HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 21, 2023

Chad Pfeifer

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your round.

CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah, it was another solid day. Didn't make as many birdies today, which it's always nice to see some birdies drop. But yeah, played pretty decent, just had a couple bad mistakes. But yeah, overall good round. I have a feeling I'm going to start needing to make birdies to catch Mardy.

Q. You're in second place right now; how do you feel going into the final round?

CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah, I mean, this event is so exciting. Even just playing in it is exciting, so being up there in contention is always fun.

I'll just come out tomorrow, have fun, try to play the best I can, and hopefully the putter shows up and I can roll some more putts in.

Q. It looks like you've been steady throughout the week; did you come in playing pretty well, or have you not played much?

CHAD PFEIFER: You know, being from Idaho, it's not a whole lot of golf in the wintertime. It's a lot of simulator work. The Timberstone Golf Club there in Idaho has got an amazing practice facility indoors. I came down this year actually a little bit early, so I was able to get a few rounds in down here in Florida before the event started.

That's helped definitely with short game and putting. Still not super sharp, but it's nice to be steady, hitting the ball good and not having a whole lot of stressful pars. If I miss a birdie putt, I'm leaving myself easy pars.

Q. How long have you been in Idaho?

CHAD PFEIFER: Well, I was born and raised there, so I've got a lot of family. Then after the military, my wife and I moved down to Arizona for almost seven years, so 2016 we moved back to Idaho to get back around family.

Q. Is it pretty amazing what you can accomplish in those simulators?

CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah, definitely weather-wise, being indoors, you can be in there in a tee shirt and shorts, hitting not freezing your butt off out in the cold. It's great to be able to keep swinging all winter. There in the Boise area, the courses will be open if there's no snow on the courses, but it's still very cold, and I don't like being bundled up and 17 layers on trying to swing a golf club. It's nice just to keep swinging throughout the winter.

Q. The whole key to tomorrow, Mardy has played so well. When you look at the points system, how far back can you be, and is the whole key making a ton of birdies?

CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah, with this format you've got to shoot really low to make up ground. You've got to make a lot of birdies, maybe throw in an eagle or two.

It would be nice -- I missed an opportunity yesterday with 15 having the tee box pushed up, and I actually got a bad break and was in the lip of the bunker, so I had to go out sideways. That's one of those -- for a lot of these guys, they probably had wedge into it. I would have had a 7- or 8-iron into it. It's basically playing as a par-4, so to not make a 4 on that one felt like you'd lost ground.

Yeah, you've got to make a lot of birdies with this format. With birdies only being one point more than pars, it's tough to make up ground.

But it's still so much fun to be here, and I'm excited to be in contention.