KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2023

Marco Dawson

Quick Quotes

PGA Frisco

Q. 3-under 69 for you today. How can you maybe summarize your round for us?

MARCO DAWSON: Drove it in the fairway. I did hit one in the hazard on 12. Made a good up-and-down for bogey. Then hit some good iron shots. Hit some good iron shots, made a lot of putts, short putts. Didn't make any long putts, but made a lot of short putts. 2-putted when I did have long putts. But there's some holes out there where you really got to pay attention.

No. 1, hitting into that green, if you're a little bit long, a little bit right, you'll go down the hill off the green. You just got to be careful.

Q. 5-under for you after the first 36. Are you pleased and/or confident heading into the weekend?

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, I am very pleased. I took advantage of the shorter holes when I did have a wedge or shorter irons in. I couldn't hit any of the par-5s in two. I mean, it would have been a 3-wood, so they're not really, it's not really a smart play to hit 3-wood into these par-5s. They're surrounded by hazards. Every hole's got a hazard on it, except for No. 2. So you can find a hazard on every hole if you're not careful.

Q. How tough is that start off 10 and how big was the save at 12 to just make bogey?

MARCO DAWSON: 10, yeah, into the wind, 460 yards or whatever it is starting out. Driver and a rescue into the first hole.

11, I didn't hit a very good drive, I had to wedge it out. Then wedged and 2-putt. So I bogeyed 11 and 12 -- or 11.

And then 12 I hit it right in the hazard and got it up-and-down. That kind of helped get things going.

The next hole I hit a good shot, just missed the putt for birdie on that par-3. That's a tough par-3.

And then I birdied the 14th. So that got me going.

Just missed it on 15.

Got up-and-down on 16.

Hit two good shots on 17 and 18, made those putts.

Then birdied 1. Hit it close there at 1.

Hit it really close on 2. Just missed some birdie putts coming in. 3, 5, 9, 8.

So, yeah, as long as you hit the greens and you want to try and be pin high, but some of those greens that have fingers on them I play away because the greens are so firm that unless you land it within a couple yards over the fringe it's going to go over and then it can end up in a bad spot. So you kind of -- I'm putting well, my distance is good, so I can afford to play 30, 40, 50 feet away.

Like yesterday, on number 10 they stuck that pin way over to the right. Unless you're hitting a 9-iron or 8-iron into it you're not going to get close to it. At least I don't think so. So I hit a 5-iron left. I was 50 feet and I 2-putted. So for me not to be too aggressive has been working pretty well. I've seen -- now the guy that I played with today, he hit it a long way and he was, he must have been 6-over for the par-5s today. Because he was hitting iron into 'em and he just didn't hit a great shot and then he ended up making bogey or double. I laid up, I birdied three out of the four.

Q. You have a good finish at Regions, first major. Do you pull any momentum from that into here?

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah. Kind of did the same thing there. It's kind of a big course. Tough to get the ball close to the hole there. The greens are big, but it's still tough to get it close to the hole. I just played a lot of middle of the green shots. I had a lot of long putts, but then I did have some short -- I wedged it pretty good there too. So I had some, made a lot of -- and I putted well there. Didn't have any 3-putts there that week and I haven't had any 3-putts so far this week. So putting well. Making a lot of short putts, medium-sized putts. And up-and-downs.