JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 8, 2021

Cameron Champ

TPC Deere Run

Quick Quotes

Q. A bit of a grind for you so far this year. Did you find something recently that kind of worked well today?

CAMERON CHAMP: Not really. Really, I guess, just growing as a person. I've really been doing all the same things, again, the last few months. I haven't played well, the scores haven't shown, but I've been doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm putting in the work in the proper areas, again, just trying to stay positive. Golf at times can be very rewarding and the majority of the times it's not.

I've just been doing kind of the same things, and last week at home we had a lot of exciting stuff going on at home, so that might be a little kind of kick, but just regardless, I'm in more of a positive mindset with how to approach things out here and again how to deal with golf and personal life stuff.

Q. Can you expound a little bit on exciting stuff that's going on at home?

CAMERON CHAMP: No, we're just in a great spot. I can't complain about life at all even regardless of if I shot 80 today. I think that's really how I have to approach it, which will take a lot of pressure off me, because like you said, at times things can be going great and other times it can feel like you're a million miles away.

Like I said, I've felt like my game has been there, I just haven't really gotten to post it on the scorecard. Today was just kind of nice. It flowed. On 18 was really my only mistake, and that was just mis-clubbed. I should have used a 9-iron instead of a pitching wedge, just kind of didn't clip it right and made bogey there. But again, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, keep focusing on the things I'm focusing on and just get better every day.

Q. What do you think it is about this course that kind of got you going?

CAMERON CHAMP: I mean, here again, just like other Cam said, if you can hit the fairways here, you can really attack this place. I don't hit many drivers here. I think I hit maybe four or five, mainly on the par-5s, but I hit a lot of 2-irons. I put a 2-iron in play that's pretty strong, and I've been hitting that everywhere. Again, it's just giving me opportunities. I'm putting great, I'm hitting it great, and just going to keep doing what I'm doing.

Q. 2-iron is new this week in the bag?

CAMERON CHAMP: Yeah, usually I'll play it depending on the golf course, but this week really suits it. Usually it's firm here. The fairways are still rolling but hopefully as the week goes on it'll get a little firmer and I'll be using it a lot more.

Q. How do you build on this round? Moving forward what do you need to do? What do you think you have to do to stay up at the top of the leaderboard?

CAMERON CHAMP: Just keep doing -- really try to copy what I did today. For me it's not so much shots or things like that, just kind of my process and how I went about the round. I think that's what I've really been trying to learn for myself, again, figuring out how I need to approach things for me to be able to have my ultimate success.

Today was smooth. I was super calm. I was kind of focused on my intent of my shots. There was nothing else really bothering me and that was able to get me into a nice groove throughout the day, and like I said, I really only hit one bad swing all day.

Q. On 5 you had a 35-footer for birdie that landed just on the lip. Talk to me about what you saw there and you had that moment of frustration that it was almost there but a great shot nonetheless.

CAMERON CHAMP: Yeah, I was up against the collar, and I didn't really have anything, so I just flipped my putter basically backwards because if I tried to, it's super sticky and you can just stub or hit it two feet in front of you. So I'm like, well, I'll just hit it up there within three or four feet, I wasn't even trying to get anywhere close and it came off good. I mean, if I could hit that putt like that again and it probably goes in, but again, those are just one of those you just kind of laugh and walk off.

Q. Four birdies on your final nine holes. How much does that do for your confidence?

CAMERON CHAMP: Oh, it's huge. Like I said earlier, it's just kind of building off what I've been doing. Regardless of my scores, I feel like I've been building off of it slowly over the last few months. Again, I'm just going to go out there and do what I did today regardless of what I shoot.