down the street at Avenel, so I like this place for some reason, I don't know. I've had some success here. So I was thinking about that this week as well and I'm just looking forward to this weekend and having a chance.

JOHN DEVER: Looking at your results this year it seems like you've been playing some pretty consistent golf. Do you see yourself rounding into the form you had two years ago in 2015 when you won three times?

BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I do. I really feel like my game's in pretty good shape. I didn't play last week, my son graduated from college, so I missed the first Major. So I'm excited to be in this position. I've been -- actually I think I've played better this year than I had up to this point a couple years ago. I won the Bass Pro Shops with Joe and then I won in the fall, in the summer and then in the fall at the Schwab Cup. But I feel like I'm much more consistent right now. I had two weeks off, so coming in this week I didn't know what to expect and I like what I see so far.

JOHN DEVER: Questions?

Q. Considering the wind today was there a hole or a shot that you can talk about that was so dramatically different than what you would have faced yesterday or in the practice rounds?
BILLY ANDRADE: Well, yes, there were some holes that -- well first of all the first day I played two practice, I played a practice round and I played in the pro-am and then came out yesterday and a lot of tees were up. So it was a little different and I think that with the playing the ball up I think that's where the scoring was so good.

Today I think the scoring's not going to be as good, obviously not just because of the wind, but because we're playing the ball down. But you play 11, 12, straight down wind. You play 16 back into the wind. Right in the teeth. I had 178 yards and hit a 3-iron into 16, which I can hit a 3-iron 210, so yeah, the golf course definitely had some holes, 4, the par-3 and 5 and 6 going out, back into the wind, those holes are playing very difficult. I hit a little 5-iron on the first round on 4 and today I hit a utility club into 4. So those were two pretty drastic holes there versus the first round.

Q. Given how much more difficult it will likely play this afternoon with the wind and the conditions that you spoke about, how satisfying was it to close the round with those two birdies?
BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, it was great. 17 was playing hard, I cut a 5-iron in there and had about a 10-footer. And the last hole I hit a beautiful 5-iron in there and I thought I made the eagle putt and just missed it. So to finish that way is, you don't want to give them back in that situation. It was nice to finish with those two. I don't know if I'll be tied for the lead or be a shot or two back, I don't know what Vijay's doing, but I like my chances and I like being in the position I'm in.

Q. What are some of your memories from that Kemper in '91 and how much of a comfort level does that give you coming into a course that you van played, knowing you won in it this area?
BILLY ANDRADE: Right, Jeff Sluman and I were tied at 21-under. I remember it being real hot, I remember the ball going a long way. And it was a record. We both tied the record. I think maybe Adam Scott might have tied us then, but nobody broke 21-under. And after playing Avenel a few years ago no one is ever going to shoot 21-under on that course. It was my first win. My sister lived in Fairfax at the time, she was a nurse at Georgetown University hospital. Rhode Island to Georgetown to Wake Forest. Eight hours to DC and then eight hours to Wake Forest. So it was always a stopping point for me in my youth before I got on TOUR and it was a memory I'll never forget. You go back -- I showed my kids -- it was raining one time in Rhode Island in the summer, this was maybe seven, eight years ago -- and I threw in the tape of the Kemper Open and we just came from the Kemper Open, which was now the Booz Allen classic and there was hardly anybody at the tournament because the weather wasn't very good. And I put in that tournament in 1991 and you used to have to like get to the course, leave the hotel like three hours before you would get there because the traffic on River Road and getting into that place was just a joke. 100,000 people, 80,000 people, so I just remember great memories of the fans here being so great, loved golf, and to win and beat one of my best friends in a playoff, I felt bad for him, but not for very long. So it was great. It was a fun time. Then I backed it up the next week and won up in New York. So it was a pretty cool experience for me.

Q. When we were kids the greatest thing you could say about a player was that he was able to work the ball, able to shape shots and be a shot maker. That's kind of gotten lost in today's bomber's paradise. Do conditions like this bring that out and does it fit your game to be in tough windy conditions?
BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I grew up in Rhode Island, grew up on the water, grew up in windy conditions, pretty much the wind blowing, and you have to be imaginative. You need to hit the ball lower, you need to cut it, you need to hook it at times. I'm an artist, so it fit, that fits me. I'm all over the map, I'm not a mechanic and I know that. So, yeah, I think that these kind of conditions bring out the best in me.

Q. You said it was hard to putt today but you must have putted well you had 24 putts hit nine out of 18 greens. So was it the short game that allowed you to shoot the score you did?
BILLY ANDRADE: Yeah, I think so. I chipped it well. All the chips I hit were close. I putted a lot of putts from off the green, too, so that it wasn't that I was chipping all the time. So that's the reason why -- a lot of times that's a misleading stat. My dad will get on me all the time about, boy, you only hit eight greens. Yeah, but I was really close to the hole a lot of those times when I was off the green. So that seemed to be the case today. A lot of putts off the green and I putted them up close. So my putting stat looked good today, but I think every professional golfer always thinks they can putt better.

Q. And the eagle putt on 18, how long was that one?
BILLY ANDRADE: It was about eight feet. It was right behind the hole. It was pretty -- I actually thought the putt was going to just kind of just kind of wiggle right and it was wiggling and then it quit wiggling. So just missed it. But I hit a good putt. So that's all that matters.

JOHN DEVER: A little lack of wiggle and we appreciate you coming in and sharing some time with us.

BILLY ANDRADE: Okay. Thank you.

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