KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 30, 2021

Tim Petrovic

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 Tim Petrovic, who just posted a 3-under par 67. Finishes the championship 4-under par. He is in second place right now. Tim, a valiant push really all day, kind of on the periphery of getting even with Alex there. You must be happy with how you played.

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, you know what, I was real solid on the front. Maybe a little tired on the back. I just hit a couple sketchy iron shots on the back and kind of put myself behind the eight ball. Luckily I was able to scramble on 14, 15, 13, 14, 15. And I guess just got a bad break on 16. I just mangled a drive down the right hit the tree came straight back. Got in the fairway but it went backwards, I would have probably had a 9-iron in. But just -- and I leaked that shot out to the right. I just wasn't sharp, I think the best shot I hit all day was the 2-iron I hit on 17. Hit it on the green. Then hit a great drive on 18 and then did my little block iron shot again on 18. So I just hit a few that weren't really that close, but the putter bailed me out today a few times, kept me in it.

Q. In 2021 you have four finishes inside the top 6. What kind of has changed in your game of late to for to have you be so consistent?

TIM PETROVIC: I don't know. I worked hard in the off-season. I don't know if the time off did me some good. We had a lot of time off in between tournaments because I didn't play Hawaii. So I think we had six weeks off between maybe Tucson and Naples. I don't know. Maybe doing work on the farm in Texas and staying busy just trying to get my body strong and I practiced when I could, but I didn't over do it when I was home. I did putt a lot. I spent a lot of time at home during those off weeks, I was putting probably two, three hours a day maybe on the putting green. Just kind of like when I was a kid I would just go to the putting green, brought the dog and I would just putt around in circles for about three hours plus. Five, six days in a row. I think I started going my putting back and I think that was a big part of it.

Q. After Cejka played 13 you were only three back with one guy to catch, how aware of the leaderboard were you all day?

TIM PETROVIC: Yeah, I knew -- actually they came back to us early on the front nine and we were right there. But Alex put the gas on and probably hit some good iron shots. I think I was within -- I wasn't really looking, I was really kind of just focusing on trying to get the clubhead on the iron because I just wasn't hitting my irons good, I was just trying to hit some good solid iron shots and I knew I was a comeback maybe two back or three back, but I was just trying to play the last five holes a couple under. Which I did. But Alex hit a great shot on 17 and chipped it up there about six inches and after he tapped it in I told him that was good, he didn't need to putt that one.

Q. We talked about it yesterday how you him proved every single round. You actually did that today with a 67. Do you contribute that to more on the course knowing it or how you handled yourself off the course with rest or practice or anything like that?

TIM PETROVIC: No, just, just every week, especially in the majors it's you got to adjust every day. Okay, first round I didn't play that great, I kind of brought it back. Okay, what are you going to do the next day? Okay, we made a couple mistakes, we hit drivers maybe on a couple holes we didn't have to hit drivers. I think I hit -- I might have hit 2 irons on maybe a third of the tee shots today. Just to keep myself in play. I think that was key. Just make adjustments and try to adjust to the greens. The greens weren't quite -- they got a little faster he ever day, they weren't as fast as I think they wanted to get them, but I think it, they could have got a little bit out of control, there's a lot of slope on they went. So I think they had them just right for this week.

Q. When you see guys like Stricker and Mike Weir and Alex on the leaderboard and you're five shots back, what's the mindset going in? Do you think you're going, they're going to come back to you that early and you'll be in contention or --

TIM PETROVIC: You know, it's a major, it's playing tough and if you just -- you got to kind of put the blinders on. There's going to be high scores. Just put the blinders on and go play your game. You heard it before, it's kind of sounds silly, but that's, I think Jack did it better than anybody. He put the blinders on -- he didn't really have to look at the board because he was always at the top. The other guys were looking at the board and when he was chasing them, they got scared. But, yeah, put the blinders on and play your game. I think that's been the key for me in all these runner-ups in majors. One of these days I'll punch one through, I rubbed the cup, I told her sorry I couldn't get her this year, but.

Q. Have you had runner-up's now in majors?

TIM PETROVIC: Probably I think I got the Grand Slam of seconds. I think the only one I don't have second place is the tradition. Actually I was third in the British a couple years ago but I've been second in this twice, second in the U.S. Open.

THE MODERATOR: But you're going to bus through, right? That's got to be the mindset. But I think it's real for you.

TIM PETROVIC: It's there. It's a couple shots here and there and you really, you can't play defense, you got to just take your hat off to the guy that beats you. I did what I had to do today, shot 66, 67 and it's a major and most of the time that might get it done.