KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2022

Tracy Phillips

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon, and welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship here at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan. We are very pleased to be joined by club professional Tracy Phillips, who just carded a first-round 69, I believe, 3-under par. Looking at your card, really pretty good start. I think three birdies in your first six holes and some really solid major championship golf on the back. Talk about your round and how you're feeling after 18 here.

TRACY PHILLIPS: Yeah, I was very fortunate. I made a good birdie on No. 2, hit it in there really close, got kind of one of those nice kicks off one of the side hills that Mr. Nicklaus puts on his greens, and then I think I birdied -- well, I bogeyed No. -- the par-3, No. 4, three-putted that one, and then turned around, had a comeback birdie on 5.

Played pretty solid, just like to have a couple putts over, but I made some putts. I got some good up-and-downs on the back nine that kind of helped sustain the round, kind of keep me on the positive side. Felt pretty good.

Q. What did you hit in at 2 that got you going?

TRACY PHILLIPS: 2, it was a little soft 7-iron.

Q. 5, the par-5?

TRACY PHILLIPS: 5, the par-5, I had about 83 yards in, hit a sand wedge in there to about eight feet.

Q. And then 6?

TRACY PHILLIPS: 6, I hit a 9-iron in about eight feet.

Q. How solid did the round feel overall?

TRACY PHILLIPS: You know, overall it felt pretty good. I missed a short one on No. 8. I hit it in there about six foot behind the hole. They had probably two cups outside the hole break, and just kind of underread the speed a little bit. But all in all, hit it pretty solid, kept it in the fairway, which you have to do hitting into these greens to be able to hit the right parts of the greens.

Like I said, made some pretty crucial up-and-downs on 14, got it up-and-down from left of the hole there.

Then 16, I hit it just through the green to the left and hit a good chip shot up to about six feet, made that.

Then 17, I thought I hit a perfect 6-iron that actually flew over the top of the pin and went into the bunker, had a little downhill lie and actually hit that out about a foot and a half, so that was probably the up-and-down of the day.

Q. What kind of experience was playing Southern Hills last week as far as a tune-up to this?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Well, it's nice to be on around a 7,000-yard golf course instead of 7,500 because I wore out my hybrids, and as you can imagine some fairway woods at Southern. This was a good test, maybe a good test of nerves.

No, I really enjoyed it out there today for sure.

Q. Shooting a score like that in the opening round, does it make you feel, hey, I belong out here with these guys?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Well, you know, many moons ago, I would have thought that for sure. I got derailed, I guess, I took a 20-year hiatus from even playing the game after college, or trying to play a couple years professionally and then basically put them up for 20 years, and took fishing up and worked for Hank Haney teaching players to play better golf.

It's been a good road back. I kind of wish I wouldn't have taken 20 years off. But I'm having fun, having a great time. I feel pretty comfortable with my swing and where it's been and kind of the things I've been doing. It's been nice.

Q. Why did you take 20 years off, and what motivated you to pick things back up?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Basically I had the driver yips. After college, kind of worked on the Golf Machine, which basically screwed me up a lot. So just took a lot of time off and didn't miss the game at all.

Then back I think around 2007 or 2008 started playing with a group of guys, just having some fun on some Mondays, and then eventually from there graduated to some section events and started playing those and started playing pretty well in those. Just kind of gradually got my game back.

I'm actually probably hitting it better than I ever have, probably don't putt it as good as I used to when I was smaller, but still have some pretty good short game at times. So it's been fun. Obviously it's a dream come true for me.

Q. As you were getting ready to come to -- obviously the PGA was going on, but at some point you probably looked up a little bit about this golf course. This is your first visit in. So you might have had a little bit of the knowledge of the reputation of this become. How did it live up to what your preconceived notion was?

TRACY PHILLIPS: I actually played here in 2014. I qualified -- it was funny, I was 19th alternate I think on the Friday before the week of the event and then I got a phone call from the PGA of America on Monday saying, hey, you're first alternate, can you be here. I said, yeah, let me make two phone calls. I called my wife Suzy and my dad and said, what do you think. He said, get on that plane.

So I came in here on the 14th and got the nod on Wednesday I believe it was. Suzy said my name had gotten put in the field because Hal Sutton had dropped out. So now I'm paired with two past champions, Idoki, I don't know if that's the right pronunciation, and then I was paired also with Ian Woosnam. You can imagine I walked up to them, both of those guys on the first tee, and none of us are above 5'6". I think Ian is maybe 5'7". I said, Ian, I'm guessing there's been no dunks among these three in basketball, and we just had a good laugh there and had a great time. I was fortunate enough to make the cut. Had a bad third round but had a great time there.

The greens are just -- the golf course is fantastic. The greens are -- you've just got to know where to put them, and sometimes you might putt sideways or back ways to some of the holes just to get back to the pin location.

You know, you just have to use your imagination.

Q. Don't you teach a lot of short game, and if so, do you feel that's your strength?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Yes, at my size, it's always kind of been my strength as a youngster growing up. But yes, I do a lot of teaching of short game.

Obviously not hitting the ball as far -- obviously I hit the ball further now than I did probably 10, 15 years ago, but I certainly rely on the short game and did today. Like I said, I got it up-and-down several times.

Kind of known for my short game teaching back home.

Q. Didn't you win the PGA Junior in 1980?

TRACY PHILLIPS: I won it I believe in 1980. I finished second to Rick Fehr in 1979.

Q. What did that do for you at the time? That had to put you on a lot of maps.

TRACY PHILLIPS: Yeah, thankfully I had a very good junior career. I was ranked No. 1 in the nation '79 and '80, co with Tommy Moore. Played on the PGA Cup team in England. That was I think maybe one of the first years they had done that. Then Tommy Moore and I won the World Cup, which was the inaugural AJGA event at St Andrews in 1980.

Had a good junior career and just kind of had a first good couple years in college and then kind of went down in a spiral then.

Q. Last year being a club professional yourself, Bob Sowards finished T5 in this and it was in your hometown. You're probably aware of that storyline. Does that give the 37 or 38 or 39 of you out here this week, does Bob's performance last year kind of give you guys a little bit of a boost, hey, this can be done, we can post a top 10 and really make a mark here?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Obviously Bob is a fantastic player, has been that player for quite some time. Certainly that kind of gives us a boost. I just keep reminding myself, hey, it's a golf ball, it's a golf course, just go out there and have some fun and do what you have done here lately and just kind of see what happens.

But yeah, Bob certainly is an inspiration to all of us that have played out here and been able to qualify for the Senior PGA Championship.