KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2022

Chris DiMarco

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon and welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores. We're in Benton Harbor, Michigan and we're with Chris DiMarco, who just carded an opening 67.

Terrific start to the championship. Well done. Three straight birdies, 6 through 8 really propelled you. Tell us about your round.

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was a great pairing. Obviously I love make with Mike Allen, and Mike Small, coach at Illinois. We grew up playing together and a lot of small mini-tours together. I was very comfortable. First time I saw the course was yesterday. I played yesterday. Everybody said the greens are tricky, but the rest of the course is open. I've been hitting my irons really well.

I like good undulating greens that have a lot of kind of imagination to them. Obviously they are not the speed of Augusta but they have the same kind of feel to them as far as using slopes to get there. I feel like I putt almost better that way.

So that didn't bother me. I played a really good solid round. I think I only missed a couple greens and I think I only missed one fairway, which was on the last hole a little left and just kind of managed it. Putted really well. Made a lot of putts other than last one, missed a little 5-footer up the hill that just misread. Other than that it was a good solid round of golf.

Q. What is it about when you get on these greens with a lot of undulations, do you dial in more?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think it's really dialing it in. You don't think about the hole as much because you're using slopes to get them down there. So I tend to make a couple a round. I made a good one on No. 8 today that only had about five feet of break, I used it and made it.

So you don't focus so much on the hole. You focus on hitting a good putt and rather than a lot of times -- when you stop thinking about make, make, make.

JOHN DEVER: You did have three straight birdies but you had five in a six-hole span, for an hour, hour and a half there, you were on a tear.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I made a couple really good putts. Grade a great putt on 10. Hit it eight inches on 11. But again, my irons feel great.

I'm not afraid really to go to any pin and when you can do that, you can give yourself a lot of birdie opportunities and everybody knows that if you're putting for birdie, it's a lot easier than putting for par. If you can give yourself a lot of good birdie opportunities, it take the pressure off and you can go out and play golf.

JOHN DEVER: Do you like how this golf course fits for your game?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, I wish we don't get anymore rain and I'd like to see the fairways firm up a little bit. Obviously I'm not the longest hitter, so if I can get roll on the ball and get the ball tumbling out there another 20 or 30 yards, I think it's going to be a real advantage for me because I can maybe get to some of these par 5s in two ask definitely hit some shorter irons into some of these par 4s.

Q. You have fond memories of this area?

CHRIS DiMARCO: A long time ago. It's hard to remember back that far.

Q. You defended the next year?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, and a couple years ago, we were in South Bend for the U.S. Senior Open and did something at Point O' Woods for the Western Golf Association. I got to see the course. It didn't look much different to me. It was pretty nice to go out there. I didn't get to play unfortunately. But obviously I had some great memories up here, winning the Western Amateur is a huge memory for sure.

Q. Were you at Florida at the time?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I was, yeah.

Q. What year were you?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I was a junior.

Q. And what did that do for you as you were pointing toward a pro career and all?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It just propelled me to my senior year. I ended up winning five events my senior year on top of that. Yeah, you win something like that, you get a lot of confidence. That's a big field. I think it's 260 guys cut to 140 cut to 16. It's a pretty big field and something that obviously I'm pretty proud that I won that tournament for sure.

JOHN DEVER: Thank you for your insights and thanks for finding us.