PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2021

Kevin Streelman

The Ocean Course at Kiawah

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Kevin Streelman. Kevin posted an even-par-72. He is 2-under par for the championship, currently in a T8 position.

You are in great position, but that's only because you played -- you kind of held steady out there. A bunch of birdies, a bunch of bogeys, but it was a tough day out there overall, wasn't it?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Yeah, especially with this wind picking up. I teed off of 1 today, so as soon as I turned from 13, 14, all you want 3-iron, 15, 3-, 4-irons in there. For right-handed golfers, that into the wind off the left is very challenging, and right now it's gusting to 20, and 17 is, we were saying, one of the hardest par-3s we've ever played in professional golf right now. These guys in the afternoon are going to have all they want out there.

Q. What did you hit at 17?

KEVIN STREELMAN: I hit 3-iron. We were sitting there, and it's only 178 to the front, 197 pin. My 3-iron goes 225 yards, so I'm thinking it's plenty of club. I hit a solid golf shot and it lands right on the front edge. It's hurting 35, 40 yards right now. You don't really want to pull a wood there. You don't want to get it shooting up in the air, so you'd like to control and kind of flight an iron. But man, there already were three groups on the tee when I got there. It's going to be a long afternoon on the 17th hole.

Q. Is it safe to say or accurate to say you kind of put what you can in the bank by the time you get to that 14th hole and kind of hang on?

KEVIN STREELMAN: To a degree. I think it really is. I know the wind is going to turn on the weekend and it'll probably play a little differently, but gosh, 14 and the tee shot on 15 and the tee shot on 18, they are stout major golf shots right now. But it's what we're here for. It's a major championship. The scores are great. The players are great. I think it's going to be an awesome weekend.

Q. Gary Woodland was just in here giving us his irons into some of the par-4s, and it was 4 and 5-iron and he said he doesn't do that on a normal basis. Does it almost help as a mid-length guy you're a little bit more familiar hitting longer irons into these holes?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Maybe to a degree. I think it's just such a well-designed Pete Dye golf course. You look on some of these tee shots, like 10, you can't see anywhere to hit the golf ball, but then when you get up there the fairway is actually pretty large. You just have to really trust your lines, trust what you see and know that there is some fairway out there, but coming in, it is a lot of 3-, 4-, 5-irons, which I pride myself in being a good mid-iron golfer. I have my whole 20-year career. It does, I guess, play to my favor a little bit.

But a lot of it, too, is just patience and maturity, knowing you're going to make bogeys, knowing you can't freak out out there. It's going to be challenging for everybody. You kind of just do your best with what's in front of you.

Q. You mentioned on 17 your ball kind of spinning up into the wind. We've had a few guys talk about the difficulty of this driving range, how it's dead into the wind. Have you found you want to not really pay attention to where it's going because it's straight into the wind?

KEVIN STREELMAN: Yeah, I'm not the type of player who gets too -- I view warmups like you're just warming up to compete. You don't see NBA players full-out 100 percent in their warmups getting ready to play. They're goofing around, getting the body moving. That's kind of how I view my range sessions, getting in a rhythm. Then I want to see what's the first tee shot going to be like.

In the past rounds like at Sawgrass where it's howling off the right on the range and then you turn around and the first hole is a complete opposite direction and you see everybody rope hook it into the left trees. The sole reason is because you've been on the range doing that and you've got to mentally prepare for the important stuff, which is out on the golf course. I try to not give too much credit to what I'm doing on the range, just try and find my rhythm for the day, my thought, and just loosen up. Go time is when you tee it off on the first hole.

THE MODERATOR: Kevin, we appreciate you finding some time for you and best of luck throughout the weekend.