PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 23, 2021

Steve Stricker

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: We're here with Steve Stricker, closed his championship with a 3-over par 75 today, finishes 4-over. Steve, maybe not the ultimate result or pinpoint play you wanted all week but solid nonetheless. How does that set you up for the rest of the summer?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, you know, I struck the ball so nicely again today. That had to be one of my worst putting rounds ever. I couldn't tap it in. So that part is very frustrating.

Just never felt comfortable, and then it was breezy today, too, so that adds to it. Just to feel steady over it -- I don't even feel steady over it. I feel like I could miss a two-footer, and I almost did a couple times. So that part was very frustrating.

The positives out of it, though, I hit the ball nicely, drove it nicely, managed my game pretty good, a couple wayward shots here and there, but just no putts. When you don't make any putts, hard to get momentum.

Q. Where do you go from here with your putting to try to fix this?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, good question. If you have any advice or suggestions I'm open to hear them.

Yeah, I don't know. It feels awful. I'm not starting on my line. I don't feel solid over the ball. If you can't feel solid and like steady over the ball, then you don't have much of a chance, and I feel like I'm behind the 8-ball right away when I stand over it. I don't feel comfortable. I don't feel like I'm aiming properly, and the strokes are non-committal. They're non-aggressive. They're wishy-washy. They're just not very positive strokes.

Yesterday I putted pretty nicely. The three other days were awful.

Q. You said you found something yesterday; than didn't translate to today, obviously?

STEVE STRICKER: Nope. Nope. I couldn't get that feeling back.

You know, any amount of wind out here makes it difficult, too. I struggled with that.

And I think a lot of players did, too. It was hard to -- although Scottie Scheffler today putted very nicely, but it was hard to get the ball in the hole at times. When the wind is moving, you've got a right to left break and the wind is blowing off the left, you don't know whether to play the break or play the wind. So that becomes a difficult challenge. I'll just keep working at it. That's all you can do is keep working on it and see if something clicks.

Q. What holes on the back nine especially with the different wind did you feel less comfortable on than you would have felt the first three days?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, they're all slightly different, but 10, 11, 12, 13 are some really good holes today. The wind is off the left, so that's -- the ball is not getting out there as far. They moved some tees up on 12 and 13, so they give you a little bit of break there. But you really have to stand in there and hit some shots.

And then when you turn to come back to the clubhouse, 14 is a tough hole location. The wind is off the right. The win is on the right. So that's a tough hole location.

But then you've got some -- 15, 16 and 18 I think are -- if you can get them in the fairways, there's some birdie opportunities there. Especially 16, the par-5, everybody is -- I was able to reach it, so if I can, everybody is going to get home there today.

It should provide some great theater down the stretch because there's some birdie opportunities for sure coming in.

Q. If I could, I wanted to ask you about the PGA double, doing back-to-back weeks. Assuming you get the putting sorted out, do you feel you bring some momentum into Southern Hills?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm excited to go next week. I'll get away from the game for a day and then pro-am on Tuesday and I'll get back to work Tuesday and Wednesday and get ready to tee it up there at Southern Hills. I'm excited to go there and see what the redo is all about. I heard nothing but good things about it.

Yeah, and I'll be fine. I'm frustrated right now the way I putted. Literally made nothing today. It wasn't fun. It wasn't pretty. But I'll be excited to go and get ready for next week.

Q. You played there in a U.S. Open, you played there in a PGA. What does Southern Hills ask of you?

STEVE STRICKER: You know, it's pretty demanding, and I think the redo, from what I understand, has made it even more demanding. A lot of runoff areas that they created. I heard they took out some trees.

I'm excited to see what it's all about, but from the other majors that I've played there, it was always a great test. It won't be any different.

The PGA has played some great courses on the senior level, on the Champions Tour level, so it's a good test for us, and I'm sure par is going to be a good score there next week, as well.

Q. Isn't that where you played with Palmer years and years ago?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, '94.

Q. Good memory there?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, very good.