KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 2021

John Killeen

Atlanta Athletic Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Walk in the park on that front nine?

JOHN KILLEEN: Yeah, she's playing really good. She's been trending that way. Played good and hit some really good shots, and the putter was fantastic on the front side.

Q. What are you seeing about this center-shafted putter?

JOHN KILLEEN: I see the putts go in. What is a caddie supposed to do? Watching the putts go in, it's a great putter.

Q. The best.

JOHN KILLEEN: If she believes she's a good putter -- golf is about what your last putt did, right? So if she's believing it and rolling it -- maybe got a little tentative on the back, but the back is hard. You've got to play away from the water, and you put it too far away you're in trouble. We didn't have as many makeable putts on the back. I think a little heat and a little fatigue and a little heat of the moment. Everyone gets a little more fatigued, a little gun-shy on a lot of those water holes.

Q. What did you think about the 45 holes out of the gate without a bogey at this place?

JOHN KILLEEN: Yeah, yeah, I kind of knew it was going on, and she pulled her drive just a little bit, and I saw it hit the grass, and she goes, Is it in the bunker, and I was hoping it would be in the bunker because the bunkers are so good here, and we had no chance. She didn't hit a very good chip, either. She tried to be too perfect. Instead of just getting on the green where she was rolling it pretty good, she got a little -- tried to get a little -- not cute -- well, it's a tough word out there, trying to be perfect, hitting 40 yards instead of 45, past the hole.

It was a pretty good run. At a major, on this golf course, it's hard. It's fair but it's hard. If you would have told me, Jay, when we talked nine holes today, 15-under par would have won it -- it still could, but I was thinking double digits -- at the end of the day if you said I was 10-under, I'd go, yeah, thanks.

Q. What's the biggest difference you see in her from when you were caddying for her before to now?

JOHN KILLEEN: Well, I see a little bit more maturity. How do you put maturity into a little bit more easygoing about some things in life and just a little bit about -- been through a lot of things in her life and in golf, and golf is important, got has got her to where she is, and I just see a little bit more laughter, ability. I see a little bit more rounder person that -- I shouldn't say that because I've been out here for 100 years, but yeah, I see that.

Q. How does that translate, even when you were talking about that second shot from 10 where she had that lie, her feet were under the ball, would she have been more upset about not pulling that shot off before?

JOHN KILLEEN: That's hard to quantify seven or eight years ago. She might have been more mad at her now, and now it is what it is. We hit the ball where we hit it. We have to chase it and go find it, the old adage. When she hit a pretty good shot down there, I didn't think we'd get it within 40 yards, and we got it right about 40 yards.

I think she accepts some things. Even her bad shot, she hit a bad shot into 18 there and pulled it, and she goes, I'm sorry, because we're trying to be right of the hole, and it put a little fear into her, but I knew it was going to carry.

Q. Looked like she knew it was going to go in the water.

JOHN KILLEEN: Yeah, I think that's just kind of a fear factor sometimes because on that back nine there's a lot of water that really comes into play, so if you miss it a little bit, you don't know how bad you miss it. It's so warm out, the ball is carrying pretty good right now.

Q. What was your club there?

JOHN KILLEEN: It was a little 8-iron.

Q. When was your first stint, from when to when?

JOHN KILLEEN: From '13 to '14.

Q. So you were on her bag the final round of ANA when she shot the 79?

JOHN KILLEEN: No, I wasn't. I was with her for the win in '14 at Kingsmill, but I wasn't with her with that 79. I mean, the only thing I'd say is since whatever, they're 13, 14, in college when they want to finally watch ANA and they want to come out here and they hit all those balls and spend all that time practicing, this is it, right? It's a major. You've got a chance to win; that's all you really want.

Q. We were just wondering if her opening up about the struggles that she's had and admitting her vulnerability has somehow freed her to --

JOHN KILLEEN: Maybe it has. She's discussed some things with me, and before she never would. It was like -- she wasn't -- to be honest she was not a very good communicator. Even with me and her previous caddie, you'd be, where are you, are you going to be there Tuesday, what time. All of a sudden Tuesday at 10:00, she's like, I'll see you at 11:00. I'm not the most organized person in my life, but we do more caddying now, guys do, than a generation ago. It's like Mondays off and sometimes Tuesdays.

But I think it has opened her up. It opened her up for -- win, lose or draw tomorrow, she accepts it, I hope. You can be pissed and kick the golf bag and be disappointed or she can jump in the pond. I don't know. We're just going to focus on -- for tomorrow she's going to focus on getting on the fairways and getting it on the greens and not trying to force it to make putts. Once somebody tries to force to make putts, it's no good. She just has to roll it with her natural ability, and it'll be good.

Q. When she believes in her putting, it's she's one of the best out here?

JOHN KILLEEN: Yeah, I would -- I mean, yeah. She's not -- Nelly hits it a long ways, and she's good. Lil, for some of those holes that we have to hit in, Nelly is hitting 8-iron, we've got a 4-rescue and we're hitting it inside Nelly's 8-iron sometimes, that's some good golf. Really good golf.

You know, but she never -- I never hear her -- she might say I missed the driver or might say, look what Nelly has got or Lexi has got or whatever with length. She just sits up there and tries to hit it in her little comfort zone and then on the green really.

Q. You said earlier in the week you kind of had a reminder this wasn't last week.

JOHN KILLEEN: And I think our score is -- I think we're lower this week after three days than last week. I don't know.

Q. She was kind of grinding, right?

JOHN KILLEEN: What were you after three days last week, 18-under? We played with you. We were 10 and you shot 10. 20.

JASON McDEDE: 20.

JOHN KILLEEN: And we were 10 and we went to 12. So we were better, so I lied.

Q. It was fun watching you guys. It was like who can top who on some of those holes on the front.

JOHN KILLEEN: Well, it was good golf. It really was. Really good golf.

JASON McDEDE: It's fair, you hit good shots, you make birdies. If you hit bad shots, you're going to get penalized in a hurry. I think everybody is kind of a little bit thinking safety and then some go zones out there, too, where you're like, okay, this hole is -- you're freed up a little bit. But it's a great golf course.

JOHN KILLEEN: On 12 we had, whatever, 190 something front, and she didn't like the lie, so I wasn't going to say, hey, this is a pro-am. She hit it in there, whatever, eight feet, just didn't hit a good putt. Normally if it was the Meijer we'd say, hit it there.

But we --

JASON McDEDE: We had 222 front on the last hole. It's a perfect number for a 7-wood for us, but one bad swing and all of a sudden you're probably going to make bogey with a tucked pin like that.

JOHN KILLEEN: Or you hit it in the back bunker and now you're chipping down towards the water.

And that back nine, it'll make you pucker up.

Q. Did you use the range finder as much?

JOHN KILLEEN: Yeah, we used it a lot more. 100 times more than I thought I would. Lil is not out of position -- I thought if you get out of the fairway or something like this going over a lake, I'd use it, and I've used it a lot. I just verify my number because the sprinkler heads are around about. So I have used it. And I've found a little discrepancy a few times where I'm going, I don't know what to do, so I go with the range finder a little bit.