HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 19, 2023

Derek Lowe

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Derek, just talk about your round today.

DEREK LOWE: Yeah, typical amateur golf. There was good, bad, ugly, everything in the middle. I had a couple surprise up-and-downs for me, the drivable par-4, 13, hit it behind a tree. Somehow got up-and-down for birdie. But I'm happy. To be honest with you, winning is secondary. You just want to be in contention. Obviously, as they always say, you can't win it day one, but you can sure lose it.

I have no idea where I'm at, not that it matters, but I was happy with the finish. We bogeyed the par-5, and I told my caddie, if we can just somehow birdie two of the last three, and I birdied one, so I'm happy with it.

Q. Was there any flashback once you got up to the first tee about I was here last year, any of those memories come back?

DEREK LOWE: Yeah, and I think the hardest part, again, being in a position where I've never won anything before, to your point of like you start recreating shots that you did last year, you can't do that. You've got to stay -- today is different than last year.

But kudos to Lake Nona. This golf course is in phenomenal shape. It is world class. It's going to test you on every single shot. Again, kudos to Lake Nona.

Q. And the weather is cooperating a lot more this year.

DEREK LOWE: Yeah, and we're not going to wear tuques this weekend, so we're going to wear normal clothes, and away we go.

Q. When you have Annika in the field and Mardy, how important is it to get out pretty fast?

DEREK LOWE: Well, Annika is leading if I'm correct, right? Again, you want to stay within respectability. You want to be part of the conversation. With three days to go, we've got a long way to go.

But I mean, people look at you're six, seven points behind, you're basically seven strokes behind, so you've got a long way to go.

I'm happy for her. Her home course, I know a lot of people are rooting for her, and I'm rooting for her. I hope she plays well.

Q. Did you feel having won last year, was it more of a comfort zone this year?

DEREK LOWE: Worse, worse. I told my caddie, we were on the 6th hole, and The Golf Channel was already there, people were already there. I was like, no, no, let's give us some breathing room. But it was fun. I think it takes time to understand and to learn, because it's nerve-racking. They're listening, but I love it. I think we're all here to kind of be in that situation.

Day one is in the books, and away we go.

Q. Do you find yourself peeking at the leaderboard when you're going up to different holes, seeing where you are, where Annika is, where some of the --

DEREK LOWE: To be honest with you, I know Nelly spoke earlier, I'm more rooting for her, so we were on 16, there was a leaderboard, and I wanted to see where she was. I think she was fourth at the time, had a birdie putt, and she had a great tee shot on 17. Again, you can kind of tell like it's such a blessing to play with her. We kind of root for each other, so I wasn't looking for myself, I was looking for her. I'm happy for her. Again, I hope she wins.