VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 17, 2022

David Lipsky

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. Bogey-free 7-under for the day. Just get some comments about what went right today.

DAVID LIPSKY: My iron play was excellent today. I hit it close a lot. I didn't really leave myself too many stressful par saves, really. Hit it close when I missed the green. Drove it relatively straight and I think that is a formula to go well.

Q. Was your original plan to do this over here 10 years ago or was Europe always part of the plan?

DAVID LIPSKY: I didn't have a plan. I just wanted to play wherever I could, to be honest. Obviously this is where I wanted to be and it's been a long journey to get here.

But it's been a lot of fun a long the way. I've had a lot of adventures and I've really refined my game.

Q. What kind of a global education did you get playing in the places that you played?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah. I've played on pretty much every continent you can play on, so I've learned how to play in different conditions, different types of courses, grasses.

And obviously the PGA TOUR, the courses we get to play on are immaculate. Even when, you know, I might not be having a great day, it still feels a lot easier than sometimes when I'm playing in Southeast Asia or South Africa or wherever I am.

Q. You've played in South America?

DAVID LIPSKY: I have. I played in Columbia, Brazil, Panama.

Q. Korn Ferry?

DAVID LIPSKY: Korn Ferry. Or it was the WEB.COM back then, but the Korn Ferry now, yeah.

Q. How much further ahead of you at the school I can't pronounce?

DAVID LIPSKY: La Cañada? Yeah. I think I'm about eight years ahead of Collin.

Q. Did you guys win on the same week last year?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah, we did. Yeah. He won the, I think he won the Workday at Muirfield and I won in San Antonio.

Q. Who got the parade at La Cañada?

DAVID LIPSKY: Definitely not me, I don't think. But we text each other and it was great for us to do it that same week.

Q. When did you go cross-handed and what did that do for you?

DAVID LIPSKY: Well, I think my, I putted, I used to do it when I was in college a little bit, then a little bit at some point on the European Tour.

But I just needed to change it up a little bit. Sometimes that's all it takes. It wasn't like I was -- I mean, I was putting terrible, so I needed to make a switch.

Q. And instantly you saw results?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah. I saw results and I took a little bit of a different mindset, worked with my coach, Pat Goss, who was my coach at Northwestern on it.

I tried to become a little bit more aggressive to hole some more mid-range putts and that's also helped a lot.

Q. Does this feel like a pretty easy round?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah. While I was in the scoring tent, everyone is like, that was the craziest, you know, 7-under we've ever seen. (Laughing). I was like, yeah. You know, I just sort of did everything that you're supposed to do, and then when that happens you play well.

Q. Any stress, any big save or anything?

DAVID LIPSKY: 16th hole is definitely stressful, that tee shot. Lost a little bit right in the rough and that was pretty much the only nervous shot I had all day.

Q. Off the tee?

DAVID LIPSKY: Off the tee. Just hacked it out to the front, 10 yards short of the green and got up-and-down. Hit it to like two feet.

Q. Trying to think of your age without asking you, but would you have been around for the last version of Q-School?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah, I was. 2012 I was there and that's how I got my WEB.COM card. No, I was there, the last one where you could get your PGA TOUR card, and I had it going, but I think it was for the best. I don't think my game was ready, to be honest. Everyone develops at different times and I've just been getting better and better ever since I've been playing, since the start of my professional career, and here I am.

Q. When you talk about this journey, whatever success and level you have in Asia or Europe, how hard it is to leave when you got things going, to try and find a path to get here.

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah, definitely. I was on the European Tour and I was keeping my card comfortably every year, I was playing in majors, and World Golf Championships at the time and making Dubai at the end of the year almost every year. So, yeah, it was a little bit of a gamble, but I figured it ended up working out because of COVID.

So that was my plan any ways, because I had won in the 2019 season, so I had a couple years to work with in terms of eligibility on the European Tour, so that's why I took the gamble in 2020.

Q. So where were you in March of 2020?

DAVID LIPSKY: I was, I think it was that Sarasota event. Right after that is when the TOUR shut everything down and I was playing Korn Ferry at the time.

Q. When you won in Europe in 2019, right?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yes.

Q. And then how do you have Korn Ferry status?

DAVID LIPSKY: Oh, I got into -- I finished like 10th at the World Golf Championship in Mexico, made the cut in a few other invites that I got, because my World Ranking was high enough, PGA Championship as well. So through that I got on to the Korn Ferry.

Q. When is the last time you played elsewhere?

DAVID LIPSKY: Overseas? Beginning of last year, I played Abu Dhabi and Dubai before the Korn Ferry season started.

Q. On your BP World status?

DAVID LIPSKY: Yeah.