KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2022

Michael Allen

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back the two 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores. We are very pleased to be joined by our 2009 KitchenAid Senior PGA Champion, Michael Allen, posted a 68, including a bogey on the last hole.

I didn't see any bogeys until the aforementioned but walk us through how you felt, you played efficient.

MICHAEL ALLEN: I've been playing well tee-to-green for quite a while. I've been working with Mike Mitchell. My wife is like, you have to do something different. So I said, how about I do what I used to do. Been doing that a lot. My swing and my game is better and my body is finally coming around after a few years of injuries.

So I guess it's a little bit of a surprise but you know, it's also trying to get the ball in the hole a little better, trying to simplify a little bit and get the ball on the green and hopefully I don't start shaking with the putter, I'm all right.

Q. What got you going today? What sparked?

MICHAEL ALLEN: You know, I don't know. Just come out here and trying to enjoy the golf course and play. I know I'm hitting the ball pretty well. Just trying to get the ball on the green and this course has a lot of really fun, great shots. It really does. There are some really challenging shots, like the third hole, fourth hole.

It is fun to play and go out and challenge yourself and get around here. I guess that's the main thing. I'm an old guy just trying to keep playing a little more golf.

JOHN DEVER: What are your recollections of 2009? It's been a few years, but is it nice to be recognized as a 2009 champion?

MICHAEL ALLEN: It is. It's one of those wonderful things that when you're doing it, you don't really think that much. I had been playing well on Tour at that point and I got an invite, the only invite I ever had, and I did. I played great. The older I get, the more and more it means to me, come here and to have to be recognized is a wonderful thing with the PGA. I met Julius. That's everybody's dream there.

So I don't know. It's been a great honor to be a champion of the PGA for sure.

JOHN DEVER: And winning on a classic golf course at Canterbury, that takes it to a half a level better, doesn't it?

MICHAEL ALLEN: Yeah, honestly at the time, I had played well a few weeks before that year at Wells Fargo and TPC. Tiger Woods, the winner, but for me, it was good, top 20.

When I played that year, it didn't just seem that hard, the course. But as I've gone back now a few times over the years, I go, man, that was a really hard golf course. It's perspective. It's how you feel in the moment.

Q. Chris was talking about you guys going way back, playing in faraway places, on days like this, do you catch yourself amazed that you're still out here competing, shooting good numbers?

MICHAEL ALLEN: It's incredible and that's the great thing about golf that we actually have the opportunity to do this for this long. It's been a great ride. All the places we've been and things we've seen and done and some of the great people we've met on the journey. To be in your 60s and come out and compete and someone want to talk to you when you finish a decent round, it's kind of nice.

JOHN DEVER: Thank you, and we'd like to talk to you tomorrow after Julius buys you a nice steak dinner, evens up on the accolades that you gave him.