LIVE AND WORK AT MAINE OPEN

June 26, 2022

Pierceson Coody

Press Conference

Q. First professional victory in your third start. How are you feeling?

PIERCESON COODY: It's crazy. It feels like a blur. Third start out here, I don't know how to describe it. It won't sink in for a while. Hopefully I can just keep playing with this kind of momentum and see where it takes me.

Q. At one point you had an eight-stroke lead on everyone else in the field. Was there ever a point in the round where you started to feel a little bit safe?

PIERCESON COODY: When I made the birdie on 8, to my detriment, I felt a little like comfort, and just -- you could call it cruising in, but I had to make some nice par putts, just kind of three, four-footers on every hole. I didn't feel a ton of stress, but my caddie was pretty nervous. But it was all good.

Q. You shot a 60, tied the course record earlier --

PIERCESON COODY: 62.

Q. That start today, just blistering start, 28 on the front. Did it feel like that or did that feel like a whole different kind of zone?

PIERCESON COODY: It was way more in the zone than the 62. I knew the front nine was gettable and I knew in the afternoon this back nine plays tough. So I just played it really aggressive on the front nine, just great numbers, really nice putts. Just everything seemed to go my way.

The back nine is tough. It gets blowing, whatever, 15, 20 miles an hour and some tougher pins, so I just kind of held on.

Q. It's one thing to have a round like that but another thing to have a round like that in the final group with the lead. Either you didn't feel any jitters or you knew how to handle them.

PIERCESON COODY: I guess you could call it 50/50. I've had my fair share of success in amateur golf, and playing the national championship a few weeks ago, it was almost more nerve-racking just because guys were relying on you to play well. Your four years is coming to a finality.

This, it's all opportunity to play out here. It's an opportunity to play well. I didn't think of it in any kind of negative way. It just was an opportunity to go play well and going forward it was an opportunity to get my PGA TOUR card.

Q. How about playing with this crowd; what was it like playing with that and dealing with that for the first few holes?

PIERCESON COODY: It was really cool. It almost kind of gets you more focused on what you're doing just because there are distractions around, so you take the extra second to just think about what you want to do with the golf ball. It was really cool to see that many people out here, really cool that Cole was playing as well as he was. Definitely not a hostile crowd, but we knew they were rooting for Cole, but they're awesome.

Q. Talk about Cole's game and what he can do out here on the course and what impressed you about his game today.

PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, I played with Cole last winter, and I know he played well -- he beat me in the event we played in. I know that he has a lot of upside and he can really play well, and I know this week and I hope he gets into next week in Colorado and keep building on what he did out here because obviously finishing third in a Korn Ferry event with soon-to-be, 25 or however many PGA TOUR players, just has to give you such huge confidence. I know his coach is top tier in our college game, and I know he'll take a lot of this momentum and do great things with it next year.

Q. Can you even put into context the last month for you?

PIERCESON COODY: No, finishing first on the PGA TOUR university program was in itself just such a huge goal. The one day that I was in Dallas before I went to the BMW, just had breakfast with my agent, and we talked about how getting a top 75 was just the big goal. That's what we wanted, just stack some nice weeks together and see where it takes us.

Last week finishing fourth in Wichita gave me such confidence. I won't say I knew this was going to happen, but I definitely felt that I would play well and I felt the momentum from last week, and I just -- yeah.

Q. Your granddad is a Masters champion, and then your brother, he's playing, as well, in Canada. What do you think your family is thinking right now?

PIERCESON COODY: I think they're just probably a little bit at a loss for words. My granddad had an exceptional career on the PGA TOUR, never lost his card once he got out there, and I just want to emulate something like that. That's the big goal. He's taught me so much.

My dad played professionally, played on this Tour a while ago, but he was a great player in his own right, and my brother was a top amateur, on the national championship team, and now he's playing in Canada.

I know he has the same game and he can do the same things, and hopefully he's building great weeks in Canada and gets out here next year, and whether we end up on the PGA TOUR together or out here, it'll be really fun to be playing with him again.

Q. 2-under through 4 to start the day, already on a hot start and then you go birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie. What are you thinking about when that's going on?

PIERCESON COODY: You're not thinking, the hole looks like a bucket, just good pace on your putts and watch it go in. Stuff like that is wild, I guess. It feels fake. You just watch the hole kind of grow. But then at the same time there's definitely rounds where the hole seems really small. Luckily for me it was one of the rounds that everything just felt really natural. Was in a really good rhythm early and just kind of stayed within myself on the back nine.

Q. Are you still working with Chris Como, and can you describe the process the last couple weeks?

PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, I grew up working with Chris Como, and I've been working with Troy Denton the last year and a half, teaches out at Maridoe, and both of them together have such big influence on my swing, my game. Without Chris or Troy, I wouldn't be here. They've been such huge parts of my game, and then I work with Josh Gregory on my short game, and he's changed the way I putt and chip. Again, he's been just an instrumental part of getting here.