KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2021

Mike Weir

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 with Mike Weir. Posted the low round of the championship today, a 5-under par 65. He's 7-under for the championship. Mike, that's a lot of good golf played today and maybe just give us your thoughts on how it all went because it looked marvelous.

MIKE WEIR: It was. It was a really fun round of golf. Very demanding golf course, so when you have your opportunities and take advantage of them you feel good because you know you're going to be fighting for some pars on some holes, which I was coming in and made a couple nice par putts to finish off the round nicely.

But all aspect of my game was a little bit sharper today. I drove it a little better than yesterday, putting was still solid, I probably hit some iron shots a little closer to the hole today than yesterday and that's why I got 5-under.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. On the six birdies, anything of note in terms of length? Just go over some of those.

MIKE WEIR: Let's see, started on the back. I think the longest putt I made maybe was number 10. I hit a nice shot in there may be eight feet, nine feet. Birdied there out of the gate. Which was nice.

I guess my next birdie was the par-5. I was just over the green in two, almost chipped it in and it went by three feet.

I hit a 6-iron the next hole to five feet.

Let's see, then 17 what, did I do on 17? Oh, 17 I hit a tee shot over the green, chipped on, maybe that was about 10 feet. Maybe that was the longest putt I made.

Then on the front side I birdied 1.

I made a nice par -- 2 nice par.

3 -- 4, I hit a very nice drive and left myself just a 70 yard pitch, which I hit to seven or eight feet.

The next hole 5, par-5, hit a very good drive and 3-wood right in front of the hole and hit a really nice pitch shot that almost went in the hole and tap in for birdie there.

So it wasn't like I made a lot of long putts, I hit -- and then the next hole was the only bogey of the day. I was in between clubs the wind was gusting around and I hit it in the bunker, hit a very nice bunker shot to five feet and misread that one. So that was the only blemish on the cashed and the rest of the day was nice. I played very well.

Q. How close were you to the edge on 7 on your tee shot?

MIKE WEIR: It was close. It was, probably two yards. That's a tough tee shot for a lefty. Left-to-right wind, and it's just tough visual, it's a really tough visual shot because you feel like you're hitting it in the left rough to get it in the fairway. So I need to do a better job maybe with my alignment to get it aimed a little further left.

THE MODERATOR: You mentioned kind of coming in with a few tough grinding pars. That type of momentum can carry over. It doesn't always have to be a string of birdies?

MIKE WEIR: Right, right. That 7th hole in particular after making bogey on 6, the ball was sitting down, I hit it to the front of the green chipped it 7, 8 feet by, maybe 9 feet by and made that putt for par. So that was really nice. In the bunker on the next hole, almost holed it, left it right an inch from the hole on 8.

Then 9 I hit a really nice shot, I thought it was going to be close and it was ended up a little bit short and left that putt up the hill six feet short. So it was nice to make that one and end on a great note.

So there was lots of great golf and when you play a tough golf course you're going to have some moments in the round, I don't care when you shoot 65 or whatever, there's going to be some holes that you have to struggle and make some par putts and I was able to do that.

Q. When you're on one of the great championship tests and you get it on a day, right, what's the sense of accomplishment?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it feels great to play a tough golf course well. I think 2001 I played okay. But 2007 I didn't play very well here I remember. I remember being pretty disappointed. It was a Presidents Cup year, it was a big tournament for me to not play well, and so I remember that. And I wanted to see the golf course, obviously it's a little bit different, but still very challenging, very difficult around the greens and I managed around it and it feels good to play a tough golf course well.