PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 22, 2021

Rickie Fowler

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined by Rickie Fowler, 3-under par 69 today, moved him up to even par for the championship. Rickie, pretty solid round of golf. Looks like about five birdies. Does a bogey on 18, that doesn't spoil it for you. Do you still feel good about what you accomplished out there today.

RICKIE FOWLER: It spoils it a little bit. I did the hard part, got the ball in the fairway off the tee, hit a great drive, just ended up picking the wrong shot selection coming in, missed the green to the right, didn't get the ball up-and-down. Like you said, a lot of good stuff before that. Made some good putts on the back nine. Even though the wind being down a little bit from the last two days, it's still a tough test from start to finish. Anything under par is a good thing, especially Saturday, to kind of move back up into -- I guess a little bit of the thick of things. We'll see what the guys do out there, kind of the lead groups, and see if we'll have any sort of shot tomorrow.

If not, we'll go see if we can put together a good one and at least get a solid finish out of it.

Q. How disorienting will it be tomorrow with a different wind, if at all?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, so we've been -- I've been waiting for it to flip. We've been looking at forecasts and knew that we should have kind of, I think, southwest tomorrow.

I'm not saying it's going to help a whole lot, but two weekends ago we were here, Cantlay and I, and we played southwest wind for two days. I've seen the course in that wind. It's not easy. The first four are easier and the last five are a little easier. But 5 plays straight into the wind, the par-3 there, and then 6 through 13 is in off the left, which as a righty is not necessarily your favorite wind to go play in, so it's a tough stretch in the middle of the course, whereas the wind we have been playing, guys have been kind of taking advantage of that stretch 6 through 13. That's a little bit more of the time when you're able to get after the golf course a little bit.

It's going to flip a bit and definitely play a lot different. But yeah, this golf course, you're going to have half that play easier and half that play harder based on no matter where the wind is at.

Q. I don't know the last time you were in a Tuesday game with Phil Mickelson, but can you just describe his competitiveness even maybe at 50 years old?

RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I mean, he's still the same from the first time I played with him in a Tuesday game to we played the weekend prior to him going over to Tampa, or I guess -- I think we played Sunday and Monday he was down prepping at Grove a little bit. He played more golf than I did those couple days. He was just out there trying to get reps in and play as much as he could.

Yeah, he gets excited about any kind of action and just putting something on the line.

It's more -- we're not playing for anything crazy. It's not going to hurt anyone's feelings, but enough that you're going to care and try and bring your best so that you're getting ready for whether it's the tournament that week or in his case he was driving over to Tampa later that week.

Q. Was this the most energetic crowd you've felt since pre-COVID?

RICKIE FOWLER: Being that I'm actually here on the weekend, unlike the last two weeks, I would say the crowds last week were pretty good from what I saw early in the week as well as Charlotte, and to see what it was like on the weekend there, it seemed pretty crazy around 18 with Rory finishing up.

But this is probably the most back to normal, I would say. It's just that there's a lot of room out here, so it doesn't feel as on top or packed like a place like the 18th at Charlotte or something like that.

It's nice to kind of be playing on the weekend and have some people out there following us.

Q. There's always major championship pressure even at Harding or Winged Foot, but to have this many people and the noise and the energy, how does that add to the challenge of trying to finish this thing off tomorrow?

RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, it's just a proper atmosphere. For I guess it's been quite a while now where we've had a handful of majors where there's been none of this, it was like you were out playing a Monday or Tuesday practice round, there was just no one really on-site, this has the big major championship venue feel and vibe and the energy with the people back. Definitely appreciate all the time the fans are putting in just to get out here. It's not an easy trek to get on the island and then shuttling in.

It's been a great week so far, but it's nice to be back with the proper amount of fans out.

THE MODERATOR: Rickie, thanks for swinging by. Good luck tomorrow.