THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

July 16, 2020

Patrick Cantlay

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. How did you find the conditions today compared with last week?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Obviously a lot faster. The greens I think are a lot firmer even than they appear. You can get some action on it from the fairway, but even shots last week out of the rough would stop, and today that wasn't the case. And then add in the wind that was obviously up and very strong. But out here it tends to vary on the direction. It feels like it could be in and then it could go to in off the right in 10 seconds. That was the toughest part of today.

Q. Seemed like your chip on 5 a week ago, it might have gone in or left you with nothing left. Would that be an example of --

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, and an example of even how much the golf course firmed up from when I teed off and how much -- because I hit that chip in a practice round and I kept leaving them short. Today it rolled over the green. And so yeah, it's to be expected, but it definitely felt like today even more, especially with the wind picking up, there was a switch and it got firm and fast, especially on our back nine.

Q. This might be a better question for Collin actually, but even know you though they're different tournaments, is it at all weird to be playing on Thursday in a very familiar place knowing that everyone is starting at 0? You know that, but --

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I would say really this week feels normal. Last week felt a little odd with the different hole locations and how slow everything was. Last week in a weird way for me was more of an adjustment. Collin obviously hadn't seen it in previous Memorials so this week is an adjustment for him, but for me, today felt like back to normal.

Q. What was the biggest time you got fooled by the switch in the wind or when the wind switched on you?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, I got slightly fooled a lot, but obviously the shot on 12 sticks out, and that's not so much getting fooled as it was switching back and forth and you cannot come up short on that hole. So I just had too much club and then made also a bad swing and pulled it, and it goes 15, 20 yards over the green.

Q. Did you go one club up on purpose then?

PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah, so it's switching between straight off the left and down off the left, and if it's down off the left, it's a perfect 9-iron, and if it's straight off the left, the 9-iron is like a stretch. Maybe it gets there if I flush it. So I hit a small 8-iron but I didn't hit it small and I pulled it and it was 20 yards over the green.

Q. This is a bad question for Bryson, but I've seen a lot of misjudging distance for two weeks now, not just today. It's not like the wind is blowing here for the first time. Is there just something about it?

PATRICK CANTLAY: I think the greens -- so the golf course is really big, but the greens actually aren't. They're some of the smallest ones we play, and then also like for example on the 12th hole, it's really like two greens. You've got the back right green and the front left green and it's such a small area that the mistakes are magnified, and then you get in a wind like today and it's even more magnified because if you're not extremely precise, you can miss the green in a heartbeat.

Q. You've played the 12th five times now in competition. How many times have you been long?

PATRICK CANTLAY: At least a couple. I don't think I've been short of the hole yet.

Q. You said last week was kind of the weird tournament. You're the defending champion. Did it feel that way or was it hard to feel that way with no fans here?

PATRICK CANTLAY: It does. And the greens being back to 14 feels like it's the Memorial. It feels that way, but in the grand scheme of things it's just another week, and I'm just trying to compete as best I can and give myself a chance to win.