PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 20, 2023

Eric Cole

Oak Hill Country Club

Quick Quotes

ERIC COLE: Yeah, very satisfied with the score. It was absolutely brutal out there playing in the rain and the rough being so thick and wet made it to where you absolutely had to hit it in the fairway which I did which was nice for the most part of the day until the last three holes. But yeah, even par is a really good round I think and I'm very happy with it.

Q. Bunker shot on 14, was that the highlight?

ERIC COLE: Yeah, that was kind of a cool shot. I was just barely on the downslope of the bunker so I couldn't really go at the pin like I probably would have if I had a little more flat or uphill lie so I went up the hill and brought it back. So that worked out good. It's nice when a plan worked out.

Q. For birdie?

ERIC COLE: It was, yeah.

Q. Pretty strange week. You finish in the cold the other night, out in the rain today. Is it hard to get a rhythm?

ERIC COLE: Yeah, I think Rochester this time of year from what I've heard, this is kind of par for the course. They have a lot of different types of weather this time of year, so we are experiencing all of them.

The fairways got really firm in my second round. So this should soften them up and maybe it's a little bit easier.

Q. Were the greens easy because of the rain or was it too wet?

ERIC COLE: They were still pretty quick for that much rain but they were definitely soft, so if you short-sided yourself or something, you could still kind of not be too out of position.

Q. Your first major --

ERIC COLE: Second major.

Q. What was your other one?

ERIC COLE: U.S. Open at Torrey. First PGA.

Q. Your rookie year, and you may be in the top 10 overnight going into Sunday. How much -- how do you not get too excited about that?

ERIC COLE: It is exciting. I don't want to not get excited about it. That's why I practice and spent all these years trying to get here, so I do want to be excited about it. I'm just going to focus on what I've been doing and try and get some rest and be ready to go tomorrow.

Q. If you drive it well, as hard as this golf course is, is it a decent place to chase?

ERIC COLE: Yeah, I'd say so. You've got to be conservatively aggressive. If you get too aggressive, even if you're in the fairway, Donald Ross greens, you can get out of position real quick. There's a few spots to be aggressive but there's not many.