KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 29, 2022

Tracy Phillips

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores here, we're in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and we're with Tracy Phillips who just closed out his championship with a 1-over par 72, 5-under par. He is our low Senior PGA Club Professional.

Congratulations on a terrific week. It's been a heck of a seven- or eight-day stretch. I know we've asked you about it, pieced it together but starting out with last week, last Saturday in Tulsa, then you come here to a course you've visited about seven or eight years ago, played so well and win that crystal bowl, has to be a nice pocket of time in your life here.

TRACY PHILLIPS: It really is. I don't know, maybe it was the perfect storm that I did miss the finals to get into the PGA in Tulsa. I know that would have been a brutal test for me to try to make the cut in Tulsa, and who knows what that might have done with my confidence. I.

Know what I walked off 18 green down in Austin, I didn't really feel that bad. Felt like I had played well and still had great confidence within my game. And then to get the call to be a marker Saturday at Southern Hills, was an absolute dream come true. It certainly put my game to the test. I wanted to go out there and obviously see what I could shoot under those conditions and I felt like I played pretty well and made two double-bogeys on the back nine and turned into 75.

But all in all, I think it still led up to this week where I knew I was playing well coming into the week. I had a lot of confidence with what I was doing and what can I say, this was a great, great week for me. I had a blast. Played with some great guys, Ernie Els today and yesterday for sure. And I mean, it was a dream come true, really a fantastic week.

Q. Being the low PGA pro is a nice bonus this week but beyond that you're up there on the board pretty high all week. How much did that add to the experience?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Everything. To see your name up there, it didn't last very long but to see it up there was fantastic. I wished I would have finished off a little better today but just didn't quite hit the ball as well. I didn't make as many putts as I had made the previous three days. Lost momentum out there.

But I did get maybe one bad break on 14, I guess it was. Had a mud ball that flew way left and long and cost me a bogey there. All in all, I can't complain. It was a dream come true week. I did a lot of things good.

Q. What do you call the putting grip you use and when did you go to that?

TRACY PHILLIPS: I call it the "grab." When I came back to playing I had a little twitch in my right hand on short putts. I started out doing I guess the saw or the really light hands touching the club on my right hand. And I just felt like I didn't create speeds very good on long-range putts, and all of a sudden I kind of stuck my hand all the way in there and grabbed it. My long putts felt a lot better, and so I've been doing that ever since.

Q. What's been the reaction from yesterday's all-world up-and-down?

TRACY PHILLIPS: I had quite a few people back home send me the video. Yeah, it was crazy. Walking back there, and like I said yesterday, it could have been double or triple really easy. At one time I was asking an official, you know, "Where is the hazard? Where did I drop?"

And he said, "No, this is part of the golf course, you've got to play it."

So made up my mind that I was going to get in there and hack it out so I laid that face open and just the good Lord was watching over me there and Dad was watching over me there. As I've seen replays of it, the ball just trundled barely out of the tall rough on the second or third hop. Things were going in my favor there, and I had to make the putt after hitting that shot.

Q. The last time you were here, you came with your dad and you talked about feeling his presence this week. What were those last few holes for you like?

TRACY PHILLIPS: You know, what great. I mean, I had a good opportunity on 16 after a really good 5-iron in there about 15 feet just above the hole left. Misread it and then 17, a funny story there was when I played here in 2014, I played that hole 6-over par.

And so I think this week I hit a good 6-iron in there today about 25, 30 foot and once again, misread that one a little bit but made par. I think I played that hole even par for the week.

So that was a big change for me and then playing 18, made a good up-and-down from the right side. All in all, it was a good finish for me.

Q. You played the last four 2-under this week?

TRACY PHILLIPS: That's a lot better because I know in the third round, I think I made a 7 or an 8 the hit it in the water I think twice, once off the tee and -- or maybe almost twice off the tee. So yeah, I got my revenge on those last three holes, which are great holes.

JOHN DEVER: We've talked about it, your career path is a different one, and you came back to the game. Does this play this week here in a major championship, a top 20 finish, does that just give you some realization that, hey, I could play and I'm very pleased with how my career in golf has gone and here I am but it is good to know that I can play at a really, really, really high level?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Yeah, it is. Obviously I would have -- if I had things to do over, I probably wouldn't have laid off 20 years but things happen for a reason. I've got a great job working back at Cedar Ridge Country Club and working with the guys from Executive Homes.

You know, I've got an 18-year-old daughter -- she'll be 18, I've got a daughter, Sam, that's graduating or graduating from high school. So she's going to ou next year. This money will help pay for that a little bit, and so that's a nice thing, too.

But you know, it's been a great week and yes, I'd like to maybe have some opportunities to play out here a little bit more. It's hard to get out here, obviously, the direction you have to kind of go but I am going to tee it up at the U.S. Open Senior next month, so I'm looking forward to that. I'll hopefully be back near. I'll have to go through the final school to re-qualify again and hopefully be back next year.

Q. Just a timeline question. When you were 20 years away from playing, you were teaching in that period, weren't you?

TRACY PHILLIPS: Right. Right.

Q. But just never tempted to hit balls?

TRACY PHILLIPS: I taught three years for Hank Haney don at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in McKinney, Texas. And he was a workaholic and I was, too. That's kind of what we did. So we gave myself a lot of lessons down there and that's pretty much what I've done ever since.

I took up fishing for a while. Every Monday I had an opportunity to go up to grand lake and do some bass fishing that. Was part of my life and part of my get away.

But I'm enjoying golf a lot now these days. And so every chance I get, usually on Sundays I'll go out and play with a few members at the club and still try to keep my game in shape, outside of numerous lessons I'm giving during the week.

JOHN DEVER: We'll be watching next month as you go into the U.S. Senior Open. That will be fun to watch your pursuits there. Thanks for all the insights. It's been a great week.