VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2023

Patton Kizzire

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. On this type of golf course a 67 can really make a move, right?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Yeah, it's tough out there. The wind's coming and going and just switching around a little bit. So it's a golf course that if you can get up and down and have good misses and make a few putts, you can put together a good round. That's what I did today.

Q. What was working real nicely for you?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Well, I trusted myself today, which I didn't do that yesterday. I had such a bad day yesterday that I managed to shoot 2-over, but I just wasn't myself. I decided today I was going to go out there and trust myself. My team's been telling me that I'm good, and I'm good enough, and I can go and play well. I said, you know what? Let's trust it today, and I had a good day and I'll have even more trust tomorrow.

Q. How do you flip that switch? What's the challenge of that?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Well, you get tired of doing it wrong. You have no choice but to flip the switch and today I committed to what I was doing and executed a lot of good shots and I hit a lot of bad shots. I mean, it's tough out there, especially if you're not trusting your swing. It's hard to trust the wind, and if you're not trusting your swing, then you're going to have some misses. So the least you can do is trust your swing and did I that today and it was fun.

Q. Do you have a couple of examples of places where you faced a challenging shot and really trusted what you were doing and pulled it off?

PATTON KIZZIRE: My favorite shot of the day was probably number 8. I did not convert the birdie putt. The pin's in a tricky little spot where the green is changing. But that was one of the best feeling most beautiful shots I've hit in quite some time.

Q. What did you hit there?

PATTON KIZZIRE: I hit a 5-iron. But I enjoy the downhill right-to-left par save on 18. I've been playing pretty well and putting pretty well, getting it up and down, hitting good shots, but I've enjoyed a lot of 'em.

Q. You played nicely at American Express, right? Then you had a stretch on the West Coast where you missed a few cuts. What did you need to fix in that stretch or what did you focus on to turn it around?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Well, I was pressing a little bit, didn't have my best stuff, found myself right on the cut line every week. Just wasn't forgiving myself for misses and wasn't trusting myself when I was standing over the ball. That adds up to some trunk slams and going home.

But we're never far off. All these guys are so close to playing well. You never have it figured out and you're never far off. So today I trusted myself and it was fun.

Q. Is that part of the game half the time maddening and half the time just invigorates you for the challenge?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Yeah, the mental game and the attitude is so important. It can be so easy to change and also so difficult at the same time. It just depends on where you are mentally. I've been working on my mental game a good bit with Bhrett McCabe and my entire team. I've been working on everything. But the mental game is very important and that's something that my caddie, Joe, has been reminding me of.

Q. It's such a big stretch of golf right now, but it's on a lot of difficult golf courses. You kind of have to remind yourself to go easy on yourself at times?

PATTON KIZZIRE: Right, we've played a stretch of really difficult golf courses against the best fields in the world. The PGA TOUR's so competitive now that if you don't really have your best stuff, you don't even get to play on the weekend. So those difficult golf courses that we played have prepared me for this tournament this week and today I had a good day and learned a lot and had fun.

Q. What's the excitement for tomorrow? Getting yourself in there somewhere and a lot of things can happen here on Sunday.

PATTON KIZZIRE: Yeah, there's not too many people that love to compete more than I do. So I'm looking forward to the challenge and it will be another 18 holes with tough winds and tough conditions.