PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 6, 2020

Jeff Hart

Harding Park Golf Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Welcome to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. We're pleased to be joined by the PGA of America's own Jeff Hart, team of 20 member who opened with a 77 today.

Jeff, you were in the first group today leading off the PGA Championship off the first tee. Maybe talk about that moment and what you felt and any butterflies there?

JEFF HART: Oh, of course, yeah. Butterflies for sure. It was surprisingly docile. I thought it would be like it's been the first three days I was here: Wet, cold, windy. It was cold for sure, but it wasn't as wet as it had been the first three days, and the wind didn't pick up until probably 13 or 14. It was actually playing pretty easy the first 13, 14 holes, yeah.

JOHN DEVER: Did you hit the first tee shot or the second?

JEFF HART: I hit the second.

JOHN DEVER: Talk about your round a little bit. You started out with three pars and a birdie on 4. You must have been feeling groovy at that point.

JEFF HART: Yeah, I was.

JOHN DEVER: Talk about that progression.

JEFF HART: Yeah, the adrenaline was flowing, as they say. Yeah, it got away from me soon thereafter, I guess. I made a long par putt on 7 probably a 30-footer for par, just missed a semi-short kind of an eight-footer on 6 for my first bogey.

So I thought, well, I felt pretty good at that point. I was even, then I bogeyed 8 and 9. But 9 is almost a par-5 for me. I got it close to the green today, which was due to it not being so wet, but I hit -- there's, I think, seven or eight par-4s that I can't reach in two, so par effectively for me is about 78 or 79 or 80 if I were realistic about it.

So I played a pretty good front nine up until bogeying 8 and 9 to shoot 2-over, and that was disappointing. Had a look at birdie on 10. There just aren't that many birdie holes for me. I mean, maybe five holes that I can get the ball close to the pin, maybe six. Other than that, I'm hoping to kind of roll something up on the green, and it's a tough test for a 60-year-old man with a 60-mile-an-hour fastball is what I would equate it to. It's like pitching in the in the major leagues with a 60-mile-an-hour fastball; they're teeing off on you, basically.

So it was a tough chore for me. It was nice to get off to the start that I did, but then it was a struggle coming in the last seven or eight holes.

Q. You've been to major championships before. You've played a lot of professional tournament golf. Just talk about the silence. It just struck me how quiet it was.

JEFF HART: Yeah, it was a different -- I'm used to -- I played in tournaments where there's nobody around so it's kind of normal for me, but it was odd, and it was just -- you didn't even feel like you were at a major championship. We need the fans, as every sport does. They make the sport essentially.

Yeah, it's eerie. It is different. I'm used to it. It's normal for me, but I would imagine the Tour players, I'm sure it bothers them. It's certainly different for them, as it is for everybody.

Q. Just on your round, overall you sound like you're pretty pleased. You should be, right?

JEFF HART: Well, yes and no. I mean, after that start I had pretty high hopes for a little bit better round. My cup of tea, so to speak, is the short game and chipping and putting, and that got away from me. I missed several kind of five-, six-foot putts for pars in the middle of the round. 8 I missed a five-footer; 9, I missed a four- or five-footer, and then there were a few more on the back nine. I must have missed three more of that same length. That's disappointing.

I tend to make those, and I don't mind missing the one or two, but I must have missed five or six today. So it could have been a better round. Hitting the ball as short as I do, there was no hope for me shooting under par or even near par probably. 1- or 2-over would have been like 67 or something for the Tour players.

Q. I was just curious, you talked earlier, but if you could put into perspective how much more difficult it is playing this golf course when you don't have the same distance as some of these younger guys. Like what clubs are you hitting in? Why is the course so much more difficult when you don't have that kind of power?

JEFF HART: Well, on the longer par-4s, I'm trying to roll the ball up, and I think I hit five or six drivers off the fairway just trying to roll them up on these long par-4s. I played with Brian Harmon and C.T. Pan, and they're 50 yards longer than I am, and they're probably short for a Tour player, and they're coming in with mid-irons. It's just a whole different ballgame.

I'm hoping for good bounces and running up and hope they stay on the green. They could roll over or not get up the hill and be short of the green. It's just not even a fair fight. I'm looking for either an age division or, like boxing, maybe a bantam weight division, although the two fellows I played with were basically my size.

When you get old, you lose speed. It's just more difficult. We see now the trend in professional golf is hitting the ball a long way and overpowering courses, and it's not going to let up. It's going to get even worse, I think, unless somebody halts the golf ball.

Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I didn't play too bad to shoot 77, so that should tell you something about distance.

JOHN DEVER: Jeff, thanks so much for joining us. Enjoy tomorrow's round and thanks for coming up and representing San Diego.