KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2023

Paul Stankowski

Quick Quotes

PGA Frisco

Q. Part of history standing on that first tee. What did that feel like?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: It was great. I'm, I was glad to be a part of Sarge's show, you know. Cameron and I were roommates in college. So we were roommates for my freshman year and played four years together. So I've known him since I was a 17-year-old punk kid. And to see him -- we always knew he would be successful in whatever he did and he chose golf. His dad was a club professional and he was a heck of an All-American and he could have done anything. Probably made a lot more money than being in the golf business. But he chose this and he's had a great gig for 25 plus years at Preston Trail. And he's a good friend. So it was really cool to -- I was glad and honored that they put this together, put Harrison and I in his group. It was great. The whole day was for Cameron, which was awesome. He played well. Yeah, just thankful to be a part of that. It was cool.

Q. You guys just randomly got paired together as freshmen?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, absolutely. He's from Roswell, New Mexico and I was from southern California. And he was a redshirt freshman and, yeah, I don't know why Cricket put us together in the same room, but he did. We had a six-bedroom townhouse in college, so it was a big, it was the golf house. So it wasn't like a dorm room. So I could have roomed with any of the other nine guys that lived in the place. But yeah, we were roommates. And then we obviously lived in the same house for the next four years. So it was great fun back then. We won't share any of those stories. I think he's safe to say I have enough on him and he has enough on me, we don't share. But yeah, so anyway, it was pretty cool that we got to compete. I competed against him in the NTPGA Club Professional Championship, Senior Club Pro a couple years ago, which got me into the, backdoored into the PGA at Southern Hills through the section. I'm still a 25-year member of the PGA of America as well. I never worked the business, but. So he beat me in a playoff, but I think there was top 3, got into the national deal. And so that was the first time we had competed against each other in a long time. So now to get two days with him it's really cool.

Q. You had the father/son.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, Josh was on my bag and Tristan on his. So it's pretty darn cool. They're now 23 and 22. They're older than we were when we were in college. But, yeah, it's fun. He's in school, I have a regular caddie that I gave the week off, he's actually working for Jeff Gove this week, but it's just great to have Josh on the bag. Father/son time, it's pretty darn cool.

Q. With ties to this area for a long time, right? What's it like to see this come out of the ground?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Amazing. I never, I never been to the Panther Creek area of Frisco. As far as I made it up was Craig Ranch and went to the -- I haven't gone to the soccer stadium, but I drove by it and I was like, Oh, there it is. So Dallas is a big place. I'm just amazed that this property is out here. I think they did a heck of a job with the golf course and this whole community and as it grows out -- like I've been on Zillow a couple times looking to move up here. It's pretty cool. But, yeah, I think the golf course is special. I'm sure it's been a long project for them to get a major championship here and in Texas and for the PGA of America to be here it's pretty darn cool.

Q. (No Microphone.)

PAUL STANKOWSKI: No, I know. No. We're stuck. I'm, I wouldn't go that far. There's a lot of football players that still live there. They're not in Wellington, they're over on the lake. But, yeah, so anyway, it's cool. I hate playing poorly, but the other story was pretty cool.

Q. What about just as a golf test? It's the great unknown today. You guys go out there, no one knows who is going to shoot what. What do you find as a golf test?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I think it's a great test of golf. Obviously there's a lot of options that they can have. There's some holes they can move the tees up, drivable holes. I think it's, as much as it's new for us it's also new for them to go through. How are we going to play, how long are we going to play this golf course for us. I look back and see where the guys are going to play in a couple years and I'm glad I'm not young anymore for that reason. This golf course can stretch out and be a bear. I don't care where you play, the biggest defense any golf course has is wind and firmness. You couple firmness and wind and it gets really tough. And that's what we're going to see out here in, if we ever got wind. This five to 10 business that we've had for seven straight days, this doesn't happen. This isn't Texas weather. So we got lucky. The scoring, if this is how the weather is going to be, the scoring is going to be, based on the fact that a couple guys are 5-, 6-under par, okay, these are some of the best players in the world over 50 and it can be had because there's room out there off the tee. They built room off the tee because of the winds that we have here. So I think the golf course was designed really nicely. A couple little tweaks might happen over the next five, six years, because that's how new golf courses are. But it's cool. Visuals are awesome, the lines are some of them are challenging, some blind elements, there's some -- I like it. I'm not a -- I like it. I like a nicely manicured golf course, things that can keep my attention, and this place has my attention.