KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2021

Darren Clarke

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're joined by Darren Clarke. Posted a second round 2-under par. 68 today. With a little late charge. Darren, four straight birdies there on the back kind of salvaged a good day and might keep you around for a bit.

DARREN CLARKE: It's tricky out there the wind direction was coming from the north, but it was moving, it was swirling out here as it does. You were picking the wind and getting it wrong, everybody has probably gotten it wrong. I hit some really nice shots on the way in -- and they moved the tee up there on 17 to make it really exciting. I think that's a brilliant little risk/reward hole moving the tee up. I think it's in the perfect distance, everybody will have a go at it. So it will be a great place to go sit down and have a couple of beers and watch everybody play that hole. It's a great little hole when that tee is moved up. So I took advantage of that.

I played a lot of good golf yesterday, very little this morning and then a little bit better again on the back nine this afternoon.

Q. You said you it wasn't on the record when you talked at first but that jolt to your system on the 1st. What do you do after that?

DARREN CLARKE: I'm not, I haven't had a snowman for I don't know, what? I haven't had a four-putt, should I say, for a very long time. It was one of those, I was, I just got it out, it was a comedy of errors. But I just completely misjudged the speed of the green. It was way faster uphill than what any putt that I've been hitting downhill was out here before I went out and I hit it four foot past and hit it four foot past and then I was sort of I'll finish, I'll finish, I'll mark. But I was the worst in the field with the putter and I struggled all the rest of the way around.

Then I hit a nice drive on No. 9 to finish off the round and left myself I think what was it 67 flag or something to the 9th this morning. Hit a nice lob in there and made birdie. Got it back a little bit. But then it's tough, it's a major, it's supposed to be tough, but it's tricky, it's really, really tricky out there. To get the wind -- and here if you get the wind wrong, there's a couple of places where you can't afford to hit it and unfortunately I did that.

Q. A lot of people say that the course plays tougher with a north wind, however it was a little softer today, so do you think that it played tougher yesterday or today?

DARREN CLARKE: Yesterday, we only played the back nine yesterday, but in our practice rounds it was the other wind the whole time. I don't know, this course could not have any wind and it's still going to play tough. Doesn't make any difference. But you've got No. 1 that's going to play tough straight into the wind there. And 16 as well when we're playing it as a par-4. Not too bad for me because I hit it over the bunker anyway. But you got a couple of those tough par-3s as well. So it's a balancing act. It's a proper stern test of golf. It's hard. You got to play well and if you don't it will catch you out. That's just the way it should be. It's a great golf course. It's hard.

Q. You obviously have to make something happen coming in on a really tough course, what's the sense of accomplishment when you make a run like that?

DARREN CLARKE: I've been playing nicely for most of the year, I won a couple of times recently, I've been playing nicely and I just more -- I got really frustrated with myself just wasting shots and giving myself opportunities -- my putter was really cold all day. The ones I made birdie, I holed it from the front bunker on number 13. It was me to you away from the flag, but nice I holed it.

Then I hit an 8-iron on the next to four feet. Holed it.

Then hit a driver, 7-iron on 16 to three feet and holed it.

And then I hit it in the bunker on 17 out to about six feet and holed it.

So it wasn't as if I was making 20-footers for fun. So I got a little bit of work to go on do.

Q. Were you driver or 3-wood on 17?

DARREN CLARKE: 3-wood. I was taking a bit off, I couldn't hit the full 3-wood because I'm going to go long. So I was trying to hit a soft 3-wood in there and just didn't quite cut it enough.

Q. But you like that setup?

DARREN CLARKE: I think it's brilliant. It would be wonderful -- it's great to see it today I don't know what their plans are to do it again over the weekend or not, but certainly for next year when the main PGA is here I think that will be a fabulous hole.

THE MODERATOR: Do you like that hill on 18?

DARREN CLARKE: No. And I don't like the hill only the 9th. I don't like hills. Can you not tell? (Laughing).