KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2021

Steve Stricker

Quick Quotes

Southern Hills Country Club

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. We're here at Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are with the co-leader right now, Steve Stricker, who just posted a second round 68. He is 3-under par for the championship. Steve, long day, a little bit of extra golf along the way, but really solid play, maybe not exactly ending you wanted but talk about the day in its totality if you could.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, didn't get off to a good start and didn't end in a good way either. Bogeyed the first two when I came back this morning and then bogeyed the last two. And then that leaves a little bit of a sour taste. I did some good things today though and hit a lot of good putts, managed my game for the most part pretty well, but yeah, the two coming in were kind of bad bogeys coming in, but that happens around here. It's tough, it's a great course, it's in great shape and the wind is up-and-down, it makes for some tricky club selections, but all in all should be close to the lead heading into the weekend.

Q. Were you, what kind of decision to make on 17 with the tee where that was?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, I just didn't commit to it. I just needed to pound a 3-wood and I kind of laid off of it and just didn't carry the water and made a nice chip there to about eight or 10 feet and just left it short. But, yeah, I just needed to get it over the water, first things first, and I didn't do it. But that's, it makes you think. They made you make a decision there and everybody pretty much can get there, so I thought that was a nice twist to the setup on 17.

Q. How much different did the course play today with north wind, a little bit cooler, what was the biggest difference that you noticed?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, this morning was very tough, I thought. A lot of water, just sitting on top of the fairways. Looked like they weren't able to get out and just get the water off there. I know some places like to use a hose or something just to get the water on there or off of there and so that was hard. The ball was hard to control. A little mud here and there, a lot of water this morning, wind out of the north. It was like a totally different course than when we left yesterday afternoon. So yeah, it took awhile for all of us to kind of adjust and get it going, but -- and then still north wind this afternoon -- so it's playing quite different than what we saw in the practice rounds.

Q. What was the carry on 17?

STEVE STRICKER: I think it was right around 250, maybe something like that, over the all the water. The further left you go, the longer the carry and I kind of tugged it a little bit and kind of just turned it over and never really carried, it just never spun enough to stay up in the air and, yeah.

Q. What was the shot you hit in on 10, how far and what club?

STEVE STRICKER: On 10?

Q. That's the eagle.

STEVE STRICKER: Oh. Forgot I did that. I had like 107 yards, I think to the hole and right in between clubs, so I just took a wedge and just tried to skip it up the hill there a little bit. And that's just a bonus, you don't expect to do anything like that. But it was a nice shot and got me going.

Q. With the wind change today and everyone's talking about how they were guessing a little bit, how did you feel like distance control, your distance control was today and because I hear a lot of guys talking about that coming into greens.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it was hard. It was hard to -- and like I said, with the moisture on the fairways this morning made it even harder and even chipping around the edges of the green was difficult with all that moisture. And then this afternoon when things dried out, the wind is still there and it just makes for tough club selections because it's kind of gusty, it would lay down at times and then kind of pick up and you just never knew what you were going to kind of get. So, yeah, it makes it for a challenging shots into the greens for sure.

Q. Do you think the greens got faster as they dried out?

STEVE STRICKER: No, no, I, it looks like they're protecting us a little bit with the speed of the greens. They're not wanting to speed them up for some reason, they're really slow, they're slow up the hill, they're hard to get there, so that's another challenge in itself because a lot of guys -- you're not used to that speed and sometimes you really got to hit them hard up the hills. They're in great shape, it's just, they're slow.

THE MODERATOR: When we left you at the Ocean Course a few days ago you wanted to work on your putting. Maybe ask you about that. But also you've changed putters recently and kind of what prompted that decision, where did you go, what's your new putter and what were you looking for it to do.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, actually I changed literally Wednesday night. I wasn't getting my normal putter to really roll all that well. It wasn't heavy enough on some of these putts up the hill. So I went with this mallet style putter that it's actually been really good, I've hit a lot of nice putts, I'm rolling the ball nicely. Made some good ones, rolled some over the edge, it's been a good change. It's a little bit easier to lineup too. So all in all it's been good.

Q. Do you know what specific type it is?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, it's an Odyssey OG -- I don't know the number on it.

Q. 7.

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, 7. Yeah.

Q. Is that a different style? You always?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah.

Q. You like the mallet style?

STEVE STRICKER: Well I always practiced with one at home kind of off and on. I really like the -- it's got my same hosel on there, same neck, so it's not like totally face balanced. So I practice with one of those quite a bit at home, I really like the feel of it, just never really pulled the trigger. But this week, because it's heavy is I think what I'm really enjoying about it. I've got my speed has been really good with that so far, so knock on wood hopefully make a few this weekend.