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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2017

Larry Mize

Washington, D.C.

Q. Could you just comments about the start this morning, how you bounced back from that bogey, that opening bogey. You had five holes this morning, right?
LARRY MIZE: No, I had eight. And I birdied the first hole this morning.

Q. Take us through the start this morning.
LARRY MIZE: I hit a good wedge in there about three and a half feet on number 3 and I made that for birdie this morning. Made a nice par at 4. Got up-and-down for a par at 5. 6, I didn't hit too many bad shots but I hit a bad 5-iron, kind of chunked a 5-iron on 6 and made bogey there. Then came back 7 made a nice birdie putt on 7. From about 20 feet, I guess. Which was a nice putt. Then parred 8. Made a really good putt at 9 to make birdie there. Then hit a good putt on 10. Didn't quite get in there. But it was a nice finish, played really well, and I was obviously very pleased with the round.

Q. That means you obviously slept well and were able to start well.
LARRY MIZE: Yeah, I went to bed as early as I have in a long time last night. I went to bed just after nine and I don't do that often. But I got a good night's low sleep and was looking forward to coming back out and continuing to play.

Q. Rounds have rhythms to them and a lot of times you get on a roll and you stay on it. How do you come back from an interruption and play?
LARRY MIZE: Yeah, yesterday I sure didn't want to stop playing. I had some good rhythm yesterday, hitting a lot of good shots. But that's just part of it and that's just what we did, I just came out and said, okay, let's just do the same things and don't try and do anything different, don't try and press or anything, just continue to do the same things. And I hit a lot of good shots today as well. But it's, yeah, I was able to keep the rhythm going, which is good.

Q. When Bernhard finished yesterday he said he would be surprised if someone tied 7-under. You've just done it. Did you think 7-under was out there?
LARRY MIZE: Well I know it was when I saw the leaderboard and saw his name up there. I just teed it up and tried to play good, smart, aggressive, push to make some birdies, because you got to make birdies out there, and wasn't really thinking of score, I was just trying to play a good solid round and I couldn't be happier with 7-under, 65.

Q. Had you for 25 putts.
LARRY MIZE: Yeah, I putted well. There's no question I've been working on my putting. I got a lot of help this week from Bob Tway and Loren Roberts and Jeff Sluman, because I've been struggling with the putting, so it was nice to have a good putting round today.

Q. Could you describe the putt on 9. Because the moment you hit it it was in.
LARRY MIZE: Well I don't know, it was a pretty quick putt I thought and I gauged the speed really well. It was a pretty quick putt and it broke pretty good, especially at the hole, it kind of dove right. So I tried to air it out there on left and get the right speed to die it in the hole and it worked out good. It was a slippery one so it was a nice putt to make.

Q. Help us with that eagle description on 18.
LARRY MIZE: Yeah, I had, I think I had about 93 or something yards and that's my 53 degree sand wedge. Hit a good wedge in there, but you never expect to get it to go in. So it was nice, nice applause at the green when it went in. But I hit a nice wedge and nice 3 there.

Q. Could you see it go in?
LARRY MIZE: I could not see it go in.

Q. So you don't know if it spun in or went straight in?
LARRY MIZE: They told me it spun in. There's a little slope behind the pin, it kind of spun back in is what they told me. But I went with the reaction. You can tell when one goes in by the crowd.

Q. Might say this is a bomber's course more so. Are you kind of surprised that you're 7-under right now?
LARRY MIZE: Well, I don't know if I would say surprised, I'm very happy. Obviously I wasn't expecting a 65, but you're always going out there trying to play good and solid. But I thought the PGA did a great job of setting the golf course up. I thought they set it up really good. I just hit a lot of good iron shots and made some good putts. So, but, yeah, it's a tough golf course out there. We got a lot of golf left.

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