PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 22, 2021

Brad Marek

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Brad Marek, who posted a 6-over-par 78 today, currently 8-over for the championship.

Brad, maybe not the ending on 17 you'd like, but a solid round of golf leading into that. Maybe talk about your play and the conditions that you experienced out there.

BRAD MAREK: Yeah, it was a really quick turnaround to be perfectly honest. Didn't get back to the house till 9:30 at night, 9:00. Didn't sleep a ton last night so I felt it was a continuation of last night. Got off to a decent start. I played the front even, a couple sloppy shots in there. Got away with a couple. Paid the price for a couple on No. 1 and No. 6, bad lie in the left rough on 1, but still making the turn at even.

I know that 10 and 11 are going to be decent opportunities. Had really good look on 11 that I thought I made. And then made a bogey on 13, which is fine, and 13 is really hard, and stuffed it in there on 14 but didn't make it.

Was playing pretty good. Just kind of tugged one on 17. It was on the cart path on the left. Obviously you know, would like that one over and the next one over and the next one after that over. I thought there was going to be a lot more underneath the ball. I really thought it was going to react a lot more like a bunker shot. Obviously it didn't. It just kind of clanked into the ball and it was just gone.

Second one I dropped, it plugged. I thought for sure there was something underneath that. Tried to play a little bit more defensive on that one, too, and just kind of land it in the base of the hill and limit the damage, and that one, too, just bounced right into the ball. Gone.

The one after that was two feet away from going in the water again.

I don't know. We were on the clock on the back nine today. That was not fun at all. First weekend in a major and we're massively behind.

I feel like I did a really good job handling that up until that point but probably wish I could have had the tee shot on 17 back to be perfectly honest. We had talked about trying to get it in the front bunker. I ended up hitting 4. I just don't think it was a 4. Looking back, it was probably a 5.

You know, you can't be there. You just can't -- world-class player is not going to put themselves over there. It's not that hard of a shot today, holding a 210-yard shot, you start it right of the pin and cut it. Not happy at all about that.

But still, great week. Great week. It stings a lot right now. But I know something a few under par tomorrow will go a long way, so going to try to regroup tonight and get back at it tomorrow.

Q. How do you not let a 20-minute stretch dampen what's been such a great week?

BRAD MAREK: I mean, some of the stuff that I talk about with some of the juniors that I teach, I mean, you can't. It's really easy to do that, but I mean, if you're going to be mentally weak, you can let it affect you. It's really hard but you've got to try -- same way if you have a bad week or a bad month on the golf course or just in life, you have to try to shake it off and get back to the process that got you there in the first place.

I thought the process, that's what's frustrating is I could almost handle that if the process on 17 wasn't good, but I liked our process. I liked everything we did. Just kind of a really unfortunate break. Once it goes in the water there, you don't have another option other than to try it again.

Maybe I should have gone to the drop area, I don't know. Didn't really think about that until now to be perfectly honest.

Q. Was it more of the cart path than sand?

BRAD MAREK: There's a sandy area on top of an area that gets a lot of cart traffic. I found a few different areas. Some were really, really firm and some were kind of bunker-ish in reaction. I kind of -- I was betting on, I was going to get a bunker reaction, and I clearly did not.

But I mean, it's still a blast of a week. You know, it's still really an incredible experience. I'm proud of the fact that I was able to par 18 after that debacle. So hopefully, you know, obviously going to be out early tomorrow and hopefully the wind kicks up in the afternoon and hopefully we can go shoot something under par in the morning and move up a little bit.

Q. Just curious, I know 17 was kind of a tough hole today. But talk about maybe being a PGA member representing the 28,000 members out there, playing in a major championship on a weekend. What's that like for you?

BRAD MAREK: It was great. I mean, you're paired with -- I mean, I don't know what Matt's ranked in the world but it's something around 50 or 60. You know, it means a lot to my game to be able to step up, and I don't know what I was going into 17, but probably 40th or something like that on Saturday at a major. I mean, for somebody that works full-time, I'm not unhappy with that.

But yeah, we'll get back at it tomorrow. It's going to sting. It's going to sting for the next hour, probably going to sting tonight. But no other option than to wake up and regroup tomorrow.

Q. I think you're fifth in strokes gained putting; is that normally a strength?

BRAD MAREK: Yeah, to be honest, if the old fable of drive for show, putt for dough were actually true, I might be out on Tour to begin with, but with the advent of strokes gained, we know it's a lot about driver and 225 to 125.

I've been really, really good. I think I saw I was in the top 10 in both around the greens and putting going into today. But that's not uncommon. Usually if I can drive it well and hit irons well, I generally have a chance to win most mini-tour stuff that I play in, section stuff.

Yeah, still, it's been an incredible experience, and I don't want this to ruin the whole week. So you know, going to have some lunch here, have some coffee, have a club soda or something and get back it. It stings now but I'll be fine by tonight.

JOHN DEVER: Good example for your students.