KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2022

Kevin Sutherland

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores and we are in Benton Harbor, Michigan and we are pleased to be joined by Kevin Sutherland who just posted an even par 71 in his second round. Kevin is 3-under par for the championship at this very moment tied for 14th.

Tough conditions and maybe we'll get to that in a moment but I don't think all 71s are created equal. I would guess you probably feel pretty good about putting that -- in those conditions, at least most of your round today.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Very much. So this afternoon, I don't know what it played like in the morning, but this afternoon it played incredibly hard. 71, I'm more than pleased with. It's a tough day. I hit a lot of good shots. Managed the ball pretty well. Got the ball up-and-down when I needed to.

7 was playing insanely hard and I don't know what the stroke average was on that hole today, I don't know what it was in the afternoon. I can't imagine what it was like when the guys were playing that hole when it was raining. That hole was just playing a beast.

But that's the way it works in the wind. Sometimes you get holes that help you out, too, but there was a few out there playing really hard.

JOHN DEVER: Tell us about the conditions, maybe when you teed off in early afternoon, it was raining at that point. How did the conditions affect you and when?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Felt like it started dropping, 10 tee is composed on the hill a little bit. We teed off on 10 and it was blowing pretty good right at that time. It had not started raining. It started raining about the 12th green I think, and it started raining pretty hard. Seemed like it was pretty persistent until about No. 2, I would say, maybe 3, and it kind of like let up and it was done for the day.

But didn't feel like it played all that much easier when it started raining. It was tough. Just a tough day. Felt like it warmed up a little bit later in the day, which was well-received I think by a lot of the guys.

I know for me, there was a few holes there for awhile that it was very cold and wet and windy and tough day. 14, I managed to make birdie on 14. 14 was playing -- when we played it was raining about as hard as it was all day and just was an insanely hard hole and my ball happened to go where the hole was, so it was a good thing.

Q. How much of a difference in distance was it? Club? Club and a half?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: It was -- the ball was going nowhere. It was so cold and especially it was a heavy into the wind -- this course, it's a strange golf course from the standpoint of when they get this northwest wind, it just feels like all the holes are playing into the wind. It doesn't, I understand that, but it feels like the holes that you get help on don't really help you much.

Like No. 3, it's not a hole that I really feel like I need -- it was straight downwind today, and you can try to drive green, but I did not try to do that today. And I know a few guys probably did. But where the pin was and the way the hole was set up and the direction of the wind made feel like I was going to be right of the pin with a very tough pitch, so I just laid up. That was a hole it didn't really help.

Other holes, where it obviously is very penalizing, the wind being in your face. Just the way this course sets up. With the sound wind, feels like you get a lot of holes downwind and that's kind of what we had the first day.

Q. Five back going into the weekend, do you feel you can still win?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, 100 percent. You're kind of still in the hunt. We saw just last Sunday, seven back, Justin Thomas was seven starting the day and won the tournament, so you never know.

But you do have to shoot some great scores, and that's what I need to do this weekend. I'm very please with how I'm playing. I feel like the game is getting a little bit better than it was maybe last month or two, and so I'm encouraged by the signs I'm showing. So that's good.

JOHN DEVER: Do you do anything special to keep your hands warm on a day like this? Any super technique you know or just put them in your pockets between shots?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I just put them in my pockets between shots. But the secret is coming out here with mittens, but those are at home which is probably not a good place.

That's the ultimate way to do it. Obviously hand-warmers are nice, too. But something to put on your hands, for something like a glove really does help and unfortunately I didn't have in I today.