AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2023

Steph Curry

Edgewood Tahoe

Press Conference

Q. You're leading the tournament. 27 points, four-point lead over Joe Pavelski. Tell us about your round.

STEPH CURRY: Historically for me I get off slow starts and get better as the weekend goes on. Whether it's basketball, whether it's getting into the tournament vibe or whatever it is, but I knew if I could just get off to a good start, that I'd have a little bit more fun out there. And the three-hole stretch at the beginning, went birdie-birdie-eagle and was feeling good. Didn't feel the nerves or anxious or anything. Hit one bad shot on 5 or 6, whatever hole that was.

Q. Par-4?

STEPH CURRY: Yes. Tried to go for the home run shot out of the bunker -- didn't work out -- made double. But the rest of the round, I only had one other bogey. Probably one of the best rounds I've played ever, considering it's a tournament.

Q. The second shot on 4, you were in the tall weeds on the right past the trees, couple hundred yards out. Tell us about that one.

STEPH CURRY: That's how golf goes. I sprayed it right off the tee. I was playing aggressive all day and had a decent line to the flag, knew where the misses were. And just like golf, there's no room for commentary on the scorecard.

I tried to hit it a little further left and it went right out on out of the flag coming out of the trees, able to make the putt. It's a good way to start the round, take a couple of chances, see how it goes and it worked out.

Q. You're 27 points, second-best score you've had. You've had a 28 in the third round, final round, in 2017 but you mentioned that you shot 69 then and 69 today.

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, like I said, I've had rounds on Sunday where I've played pretty well and started to peak but I'm out of contention and all that.

So this is a very new and better experience getting off to a better start.

I'm trying to go into all the sound bites that I hear from all the TOUR pros about how they handle early success in the tournament. I know there's a lot of golf left. Not getting too ahead of myself. But it is nice to be in it, be with a lead and kind of settle in tomorrow and have some fun.

Q. I heard you've been working on your grip and your posture a little bit. Obviously a little bit more time to prepare for this tournament than what you're used to. How much has that helped just eliminate the two-sided miss or the two-way miss and how much has that helped you be aggressive like you talked about?

STEPH CURRY: It's fascinating because I've been playing golf since I was 10. And I never really understood how to learn new techniques in front of those, how to put it -- one, having the time but learning how to get better at the game because I feel like I was the same golfer for like eight, 10 years.

I had a little bit of a window, started getting coaching which I never had until up to last summer. All it is is just kind of like how I approach basketball, you just put little blocks on top of each other and then eventually you find a pattern that you're comfortable with, and then like two simple swing thoughts that you can go out into a tournament-type environment and trust that the ball is going to go where you want it to go.

Again, golf isn't an everyday experience, gotta put it together tomorrow. I had very simple thoughts today. Alex Ray has been helping me. Talked to Butch and saw him at a tournament, and he went out of his way to give me some pointers. It's been fun to learn new things about the game and see it kind of pay off.

Q. What was your shot of the day? Was it that shot on 4 or maybe the putt on 12?

STEPH CURRY: That's hard to choose. The shot on 4, like that -- you get an eagle that early in the round, that only gives you ultimate confidence and juice.

The putt on 12 was probably more fun just because you don't really expect to make it; you're just trying to get it down somewhere close to try to get a two-putt. Halfway as it's going down the hill, oh, that looks good. I started to play -- tried my best to do my basketball impersonation, turn around before it went in, and it was fun.

Q. That putt on 12, I was standing behind you. You were aimed 15, 20 feet right of the hole. What was the adrenaline like as you just said, as you saw it sort of crawling and turning toward the hole?

STEPH CURRY: I've seen guys -- like that's probably the best putt I've ever made in my life. But I've seen -- I wanted to just walk over there to make sure I knew which way the putt went because I was expecting it to past for the comebacker. Like you said, you see it online, and you start to feel the anticipation of it going in.

But it was fun, the visualization and creativity out here, you never know when it's going to work out. But that one, fortunately, did. There's no other way I could make it unless I hit the pin square on and it went in. Beautiful.

Q. What is tomorrow going to be like to start the weekend with the lead, like you said, that's a new experience for you? How do you manage your emotions and adrenaline and all that going into tomorrow?

STEPH CURRY: I try to go home and just get away from it in terms of just having fun with the crew that comes up here for the week with me. I'm not going to work on anything right now, just try to get rest, because you realize the more that you're in contention, like I felt it the whole round today, there's no breaks, like mentally. It's a fun experience but it's exhausting. Even more respect what they do out on TOUR to be able to stay locked in for four and a half hours and to do it four rounds. Hopefully I only have to do it three, thankfully. Just get away from it and not obsess about the game, just start over tomorrow.

Q. How do you and your father and your brother coordinate your outfits?

STEPH CURRY: Thankfully I have the blessing to be able to wear my own stuff, which is cool. I have Curry Brand on and Under Armour gear on. And we got suggestions from the team at UA and Curry Brand golf to put the pieces together. And we changed up our shoes so everybody had on different kicks. But the fits, it's become a tradition.

American Century, they do us a favor by putting all three of us together, I think, the last three years. And it's fun for us to have those experiences. Get a lot of hilarious comments from fans as we're walking down the fairways, even for me and my brother. Somebody yelled out, "I'm sure your mom used to dress you up alike when you were a kid." I said, "Yeah, but now we actually like it." It's a cool experience for all of us to share these memories, playing golf, and the outfits are part of it.

Q. Everybody's talking about your childhood. You mentioned playing when you were a kid. I wonder, playing with your dad and all, was there a course when you were growing up that made you love the game, like the course you think about when you were learning as a kid, was there one that you think of and takes you back to that?

STEPH CURRY: Where I learned to play it's called Charlotte Golf Links. It doesn't exist anymore. It was a public track ten minutes from my house. My parents used to drive me off -- I was that kid, like after basketball season was over, middle school and high school, I'd go walk 36 holes and just be at the course all day.

But, yeah, it's sad it's not in existence anymore, but that was the course that I learned how to play and had a lot of early experiences with the game.

Q. Did you ever get a chance to play it other than that originally when you were a kid?

STEPH CURRY: No, when I went to Davidson, that's when they turned it into a commercial development. I dropped a tear when that happened, that's for sure.

Q. Looking at the leaderboard, we don't have some of the traditional favorites at the top. I mean Pavelski is the next behind you at 23, obviously he was in the playoff last year. When you scroll down the list, tie for seventh with one Dell Curry; and Mardy Fish is tied with your dad. And Jack Wagner at 17. So any additional pressure, you think? Does it feel better having guys at the top that maybe haven't been there before?

STEPH CURRY: I mean, it's interesting, but I do know how quickly things can change. I think there was a time Mark Mulder, at one point, was well out of contention and then he went like eagle-birdie-birdie, something, down the stretch. Things can happen.

Nice to have fresh blood out there. I know that personally six of the top 10 and I've played golf with them outside of this venue before.

Joe Pavelski played for the Sharks for so long, crossing paths a lot. Played with Bret Baier before and know him very well, and obviously Marty. Cool to see new names up there. But like you said, it's 36 more holes to go, and you just gotta enjoy whoever you're playing with tomorrow and enjoy the round.

Q. With Underrated being dropped and coming out, it seems to me that you really fully embody this underrated type of mindset. Is there any advice to high schools out there that might feel underrated or in your type of shoes?

STEPH CURRY: Just be grateful. Like even this time, in youth sports and recruiting and all that, they'll find you if you have the skill sets and continue to develop your work ethic and maintain your confidence no matter what eyeballs are on you or not. You kind of have to run your own race and believe that in due time all the work will pay off. What's for you will be for you.

For me, like, I grew up in North Carolina, and I always wanted to play in the ACC. I didn't get that opportunity because there were no scholarship offers available. I played in the Southern Conference, I loved my experience at Davidson. It was the right fit for me.

Obviously the rest is history. So as I said, run your own race. It's a beautiful thing about sports, there's a little something for everybody. And when you find out what that is, that's when great things happen.

Q. I'm not sure what Barkley did today, but do you think he'll do his under 70 score?

STEPH CURRY: Gotta scroll down on that thing (referring to the leaderboard). Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, where is he? (Laughter).

Keep going, keep going. Keep going. All right. We got something to work with, Chuck, we've got something to work with.

THE MODERATOR: He's 79th.

STEPH CURRY: Right there, gotta go play well. We're both trying to accomplish our goals this week. Let's get it done.