KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2022

Scott McCarron

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship here at Harbor Shores. We're in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and we are with Scott McCarron who just posted a 5-under par 66, 8-under par for the championship. Scott, thanks for joining us. Eight birdies today, 30 on your back nine. Pretty solid play on a cold day. You've got to feel good about that.

SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, I feel pretty good. I got off to a good start, birdied 1 and 2. Then unfortunately made a bogey on 3 and made a couple more bogeys after that. But made a really nice birdie on 8.

Weather, we teed off, and it was not too bad, 60, and then we got to the third hole and I think it dropped 10 or 15 degrees. It was crazy. A little cold out there, a little breezy, made it tough to judge some of the shots. But I played the par-3s really well today, five par-3s and I birdied four of them so that was a big part of the round. Then I turned at even, made a nice par on 10 and then I birdied 11, 12, 13, 14, which really got my round going. Unfortunately made a par on 15, had a chance to go for it in two and didn't hit a very good hybrid, but I made a great 5 from where I was on my second shot, and then I made a real nice birdie on 17 to kind of cap out the round.

Q. Yes, this is golf, but you're two shots better today than yesterday when the conditions were better. What was the difference for you?

SCOTT McCARRON: I hit the ball a little bit closer today, and I made some putts. Yesterday I hit the ball pretty well, as well, just wasn't making the putts that I made today, and that was the difference. It definitely played a lot longer today and the course being a little bit more wet, and being colder it made it a lot tougher, as well.

I'm just happy to be playing golf again after surgery on my left ankle and starting to play some good golf over the last couple weeks, and great being here. It's a course I enjoy. I've played well here the last couple times, and hopefully we'll have a good weekend, as well.

Q. When you look at that foursome of birdies on the par-3s, what was the highlight there?

SCOTT McCARRON: I would say probably the last one, 17. Because that was playing long. That was playing almost 200 yards. Wind was in, and we thought it was out of the left, and I hit a good 5-iron and we got up there and the wind was actually more out of the right and that's what held it and I had about 40 feet and made that. That's a good birdie there. Anytime you can birdie the par-3s out here, that's pretty good, but I was pretty happy with that one.

Q. The left ankle, was that something you were playing through for a while?

SCOTT McCARRON: Yeah, until about two weeks ago. The surgery in August, no weight-bearing for about seven weeks, couldn't walk at all, then started learning how to walk again, then learning how to play again in December. But it's been a slow process. I knew it would be. But I need to come out and play. I need to come out and walk. That's the only way it's going to get stronger, if I keep testing it.

It's been a struggle, obviously, this year because I haven't been able to really play the way I wanted to play, and it really hurts me when I walk. I'll walk 10 or 11 holes and then I can barely walk at all and I'm kind of limping in.

The last couple weeks it's gotten a lot better, and that's kind of what my doctor had said; it's going to take a year, but after seven or eight months you're going to feel a lot better, and I'm starting to feel better now, and I can start posting off that left side, which I couldn't do at all.

So I'm getting the strength back, and I'm just very happy to be out here playing golf, to be honest.

Q. How did this happen, the ankle itself?

SCOTT McCARRON: It was wear and tear. I've got very high arches, so I'm always putting pressure on the outside of my ankles. Sprained my ankle a bunch as a kid. I actually did it to my right ankle five years ago when I first got out here, but it didn't bother me swinging because as a right-handed golfer I'm always turning on the inside, I never roll it out. It just hurt me walking. So I battled it out.

I had one doctor said surgery, another doctor said let's wait it out, and I waited it out, and sure enough, about a year and a half later I had no pain in it and I had the strength back and the whole bit.

Left ankle is a different story because I'm posting on it and rolling on it every single swing, 400 or 500 times a day. It's just not going to heal.

I tried to play for about eight months with it hoping that I could get it to heal just like I did the right one with cortisone shots and PRP and all kinds of stuff, but I couldn't do it, so I had to bite the bullet and do the surgery.

The doctor said we can just fix the tendons and you can be back in two or three months, but he asked me how long do you want to keep playing, and I said at the time I want to play for 10 more years, and he said, we're going to have to do this bigger surgery and break the foot and lower the arch or else you're going to keep putting strain on that bad ankle constantly.

It's turned out good.

Q. Obviously there's another guy that's got leg problems and we've been talking about that through the last six months on Tiger. You talked about how your doctor told you it's going to be a year. Did he say you'd be 100 percent once it was a year?

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, at my age are we ever 100 percent? I don't know. But I feel like it's going to be pretty darned good. I'm not thinking about it now, and it's really only been the last few weeks when I'm going to hit a shot. I'm not thinking about it hurting, I'm not thinking about pain. I'm able to go at it.

Now, if I've got a downhill, sidehill shot and I'm going to roll on it pretty good, that might get my attention a little bit. Until I get past that point, I probably won't be 100 percent because a lot of it's mental, too. When you're hurting and you play hurt for that long, you're anticipating the pain, and so the last couple weeks I had not been anticipating the pain, which has been a big thing for me.

Q. How much weight did you gain sitting around not doing anything?

SCOTT McCARRON: Really?

You know, honestly, I kept working out. Dan Janssen, who is my trainer, Olympic gold medalist speed skater, we were working out two days later. I had a little thing called the iWalk 3.0, it was almost like a prosthetic. You have you knee this way and it's all strapped in, and we were able to still work out, so I was still able to do push ups and pull ups and all kinds of stuff on that prosthetic, which was pretty interesting. Thank goodness I didn't gain too much.

Q. You've had good success at this golf course over the years. What is it about this course and your game that you think is a good pairing?

SCOTT McCARRON: I actually really enjoy Jack Nicklaus golf courses. He always gives you a generous amount off the tee. Jack being a fader, he likes to see a lot of shots fade, and I'm also kind of a fader, as well. I feel like I can step up, aim down the left-hand side and hit my cut and put it in play.

This has got some really good holes on it, and you've got to be very particular where you're going to hit it into some of these greens because he's got a lot of severe slopes, quadrants. I've just learned this golf course over the last few years, and I really enjoy it. It's a lot of fun to play.

Q. What did you do well today?

SCOTT McCARRON: You know, I kept the ball in play most of the day, which was good. I hit some good iron shots, hit some close shots, and I made some putts. That was good. Birdieing 4 out of the five par-3s, that was pretty cool. I can't remember the last time I birdied four par-3s.