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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 25, 2017

Graham DeLaet

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

THE MODERATOR: Graham, always a special occasion to be here at the RBC Canadian Open, and this season, you're 74th in the FedExCup points and making your way towards another playoff berth. If you can start about with some comments about what it's like to be here this week and we'll open up to questions.

GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, always obviously love the Canadian Open. It's our National Championship and it's one that's important to all of us as Canadians. I think we've got as good of a crew as any this year which is exciting. There's a lot of players, we saw Austin Connelly, he's a bit of a hybrid for whatever.

But the future is bright. I feel like I'm one of the old guys now. If I'm ever going to win one of these, it better be soon, because obviously the times that I'm going to play are running out but there's obviously a lot of other great Canadians coming up.

THE MODERATOR: Stretch drive in the FedExCup Playoffs; do you feel like this is the right time for you to kick it up a notch and get into gear as we head into the Playoffs?

GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, it's amazing that our year is almost -- feels like it's coming to an end. I was up in Saskatchewan a few weeks ago and my buddies are getting primed up because the golf season just started and feels like we're close to the end.

Yeah, it's kind of crunch time now and obviously this is my last chance to get into the PGA, as well. I need a good week here to get on that list and that's in the back of my mind and I want to be playing in a major. It's been a couple years now.

But yeah, then you get the Playoffs and you never know what happened. Atlanta is obviously the main goal, and I'm in decent shape right now. I've had a solid year but there's always room for improvement.

Q. This course has provided a bunch of different types of winners. What do you think is the right one or two type of things that a guy needs on this course to contend or win?
GRAHAM DeLAET: This is a totally different golf course. I'm sure you've heard that from everyone that's been in here you talk to this year compared to last year. I remember almost driving the third green last year or getting too close on 10 by hitting driver, and I hit great drives on both those holes yesterday and had pitching wedge and full gap in.

It's a completely different golf course this year. The rough is thick, it's not super long, but around the greens there's kind of dodgy lies here and there, and the fairway for the most part, the rough off the fairway -- for the most part, you can get enough club on the ball. There's been a few times the last couple days where it's jumped a little bit or come out a little bit dead. But for the most part you can get the ball on the green and you have at least a mid to a short iron in your hand.

When it comes to playing golf and winning golf tournaments, you've got to make putts, and you saw that with Jordan obviously last week. It's been a strength of my game this year, which is really nice. You know, that's kind of what it all comes down to.

Q. Obviously Adam Hadwin is very close to making The Presidents Cup team, and you played tremendously well when you were on The Presidents Cup team a couple years ago. Is that on top of your mind? Would you like to make The Presidents Cup team again and what would it mean to you if you did?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, it's been in the back of my mind obviously all year. I've been kind of so far away, I haven't really been like right there, in ninth or 11th, kind of bouncing back and forth. It's going to take some really nice play over the next month and a half or whatever, but it's a possibility, of course, and I would love to be on that team. Especially now Mike's one of the co-captains. I get texts from Pricey every once in a while. I know he is trying to get me in gear and trying to get me going.

When it comes down to it, it's going to take some good golf over the next few weeks, and that's the key.

Q. This is the 29th time Glen Abbey has hosted the Canadian Open. Your thoughts on it being a host? And also, have you been following the fact, it sounds like it's going to be extinct and be real estate development. Your thoughts on that?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, there's a lot of history here, which is a shame if the golf course does end up becoming houses, not just in golf, but just in Canadian history.

At the same time, I've never really played well here. I've missed a lot of cuts and I don't know if my best finish is probably about 50th. I don't have the greatest of vibes when I come to this golf course.

I'd love to see it be moved around a little bit but obviously if we're coming close to maybe five, six years, and nobody knows the actual answer, it will be a shame if this place is gone, that's for sure.

Q. Your thoughts on the hockey rink that's been erected on the seventh hole? I know you've had success in Phoenix with what they have got there on their par 3. Your thoughts on the rink here?
GRAHAM DeLAET: It's really neat. I think there's been a lot of good buzz amongst all the players already. Even guys that haven't been out there, like, "I heard there was a rink set up on 7 or whatever."

I think it's cool. It's obviously nothing like 16 at Scottsdale but it's something that that evolved, and maybe that's something that could happen here, as well. But yeah, it's pretty cool.

Q. Kind of answered a little bit of my question already with your recent record at Glen Abbey, which last year, missed the cut and then WD the year before. But going back to 2014 in MontrÃ©al, when you had a Top-10, can you just take me back to that and how exciting that was and maybe how itchy you are to get that feeling back again at this tournament?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, it's fun. We've seen it a few times in recent years. I remember when Mike went toe-to-toe with Vijay here and Adam in 2004, I guess it was at Shaughnessy, and Hearn a couple years ago and Jared last year. There's no question we can feel the energy from the fans that want us to win and get us going.

I remember coming up the 72nd hole at Royal Montreal, and even though I didn't have a chance to win -- I had a chance to win teeing off on the first hole, but not coming up 18. Just they sung "Oh, Canada" to me and they did that to Hearn, and Jared, as well, last year. It's such a cool feeling. You feel like you're one of 35 million instead of one of 150 players or whatever. It's a pretty cool feeling.

Q. Can you speak to the camaraderie amongst the Canadian guys on Tour?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, we all get along well. We always are texting each other when someone plays well. We're always rooting for each other. It's obviously great to see Mackenzie get a win early in his career and Adam, he's been playing unbelievable golf this year. I think that was kind of only a matter of time. I think it kind of whets the appetite to try to be that next guy.

But yeah, we all get along really, really well. We go out for supper once or twice a week most of the time. We're always cheering for each other.

Q. Curious your thoughts on the British Open on the weekend when you saw Kuch going down the back stretch with a buzzsaw in Jordan, and is that the most helpless feeling in the world when you're Kuch and there's nothing you can do, just the tournament disappears with all the time that was taken up? What does that do to a golfer? Can you relate to that?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, I've never exactly felt that feeling that Kuch -- he played obviously some great golf. But Jordan has something special, man. Everybody knows it but nobody knows what it is, and he's got it. He's got that "it" factor, that special athletes in every sport generationally have.

It's pretty amazing to watch someone so special like that. Because I mean, he was looking pretty average in all honesty the first 12, 13 holes, and then all of a sudden, something just switched and he's got it, man.

Q. Can you allow yourself to enjoy the week?
GRAHAM DeLAET: I'm trying to, yeah. I've got some family, my mom and her husband are coming over from Saskatchewan and Ruby's mom and her husband came up from Idaho and we have the kiddos. We have the same house we rented last year and have a pool in the backyard. Have a couple barbeques. I know Chappy is here by himself, he doesn't have a family; I'll have some people over.

The hardest part of the week here is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for me normally, and I'm not in the Wednesday Pro-Am tomorrow. So I'll be able to have kind of a nice relaxed day tomorrow and then hopefully by Thursday, I'm playing with Hearn, another good buddy, a Canadian and we should have a lot of support. I'm looking forward to getting going on Thursday.

Q. You talked about how your putting has improved and became an asset this year. Can you talk about that where that improvement came from?
GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, basically I started using Peter Kostis's putting machine. That's really the only thing I've done differently. I'm not working with Peter but he showed me how to use it and what he does and how to practice with it. That's been pretty much it.

I mean, the consistency of the hit from my putter to the ball is much better, the roll coming off my ball; that makes your lag putting, it tightens everything up, and just seeing putts go in over and over and over and over and over, so it's building confidence. Now I think I'm top 30 on TOUR in putting, and I don't know if maybe in 2013, 2014, when I was playing well, I wouldn't have been anywhere near that high. I think I'm historically a 120 to 150 kind of guy. So it's a good place to be. It's nice to know you can hit it to 20 feet and you're going to hole a few putts and not have to try to force anything.

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