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KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2019

Scott McCarron

Rochester, New York

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2019 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. I'm pleased to be joined by Scott McCarron. Scott thanks for coming up. Scott finished second in our championship this year. He closed with a 70 today, for a four-day total of 278. Really nice moment with you on 18 with Ken, your former UCLA Bruin teammate. If you don't mind, would you share what you talked about.

SCOTT McCARRON: You mean after he made the putt? Well it was a nice moment for him. Wasn't as nice for me. But I was happy for him. We played at UCLA together. We play practice rounds just about every Tuesday out here on Tour. I was happy he went through Qualifying School, made it through. Then Kenny to win last year at Pebble Beach was pretty amazing. He's a great player. I told him once he got out here he would be a top 10 player. And he is certainly proving that to me and everyone else. The guy can flat out hit it. Great short game. Really good putter. And you saw him make that putt at 18 to win the tournament. Really happy for him.

JOHN DEVER: Going back to you, you played so well on the back nine, a couple birdies. Was it hard not to think, or as we sit here is hard not to think about that putt around the edge there, I think it was on 13.

SCOTT McCARRON: 13, that's a putt, there no way you could leave that putt short. It's a putt from 12 feet that's breaking four feet. And I hit a perfect putt and somehow going downwind that putt stopped.

Again, it defied gravity pretty much. But that's what it takes. That putt goes in, we go to a playoff. It didn't. Kenny won. I hung in there. This was a tough day. I putted really poorly the first day and then kind of found something halfway through the second day and started making some putts. I still today was a little loose with some chips, I had some very difficult chips around the green and didn't get them close.

Missed a short putt on No. 7.

Other than that, I played pretty solid on the back nine. Gave myself a chance.

Q. You mentioned that group yesterday. Who is part of that Tuesday practice? Is it a regular group of guys?
SCOTT McCARRON: It's Brandt Jobe, Glen Day, Kenny Tanigawa, Kent Jones, and then Scott Parel. So depending who's around, we'll play one group, or if everybody shows we play two groups. Play for a little something. Every week. It's fun. It's an absolute blast to go out there with our friends that we've known for a long time have a little game and some camaraderie. A lot of times on Wednesdays, none of us are in the pro-am on Wednesday, because we all play Thursday pretty much. We'll go to another golf course and go play as well. So a lot of times we'll play Tuesday and Wednesdays together.

Q. Did you keep touch with Ken after he stopped playing professionally?
SCOTT McCARRON: A little bit. We kind of kept in touch a little bit every now and then, a little text here and there. When he got his amateur status back, and he was winning the amateur tournaments in Arizona and the Mid-Am, stuff like that. When he called us know that he was going to Q-School I said, if you get through, you're going to be a top 10 player out there. The guy still hits it long, has a great short game and putts well. So happy for him. We got in today and he goes, that was so hard, I was so very nervous out there. But looking at Ken you never would have known it. I mean he was steely eyed, he was cool as a cucumber and so he can handle himself out there so I'm not surprised he's won a major.

Q. Did you get the sense as you were going through the day, too, that you two were going to be right there, because Paul clearly wasn't playing as well as he had been playing.
SCOTT McCARRON: I wasn't really watching Paul hit shots. I know he shot a couple over on the front. And so kind of got us back in it. But I shot a couple over too. It was tough. The winds were swirling and they never let up. I got tricked a couple times that cost me.

So I didn't know -- I thought it would probably come down to the three of us, and then Paul I guess doubled 16. When I looked at the board on 17 and I made that 12-footer for par, I looked at the board, and all of a sudden Ken's got a two-shot lead. That was a big putt, and then he missed that putt, hit a great putt, didn't go in. So when we went to the final hole, I felt it was down to Kenny and I. I hit a perfect drive, I absolutely just hammered one down right center of the fairway. Only had 136 to the hole. And Kenny kind of flared one up in the banker and had to lay up way back to where he had a full club in. He was only maybe 15 yards in from of my drive for a second shot. I felt if I birdied the last I'll win. That's what I thought.

And Kenny hit a good shot up there. If you look where his ball pitched on 18, that third shot, it pitched that far from the rough. That flies another foot he's in the rough and dead and he loses the tournament and I win. Sometimes it's a game of inches. That thing spun back there and he made a great putt and won. So hat's off to him.

JOHN DEVER: Did you feel good about your putt on 18 --

SCOTT McCARRON: I hit it absolutely perfect. And I saw where -- and we do everything from Aim Point and percentages and it's a 1.6 percent slope there, but then I saw for the last five feet it kind of flattened out. And I could see that on the back end. But it was tough to kind of go with -- that putt was almost a ball outside right, and at 1.6 it's almost 18 inches. For me to trust my eye and go ahead and hit that putt -- we hit it about a cup outside and it just stayed there. It looked so good halfway through. I thought it made it. It was perfect speed, and then the last five feet it doesn't break. What are you going to do?

JOHN DEVER: Thank you so much for your time this week, and best of look going forward.

SCOTT McCARRON: Thank you. Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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