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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIPMay 23, 2019Ken TanigawaRochester, New York Q. Do you feel like you made the right choice to come back and try professional golf? KEN TANIGAWA: Yeah, right choice so far. For sure. Q. How did you get to 5-under par on this golf course? It's not something we see too often here. KEN TANIGAWA: Great question, and I didn't stay there very long. I just played -- well, the first, early in the morning, was pretty benign. There wasn't much wind, and when there was, it was pretty tame. So it kind of lends itself -- there's opportunities because of that. But that being said, it's very, very difficult. So once the wind comes up like this, it's a challenge for sure. Q. You saw some noticeable difference after the delay, then, you saw some judging distances, that type of thing? KEN TANIGAWA: Yeah, once the wind started coming up, and as I think it might this afternoon, it becomes really a challenging golf course. Bogeys are out there. But what a great golf course. It's unbelievable. Q. Of course you won at Pebble, so you've seen -- KEN TANIGAWA: Right, yeah. That was pretty cool. Yeah, it's a great place. That was pretty fun stuff. Q. So when you got to 5-under, how were you trying to keep things in perspective knowing that you were playing Oak Hill and knowing that things were benign to a certain extent? KEN TANIGAWA: Well, the wind started picking up a little bit. And it was 14 and kind of a short hole, and I just hit a 4-iron down there and tried to be conservative. In the practice rounds actually I was hitting drivers out there. So I'd hit a fairway, then hit a mediocre wedge and three-putted and made bogey. That was my first bogey. And that's not really how I envisioned my first bogey to be. I thought I might hit a rough and chop out and make a routine bogey. So then just made another one right after that. So that was how I got back to 3-under really easily. Q. At what point did you start thinking that you were going to get the Champions Tour a crack? Mid-40s before you starting to think, or was it really kind of later? KEN TANIGAWA: It wasn't mid-40s. It was -- well, I started -- I played well and I won some amateur tournaments later in my later 40s, and that kind of gave me, okay, well I'm playing okay. That was -- at least I was doing that. If I wasn't winning or anything like that, it would have been -- it was a bit of a pipe dream to just play amateur golf and say, hey, we're just going to leap over to Champions Tour, not going to go through Q-School and make it. The players were really -- were way too good for that. So I started winning some events, and that kind of checked the box, okay, I'm playing okay. And then they allowed me as an amateur actually to enter the Q-School because to turn pro for five spots, I didn't want to lose my status to do that. So that checked another box. And then it was actually at home at TPC Scottsdale, because I live in Phoenix, so that kind of checked the third box. So, hey, why not enter. And it kind of worked out. I got through, and it was pretty cool. Q. The winnings just last year, have you won more than you did when you were -- KEN TANIGAWA: Not playing golf, no, I mean -- Q. No, but back in the '90s when you were in Japan? KEN TANIGAWA: Not in a year like that, no. It's when I walked away from the game. I mean, I didn't feel I was very good, so obviously no reason to keep doing it. Right? So I walked away from it, which is fine. It worked out well. And then this has been a real blessing. I mean, it really has. You know, a lot of the guys I knew, a lot of them I didn't. Like I've said before, everybody's been very, very welcoming, so it's been a lot of fun. A lot of fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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