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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2018

Tim Petrovic

Benton Harbor, Michigan

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon, welcome back to Sunday at the 79th KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. Pleased to be joined again for a fourth straight day by Tim Petrovic. Tim finished with a four-day total of 269. He fired a 2-under par 69 today and finished alone in second place, four strokes back.

Tim, you played well, but unfortunately it seems like you would have had to have played great to stay with Paul today.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, 66 would have got me, yeah. 66, I would have still lost by one. Then I would have cried but, no.

(Laughter.)

It was a great week. We just got beat. The guys, what he did shoot yesterday? 64, 65?

JOHN DEVER: 64 yesterday, 36 today.

TIM PETROVIC: Okay, well there you go, he deserves it. I almost -- he made that putt in front of us on 18 and I almost gave him -- I almost started clapping out in the fairway and waved the towel which it was well deserved.

JOHN DEVER: What's it like to compete against someone you really can't see, you saw him a little bit on 18, I don't know how much you guys see or you're focused on your ball and your play, you're peeking at the board, but how, it must be tough to keep up.

TIM PETROVIC: No, there's enough score boards out there, so we were peeking. Then we got to 15 and we decided to lay up. We almost got the same exact spot as I had the day before where I drove it into the bank and hit the water so we decided to lay up and I missed by birdie putt there.

Then I bogeyed 16 from the middle of the fairway. I hit probably one of my best drives all day and was in between clubs, had a little mud on it and dumped it in the bunker.

And then almost did my Tom Watson chip in on 17. I don't know how that didn't go in.

But in hindsight I think it was all for naught, he was just so far ahead of us and hat's off to the guy.

JOHN DEVER: Seemed like a tough force to contend with today. Questions, please.

Q. Two weeks in a row you've been in position on Sunday, do you feel like you've made progress coming from last week's final round to this week's final round?
TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, definitely. I wanted to kind of build, I was trying to focus on the positives from last week's poor performance on Sunday. Maybe try to learn a little bit. If it's hot out, don't hit so many balls, just little things like that and conserve energy and that's what I did. I got off to a great start today and felt good -- I was actually more nervous -- everybody's stomach's going in the morning -- I was more nervous at 8 than I was -- I was ready to go when I was ready to tee off because, what am I going to do for the next five hours. That was the hard part, waiting around all day. But I learned a few things and I felt really good out there and I was really proud of the way I hung in there and the way I putted and the way I drove the ball. I probably drove the ball as good as I probably ever have driven the ball. I can't remember maybe missing one or two fairways in three or four days. The game's in the right spot and maybe we can get something going at St. Andrews for once.

Q. How do you feel this week's performance sets you up for the rest of the Champions Tour season?
TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, I think this is the biggest event of the year in terms of --

JOHN DEVER: We think so.

TIM PETROVIC: I think so. In terms of status and purse and it's the oldest and I think it's the best championship in terms of the majors. So it's a great way to start and yeah, this is going to put me in a good position for the U.S. Open, for the British -- I'm not actually in the U.S. Open yet, it's funny, I'm going to have to qualify. Oh, well. But I think I'll get in the British Open, but this is a good stepping stone, you always look for what you do positive early in the year to try to build and learn from it. I worked hard at home the last three weeks, so I think some of that stuff is paying off.

Q. Was there a particular turning point out there this afternoon?
TIM PETROVIC: I don't know. Paul seemed to turn on the after burners somewhere on the back nine because I think we were all pretty much knotted up. I took a peek here and there and I think the score board's maybe five or 10 minutes behind, the manual score boards, so we really weren't sure. But it was nip and tuck there for awhile and we had to make a decision to lay up on 15, that was kind of unfortunate, I had to kind of bite the bullet there. I really wanted to go for the green. I think at that point making a three or four could have maybe put some pressure on him. But that was disappointing that I had to lay up there. But I was in a spot and I talked to my dad this morning and he just said, if you got a 50/50, don't go for it. 50/50, it's not worth it. So we laid up.

But I'll say it again, hat's off to Paul. Great playing. He won the championship for sure.

JOHN DEVER: Maybe your mindset at the turn there. You guys are nip and tuck, you still optimistic? You played 2-under on the front, so you're kind of where you thought you would be. Right.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, 2-under on the front, I made a nice birdie on 7 and I hit a great shot on 8 out of the left rough. I hit a sand wedge from 118 yards and landed it into the hill and it went up there about six feet and I missed it. And that would have helped if I had made that, because I birdied -- did I birdie 9? I missed another one on 9. So 8 and 9. I could have birdied 7, 8 and 9 and really got it going. I think missing birdies on 8 and 9, but finally getting one on 10 helped. Then I had some opportunities I just didn't, some of the putts just didn't fall, maybe just didn't hit it close enough. But I think 8 and 9 were kind of, in my round were kind of the turning point. If I made those two putts I would have turned at 4-under, been 17-under and I think I would have been in really good position.

JOHN DEVER: Your swing held up under the scrutiny of a last group in a major though, didn't it?

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, I think I only made one kind of weird swing. On 16 I hit such a great drive there, it was one of the best drives I hit all day. Because I don't really like that tee shot, it doesn't really set up for me, because the hole goes left and you got to aim out kind of near the water. And I hit a great tee shot there and had 150 yards and I had a little mud on my ball and I tried to turn a 9-iron off a tight lie and I just kind of wiped it, went in the bunker and made bogey. So that was probably the only really bad shot that I hit. But under the circumstances, I think I was kind of forced to hit it, trying to hit it close there, just didn't pull off the shot.

JOHN DEVER: Tim, thanks so much for all your help this week, your insights and great play and best of luck as you go through the summer.

TIM PETROVIC: Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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