KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2022

Robert Karlsson

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores. We are pleased to be joined by Robert Karlsson who just opened with a 5-under 66. I saw a lot of circles on that card. You played some really good golf. Maybe the weather -- the wind died down a little bit toward the end but tell us about your round and why you were able to post such a number.

ROBERT KARLSSON: It was a nice day. We played together with Brandt Jobe and Mike Weir. We had a good day, all three of us. Got into a nice flow. When you're playing good around this golf course, and you can hit the iron shots to the right places, you can give yourself a lot of chances. So yeah, it was a nice day.

JOHN DEVER: Did you feel good this week as you prepared on Thursday? Did you know you had a good round in you here today?

ROBERT KARLSSON: The course plays very different today after all rain last night. So didn't really know what to expect. When we saw the forecast yesterday, it looked for a while like we were going to be on the good side of the draw and looked like we were going to be on the bad side of the draw. We were lucky.

But when you play along, even though it's not the coast, it kind of plays like the coast. You just go with the flow as much as you can. Some days you're lucky and some days you're not. Yeah, I was happy with how it played today. Hit some really, really good shots and just kept it going.

JOHN DEVER: Do you approach a championship that's a major differently than you will the next championship or the one after that? Do you prepare differently? Does the mindset, do you grind more?

ROBERT KARLSSON: I struggled a little bit lately last couple of months. I haven't really got going after this season. I worked pretty hard lately with my swing and my game. Coming here, I got here on Sunday just so I could play a full practice round on Monday because I knew I wasn't in the Pro-Am on Tuesday.

So spent a little bit more time and I had not played the golf course, so I put in a bit more, a complete full round, slow, tried to take in as much as I could on Monday. Played nine holes on Wednesday and practiced quite a bit on Tuesday. It was a little bit more work. But it's four days. You're still going to pace yourself and one good round -- it's great to have one under your belt but there's three to go. Things are progressing in my game in a nice way. Pretty happy with that.

JOHN DEVER: What is it about your game that you were working on that you were struggling with perhaps that maybe you've gotten over the hump this week?

ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, hopefully I got over the hump a little bit. I haven't hit my iron shots very well. Kind of mis-hit them very well. It's a bit hard with distance control. It's crucial on a course like this with the greens the way they are. If you don't hit your iron shots solid, it makes my job difficult but my caddies job impossible and that's not a good combination on a course like this.