KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2023

Darren Clarke

Quick Quotes

PGA Frisco

Q. 6-under after your first two rounds. Are you pleased with your start here?

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah. Yesterday I didn't play great and then finished off really strongly. Today I played nicely all day. Kept giving myself chances on the back nine there. Then made a poor swing into 16. Completely misjudged the shot into 17. So you make two late bogeys like that that's a bit of a sour taste in your mouth. But at least I birdied the last. 6-under, pretty decent start. All depends what Padraig does today. After that phenomenal round he had yesterday if he does another one of those he's going to be a tough guy to catch. But 6-under's not bad.

Q. What have you done well that you're pleased with the first two days?

DARREN CLARKE: As you probably know, having known me for a long time, patience isn't really one of my strong points. And I finally managed to stay pretty patient with the way that I hit some shots. Not so much today, but yesterday was a little bit of a struggle. Didn't drive it as well as what I normally do. I hit it 346 off 15 yesterday and walked off the hole with 7. Stuff like that, just stupid. So made a few too many mistakes over the first couple of rounds. But as I said, I give myself lots of looks there on the back nine and putter went a little bit cold.

Q. If you have given yourself a lot of looks it bodes well for the weekend.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, I got to go and work on a few things, spend an hour or so on the range here. I have my coach over Rob Watts from London on Sunday and Monday and we worked on changing a couple of things and it's not quite clicking yet. The good ones are but just the odd bad one. When you're trying to make a few little minor tweaks sometimes I fall back into my old habits. But go and spend an hour or two on the range and hopefully figure it out for a little bit better for the weekend.

Q. You mentioned Padraig's play yesterday. What's the first you ever were aware of him?

DARREN CLARKE: We played a lot of golf growing up together in Ireland. Done all sorts of stuff. All the Irish -- I'm the old one. So all the Irish guys have come through. Like him, Rory, Paul McGinley, Shane, all that sort of stuff. I'm the old guy. I seen 'em all coming up through the ranks.

But Padraig's play, especially recently, he's a three-time major champion, there isn't many of those about. Especially his play when he comes to the Champions Tour he's been playing so well. If I were to pick one guy that this golf course would suit whenever I got here and saw it, Padraig would be pretty much up at the top of that list.

Q. Just driving it well, putting it well?

DARREN CLARKE: Yes, he's just a phenomenal player. The distance he has off the tee, he's the longest out here. I know we got Stewart now, but I think Padraig might just have the edge on him still. But in saying that, he drives it straight and long. So it's not to say it's a foregone conclusion just yet, but he's obviously played very well yesterday and I expect to see it from him today again.