TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22, 2023

Denny McCarthy

TPC River Highlands

Quick Quotes

Q. Denny, you said you were a little bit blocked out on the shot. Just take us through the second shot there on 9 that came oh, so close to going in for 59.

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, had 170 hole. Wind was supposed to be a puff in off the right and I wasn't feeling much. Could have just been just like a good hit 8-iron.

I had been hitting a nice little cutty shot all day with mid-irons, so I just gripped down on a 7-iron and I was trying to cut in there, and just leaked it a little, saw it kick, and couldn't see the rest.

We were just going off the crowd's reaction at that point. Obviously it came pretty close to going in. In the air I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere close to going in, but obviously it was exciting that it had a chance.

Q. You kind of said that you thought the crowd was kidding with you a little bit.

DENNY McCARTHY: I did. I just didn't know. I just saw it kicked hard left so I just didn't know if it was short of the hole, didn't know if it was rolling past the hole.

Obviously got a good kick and threw it right there online for me to have chance to go in. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't thinking it was going in but obviously the crowd made me think otherwise.

Q. There was quite a few low scores today. When you went out this afternoon, what was your mentality seeing Keegan had shot 62 and 8-under through 12 holes?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, that it was gettable. We've played some hard golf courses the last few weeks. My last two events have been U.S. Open and Memorial, so coming into a place that doesn't quite beat you up as much, it's a little bit of a mindset change.

It was nice to play in the afternoon I thought today. I played early at the U.S. Open on Thursday and you never know. Like you're expecting it to play hard, and then obviously like middle of the round you're like, oh, maybe it's not playing that hard. Guys are 6- or 7-under.

It was nice to know from the start that it was gettable. The back nine here is one of my favorite nine holes on TOUR. It's very risk-reward. If you're playing well you can shoot 5-, 6-under; if you're not playing well it can beat you up.

I like the back nine a lot so I came out firing and was playing really well to start.

Q. You said you used the heartbreak at Memorial as motivation. What are you continuing along with your game that you like since Memorial?

DENNY McCARTHY: Ball striking. Ball striking is just slowly creeping along. Driving of the ball has been pretty good. Yeah, just trying to just find ways to get better. Sometimes that's just mentally.

Like today, I showed up just like really positive, laughing, joking with a bunch of people. Like I don't know why. I was just in a good mood to start my round today.

That definitely helps. I was just out there playing golf. Patton is a good friend of mine, so nice comfortable pairing. We were talking down a lot of fairways. I was just kind of just playing a round of golf with the buddies and playing really freely.

Q. Even though you have not won on the PGA TOUR yet, do you feel like the Memorial taught you a little bit of how to win on the PGA TOUR, that you have what it takes?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, I mean, I don't feel like I gave that tournament away really. I don't know how many holes I didn't make a bogey for, 27, 30-ish holes at that place, and that's pretty darn good.

So, yeah, I mean, it sucked that I bogeyed the last hole and bogeyed again in the playoff, but I did a lot of good things down the stretch and I felt really comfortable in that position. I didn't feel -- there was some nerves and adrenaline, but I didn't feel shaky.

Just kind of felt like I belong in that situation, so I'm hungry to get right back.

Fastscripts by ASAP Sports...