HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 20, 2023

Mardy Fish

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, Mardy Fish, thanks for coming in. I believe you just said you had a 67 today. Sounds like another great round.

MARDY FISH: Yeah, much cleaner today. Not quite as many mistakes. My only two bogeys were both three-putts, so I hit a lot of greens, and when I didn't I was able to kind of clean it up pretty nicely.

Obviously really happy with that.

Q. And how did the course play?

MARDY FISH: It's gorgeous. It's perfect. The grass like around the greens and stuff is super tight. It's tough to chip on. I was lucky on 17. I chunked my tee shot to sort of roll back, and it rolled back into the rough as opposed to on that tight fairway grass.

That was lucky I was able to got to up and down, so I got some good breaks, too. Yeah, super happy with it.

Q. You said yesterday of these events you might start off slowly and find your rhythm.

MARDY FISH: Yeah.

Q. Was it a nice bonus yesterday to play pretty well?

MARDY FISH: Absolutely, absolutely, and I started poorly yesterday. Again, kind of through six holes, 3-over, kind of thinking that it wasn't my day again and I'll get it going tomorrow kind of thing, and started playing some good golf from kind of 7 or 8 on yesterday all the way through to today.

So hopefully I can keep it going.

Q. And today shooting a low round, what did you feel was your best strength?

MARDY FISH: Drove the ball really well today. Some long irons really well. Lag putting was good, too. These greens are -- we're not used to playing these fast of greens at home, or anywhere really.

So they're just in perfect condition. If you can line up the pace pretty good, you can hit some good putts. Again, I missed some short ones. My bugaboo this week is four-, five-, six-footers. I think I probably missed five of those already this week, so hopefully I can go over and maybe work on a little bit of those.

But other than that, yeah, obviously really happy.

Q. You drove the green on 14. Talk about the mindset heading into that hole and your confidence in your swing with the aggressive approach there.

MARDY FISH: Yeah, my driver has always been the best club in my bag, my most trusty club, even on 18. It's not necessarily a driver type hole, but I like to sort of choke up and hit a driver anyway and sort of -- I was just kind of using my hands and my feel just from tennis, and that's how I've grown up playing golf.

I don't over-club. I under-club a lot just to try and sort of feel shots around the course. So obviously hit a great drive there. Two in a row really. Yesterday hit a great drive there too. It was kind of pin high just in the bunker right next to the pin and got up and down, so, played that hole nicely, yeah.

Q. Mardy, the mental part of the game really starts to show up on the weekend. With the position you're in, do you think that part of the game is easier for you because you played a sport where you're a different type of celebrity and not an actor?

MARDY FISH: I mean, a lot of these guys are athletes, first of all. Second of all, I didn't play golf, and that's a different mentality. You have more time. In tennis you have almost no time to sort of dwell on what's happened and what has occurred in the last couple minutes.

In golf you have all the time in the world to sort of dwell on that. It can be a good and bad thing. You can get over it. You have time to get over it. You also have time to dwell on it.

So it's almost a complete opposite. They're both incredibly different mental sports, tennis and golf, but they're almost the opposite in terms of how much time you have to sort of compartmentalize and process what's going on.

Q. Tomorrow do you attack or do you just try to keep doing what you've been doing?

MARDY FISH: Yeah, I feel like we played a lot of golf and we're only halfway through. Yeah, lots of golf left. I'll certainly be pretty golfed out by the time this tournament is over and put up the clubs for a while.

But, yeah, you just, yeah, pick your spots. It's a fun course to play and there are some really tough holes and some holes that you can make some birdies on. It's fun to play.

Q. Quick question, as Nelly is standing here. Sebastian Korda had a big --

MARDY FISH: I watched it.

Q. I was hoping you could say nice things.

MARDY FISH: I got lots of nice things for Seby. I've followed Sebastian for years now being Davis Cup captain up until this year, and lucky enough to have him on our team, I guess it was in Reno last year.

Seems like a long time ago. Yeah, fun to be his captain one tie. I asked him a lot, and he was very strict. Their dad is very strict with their schedule, Petr is, and so I understood that and respected that.

Certainly he's got great role models in his sisters to watch, and obviously his parents. So he's a great kid and I root for him like crazy. I was up at 5:00 this morning watching him play, so fun to watch him win.