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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2018

Tim Petrovic

Benton Harbor, Michigan

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon and welcome back to the 79th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and thankful that Tim Petrovic has joined us. Tim, opened it up with a 5-under 66 today that including seven birdies. Currently tied for the lead at 5-under. I noticed you started on the back nine, you started with a birdie and you ended on, of course, the 9th hole and ended with a birdie. Kind of a good start and ending to your day.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, I just drove it really good today. I hit a bad drive on the last hole but got away with it. But I drove it really good, hit a lot of greens and the way the greens are on this golf course you really got to kind of pick your battles and hit the balls in like little quadrants and try to use the slopes and I did that really good today. It's funny, I missed -- well not to complain or anything, but I had a few opportunities that I bogeyed 16 and 17, got a little distracted on 16, hit a bad approach shot and took the wrong club on 17 and hit a great recovery shot just missed about a 5-footer.

But the greens were not super fast, I didn't expect them to be fast because of the just so much slope on them, you just can't make them too fast or the balls won't stay on. So I was trying to adjust to that most of the day and did a pretty good job. I started on 10, I hit a really great drive on 10, I hit like a 3-iron on the green. I had -- it wasn't as good as Jack's putt he made here from the front of the green but it was close, it was about an 80-foot putt across from the left side. So I was happy to 2-putt that and kind of got me going.

JOHN DEVER: 80 feet? Wow. I believe this is your first time here, I don't think you were on this tour two Mays ago, but I have to think you like what you see from the golf course here in your initial impressions.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, there's a lot to look at, especially when you get to the greens. When I played a practice round I couldn't believe some of the undulations. It's fair and the course gives you room to drive it and if you plod your way around the golf course and use the slopes on the greens you can put yourself in some pretty good positions. And the course is soft so it's, your approach shots, it is playing longer but it makes it easier for your approach shots to the greens.

JOHN DEVER: Let's go to the floor for some questions.

Q. You've been hovering around the 20th place last several tournaments. What's it going to take to get over that hump? Has it been one thing that's been holding you back from getting into the top-10 or what's it going to take?
TIM PETROVIC: Well in a normal event on this tour it's only three rounds and most of the year I really haven't put -- I finished second in Naples, but I had a 1-under par the first round and then I shot 14-under on the weekend. So you kind of got to put three rounds together -- here we have four rounds so you can kind of, you have time to make up some ground if you have one so-so round -- but I think in the three round tournaments I think that's what's been holding me back, I just haven't had those three rounds that have been 67, 67, 67. I had that one even par, 1-under round. So I think that's what's been holding me back.

Q. Do you feel like this week knowing that you got that fourth round you've got that cushion that you don't typically have?
TIM PETROVIC: No, well we played last week and that didn't actually -- I was I think I was in the third to last group on Sunday and shot 2-over. So it didn't, that cushion didn't work out for me last week, I just couldn't make a putt on Sunday. Just keep putting yourself in position -- you've heard it a hundred times -- just got to keep getting in there and getting in the mix and sooner or later something will give and you'll come out on top.

JOHN DEVER: Has the back-to-back nature of major championships on this tour, does that help you this week do you think? You've been in this mode now for a week.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, it was nice last week, got to play four rounds there and there was no cut, so you can kind of get used to playing four rounds. We played so many tournaments with four rounds on the PGA TOUR but out here you do only play three and it seems like Friday never gets there. You're ready to play Thursday -- like this is my first full year, so it's nice to play on Thursday and not have to wait. I'm usually getting there, I think last year I got to some of the tournaments on Monday, Monday, Tuesday and I'm like, I'm here too early we're not starting until Friday. So it's a little bit getting used to.

Q. Give us a sense of perspective with a kid, not a kid, with a club pro tied for the lead now leading most of the day and in a tournament like this.
TIM PETROVIC: Well, that shows we have a pretty deep field, it's not just always up to the guys that are the Tour players. You get a guy just coming out here, probably hasn't played a tournament, probably played two tournaments all year and I think it's fantastic, came right out of the gate -- I think he made a number on the last hole, but I think he got to 7-under. But that's just great playing. So I think it's good for everybody to see something like that.

Q. So no surprise just because --
TIM PETROVIC: A little bit of a surprise, I don't know who -- there was a little bit of a buzz, we were talking about it, we were looking at the board before we teed off and I heard somebody say 7-under and I said, who is it? And we looked up, we didn't know who the player was. But in a tournament like this you know how it is, there's always one guy that goes out of the gate and shoots, one smart alec that shoots 7-, 8-under the first round, so but, yeah, it was great playing, I'm happy for him.

JOHN DEVER: Was your birdie on 18, your 9th hole, important to get you off the two bogeys and kind of get the groove back?

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, because 18 -- I think 18's one of the hardest holes to birdie. You got to kind of squeeze your tee shot out there and then with the course playing a little bit longer, instead of hitting an 8-iron in, I think I hit, I tried to hit, I cut a little 6-iron into the back and made a nice downhill putt there. So that kind of got my momentum back, for sure.

JOHN DEVER: On the 80-foot putt -- you may have mentioned this -- but were you in the front of the green like Jack was or what portion?

TIM PETROVIC: No, where the pin was back right with my approach I told my caddie, if I hit this thing to the middle and it goes down to the right I'm going to be chipping this thing from off the green, because you had no shot because I would have been, the bunker would have been between me and the pin. So I kept it on the left side and then I had to putt across and down. I almost made it, actually. It was a pretty good putt. So it was a good way to start.

Q. Is there anything you've been working on or changing your thought pattern on that resulted in you playing so well today?
TIM PETROVIC: I knew I was hitting it pretty good, the only thing that held me back -- I was coming off just a not, just a disappointing round on Sunday at Tradition and I think I shot 2-over and hit 13 or 14 greens. So it was probably my worst putting day. I hit a lot of good putts and nothing went in. I knew I was doing a lot of good things, so I just had to stick with the game plan and not try to re-invent the wheel before I played and just play Petro golf, fairways and greens and my dad always tells me just get the ball on the green as fast as you can, you're going to make your putts, just get on the green. So that's pretty much my strategy.

Q. So how old is your dad and how did he become your mentor as it relates to golf?
TIM PETROVIC: Dad is 76 now. He's up in Maine. He's actually a baseball coach for 30 years. I was actually playing baseball, I didn't play organized golf until probably my sophomore year in high school. I think at that time we had golf and baseball as a spring sport in Connecticut, so I had to make a choice and I kind of leaned towards golf. But dad played a lot of golf and he was probably eight or nine handicap and I don't think I -- I don't think I was able to keep up with him until, well I was about maybe 12 years old, 12 or 13, I started, we started having some good matches. I said, man, this guy's got something here. I stuck with baseball until I was 15, 16 years old.

Q. Were you a pitcher?
TIM PETROVIC: Yeah. I was a pitcher, I still got a pretty good knuckle ball by the way. Not too bad.

JOHN DEVER: They're always looking for those. You can elongate your career. Thanks for being with us today and best of luck as the weekend moves on.

TIM PETROVIC: Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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