SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 13, 2023

Parker McLachlin

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Parker, first of all just characterize your round today. Nice one to finish up.

PARKER McLACHLIN: Yeah, I would say my whole motto for today was to punch first and make a birdie before I made a bogey.

I did that, and felt like I was just hitting the ball where I wanted to and I just didn't make hardly any putts on the front nine. Burned a bunch of edges and couldn't get the momentum going.

I felt like, okay, I got myself to 2-under. Now it's like, okay, I need to keep going. I want to get to 3- and 4- and 5-under, and I just kept missing those 8- to 20-footers.

Couldn't get any momentum going, and then kind of a bad break there on my 9th hole, No. 18. Tried to hit a little low slider out of the trees and just caught a tree and kicked straight back.

And that's a big momentum shift to go from thinking you're going to make birdie and you're back on the cut line to then making bogey and falling two outside of the cut line.

So that was a momentum shift in the wrong direction, but I fought hard on my back nine and made birdie there on my 13th hole.

Felt like I was, all right, just keep plugging away. I got a par-5 in front of me and thought I could get it to 2-under with a birdie on the last. Just one poor drive led to a double bogey on my 15th hole.

Q. Despite not making the weekend, just characterize the week as a whole for us, if you can.

PARKER McLACHLIN: Yeah, I would say overall it's special to play here. I spoke to that yesterday. Special to play here. With this sort of new pivot that I've done into the short game teaching part of it, I mean, the amount of times that people yelled Parker versus Chef today was way more on the Chef side.

And so that business, I think people are starting to appreciate the things that I'm putting out there, and it's a nice fan base to have been cheering me on today.

Q. Driving 15, in all the times you played here, have you ever been behind that tree?

PARKER McLACHLIN: No. That was just such a bad break. As I was walking up there I thought for a second it was going to be far enough back and I could see the ball and I was like, oh, maybe I got a shot.

Then I get up there and that root was like this far above the ground so I had to play sideways. But, yeah, just felt like if I could just get that thing out 100 yards I could get it up and down.

Chipping sideways and then still having a 6- 7-iron into that hole I had to really play it tight, and I got unlucky about maybe six, eight inches. It lands up on top. If it trickles forward it's probably ten feet, but falls back into the bunker and end up missing a short putt and making double.

That was a killer for the round. I mean, if I make par there I feel pretty good with three holes to go.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

PARKER McLACHLIN: Yeah, and I felt like I had good control of my game, and felt like I was really in a spot where I was like, okay, I know I can make one or two birdies coming in.

Q. What did you hit off the tee?

PARKER McLACHLIN: Hit driver. Just got caught in the wind. Didn't hit a bad drive. Only missed the fairway by five yards but ended up in the wrong spot.

Q. Third shot on that hole, were you weighing between two clubs?

PARKER McLACHLIN: Yeah, I was between 6- and 7-iron. 6-iron is probably going to be too much; 7-iron is going to be right on the edge. But I felt like I had to play the edge. Just sort of goes down into that thing. If I can just carry that bunker, that's my -- I think I'm going to hit it close.

So I saw my pitch mark. It was literally like six inches from where it starts to fall towards the hole and just landed soft and fell back into the bunker.

So that was unfortunate.

Q. These last couple days, being just within a shot or two down the stretch, did this feel like the closest you've come in several times out here to making the cut?

PARKER McLACHLIN: Yeah, I don't know if it was couple years ago, maybe, that I was close, and I feel like I didn't birdie the last and I thought I made the cut; ended up missing it.

Yeah, I was right there with basically four holes to play. Felt like I didn't really get much out of my round today. Fel like I left quite a few shots out there. Just didn't make very many putts which is uncharacteristic.

So, yeah, just felt like I was in control of my game and felt good to be in the mix, right? That's what you want, is you want to have a chance to make the cut with nine holes to play. Obviously my sights were higher than that. I wanted to be 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-under par. I wasn't there, so with four holes, five holes to play I felt like I was -- had a chance to make the cut, which is -- you know that's all you can really ask for.

Last thing you want to do is to be nine holes to play thinking you got to make nine birdies.

Q. Did the wind pick up at any point for you today?

PARKER McLACHLIN: No. Just stayed pretty constant. I was surprised that it was -- it blew as hard as it did. I think it was scheduled to lay down a little bit. It shifted directions a little bit more out of the south and the east. It was an odd wind, but I think you look back on it, I think the guys that probably played late yesterday and early today definitely got the better end of it because it was pretty calm this morning. From what I could see.