KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 29, 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 are here with Mike Weir who just put up a 74 in the third round. He is currently 3-under par for the championship and in third place. Mike, perhaps not the back nine you were looking for, but the good news is you go into the last round with a position, a real position to win and that's kind of the end game really here, isn't it, after three rounds.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it is. I mean, sure, I'm not happy with the way things turned out today, but, yeah, I have a good chance tomorrow and it was one of those days. It was a little bit of bad golf, a little bit of misfortune, the wind was difficult and I seemed to -- there's a little bit of guessing out there and I seemed to guess wrong quite a bit. But all in all I feel good about my game, I was a little bit off, missed a few short putts and just got to do a little better job tomorrow to have a chance and Strick's playing great so I'm going to have to play well to catch him and so is Alex, he's playing well too.

Q. Save the par on the with a 25 or 30-footer. You get to 12 tee you're still 8-under. Was that blocked totally by the tree on your drive there?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it was totally blocked by the tree and then kind of compounded that error. You can miss it right of that flag. And made a 6 and then, yeah, played the next hole pretty well. I thought I hit a really nice third shot and the wind completely switched on that nice little 70 yard shot. I hit it very well and the wind completely switched and I made a bogey there. So kind of compounded the errors and I think missing some short putts was kind of what held me back.

Q. Was that reflective of Southern Hills that you can just be a little bit off and the bogeys start to mount?

MIKE WEIR: Oh, yeah, that is. And I was, I was just a little off with my game and this is a tough golf course, demanding golf course it will bite you. And I got bit a little bit today on the back side. But, yeah, I'll go try to iron a couple things out here and try to get a good attitude, some good rest and get ready for tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Did your back, I think you had a back ailment kind of coming into the week. Did that have anything to do with today's --

MIKE WEIR: No, no. I was fine. I was fine. I'm not a total hundred percent, but I'm feeling good and it was nothing to do with my back. I just made some poor swings.

Q. Was there anything technically or with your feels that felt different than the first couple days or was it just kind of Southern Hills being Southern Hills?

MIKE WEIR: I think the winds were obviously a lot stronger today and a little bit more -- for as strong as they were, they were moving around a lot. I think when you get in those winds if you're not committed -- and I felt like I was second guessing myself a lot. I would feel it one way and the other way and I made some uncommitted swings, I think, more than anything. When the winds are cross you got to really pick your line and be committed and I just didn't do a good job of that today.

Q. Going into tomorrow you're still in the final group, how do you kind of put this round behind you and focus on tomorrow, what's your mindset going into the final group with Stricker and Cejka tomorrow?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I mean the one thing is, yeah I'm happy to be in the last group to be, to see what's going on. And how I'll deal with it is just go do a little work. I'm going to go do a little work on the range and hit some chips and some putts and kind of cool down and wind down and go get some rest, get some good food and some rest.

Q. A demanding test like this, what's the biggest internal challenge if you're a little bit off about just hanging in there?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that's the difficult thing. When you're struggling a bit it's like the next hole, what am I going to do, you know? And what I tried to do is just kind of stick to my fundamentals. Even though I was off I didn't try to do anything different, I tried to just do what I do just a little bit better.

And the last couple holes I hit some nice shots. I hit a beautiful 3-wood on 17, unfortunately I 3-putted.

And hit a great drive down 18 and a 7-iron that was left-to-right and as soon as I hit it went straight down wind. So that was unfortunate, the ball really took off downwind on my second shot, because it was a nice shot. So I ended with some really nice swings so that felt good.

Q. We saw you on 15 on your second shot and kind of looked like you had a Tigeresque follow through there. Did you give it a good rip, did you swing really hard or just kind of slip on you a little bit, we were wondering what happened?

MIKE WEIR: 15?

Q. 15, on your second shot when you were coming in.

MIKE WEIR: Well I had to hit it over the tree, yeah, so I had to really swing hard and I thought the ball -- when the ball sits down like that sometimes it jumps -- and I had to get the height on it, so I swung really hard and I thought it might jump a little more and it didn't, it just kind of came out like a normal 9-iron. I was trying to land it somewhere near the front of the green, but not my forte swinging hard out of the rough, I don't have that kind of power like Tiger and some of the guys do to -- they hit some incredible shots out of the rough, I was just trying to get it on the green somehow.

Q. You're not the only one who struggled on the back nine today. What do you think made it so tough? Was it just the northeast wind, because you mentioned the wind swirling, a lot of time son those back holes, if you get into the tree, the wind goes into the funnels and you can't really judge it. So what do you think made the back nine so tough today?

MIKE WEIR: I think just what you said. It was a very strong wind and it was a lot of crosswinds, so you're starting the ball off the fairway a lot. You're starting it down tree lines and you're starting it down rough lines. And that's where I was saying earlier you have to trust that the hopefully the wind's going to take it back, so that I think gets in your head a little bit, at least it did for me today, so that's what made it tough.

Q. The wind's supposed to switch to the southeast tomorrow. Are you more comfortable in the southeast wind or the north wind?

MIKE WEIR: You know what, I think, yeah, when I played the course in the practice rounds and stuff with that other wind it did set up a little bit better for a lefty, so maybe that will be good for me tomorrow.

Q. What do you do with the north wind on 16? Stricker said he goes up in the trees and just takes his chances. Can you fly that bunker or try to squeeze it in between?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I'm trying to fly it over those trees and let it drift and I didn't stay with the shot and of course it gets on the wind and went into the bunker. And, yeah, Strick, same thing, hit it down there and he hit a very solid shot so the wind didn't touch it and he got up there past the trees and had a shot. So yeah, demanding tee shot for sure.