AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2023

Mardy Fish

Edgewood Tahoe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Mardy Fish, in second place. A couple of highlights on the round, and then we'll turn it over to the media.

MARDY FISH: Started off pretty good, one bogey. Couple of birdies there in the first few holes to kind of get the round going.

You're sort of thinking of, if you can try to make two to three birdies aside, you're trying to make as many as you can, but hearing the roar on 8 green when Steph hit in on 7. And eight points is a lot of points for one hole.

You're just trying to make as many birdies as you can, trying to hit as close as you can. I was able to do that a few times. I didn't take advantage of the last few holes. It was a long wait on 16. Kind of hard to get back into it or whatever.

Those are kind of the scoring holes there. 16 and 18, playing those at even par. Maybe left one or two out there, but happy with the round, for sure.

Q. Are you surprised by Steph Curry's round yesterday and sustaining it today?

MARDY FISH: Not at all. Obviously eight points helps. I don't know what his scorecard looks like today. But obviously he's still going strong. Hopefully he won't make an eagle or something on 18 and give us a little bit of a chance tomorrow.

Q. You had five birdies through the first 11. Did it feel a little bit like Saturday three years ago?

MARDY FISH: It did. I mean, I missed kind of -- I hit some good putts. The greens are really hard to read. There's just really subtle greens -- subtle breaks there on almost every green. You can hit a putt perfect and it can miss and you just missed a little bit of the read or whatever.

And I was happy with the way I hit some of the putts, most of the putts. Kind of a bummer to kind of not two-putt that 16th hole, although I was, I don't know, 60 feet or so, left it short there.

Look, I made some good putts. Made a good putt on 11. Made a good putt on 9. I was stealing one maybe from 20 feet or so. Missed a few around ten feet, eight feet, something like that. Give and take it, I guess.

Q. What do you remember about that round from three years ago?

MARDY FISH: Well, there wasn't as many people out here, that's for sure. There's a lot of people out here today.

We obviously enjoy it more this way than the 2020 year in terms of fans. But it was still competitive. You knew there were TV cameras still there. You still wanted to play well.

I was sort of not really paying much attention that round to how many birdies I had and birdieing the last five in a row and with a bunch before that as well. I guess five before that as well.

I did the 5 through 11 thing and then I didn't do the next five, I guess, is the difference there. But this is a great round of golf for me. Shot 67, and I don't play a lot of golf, so 67 is a good score.

Q. Steph will have never been in the position --

MARDY FISH: He's led in the final round going into Sunday once before. No?

Q. I don't think so, because Phil and I looked it up yesterday. He had a couple good rounds, but there were others a couple points ahead of him. Do you think he's going to have an unusual feeling, whether it's pressure or --

MARDY FISH: It's different. It's definitely different. Look, the Stableford, there's so many points to be had, as we've seen.

I actually didn't even know we had switched the eagle from five to six points. Saw a couple of guys make six-pointers yesterday. Steph included, on 4. And I've got an eagle in me somewhere out there. It's been a while. Six-pointer would be nice.

I mean, look, it's different. It's a different feeling, but something tells me he's going to be fine in terms of pressure or anything like that.

Q. Had 18 yesterday. More than doubled that today. What the hell happened yesterday?

MARDY FISH: I turned a pretty solid round into a pretty crappy round with two holes. You can't go backwards. I made a good bogey putt on 5 today. Kind of kept the momentum, doubled 13 and 16, which is pretty uncharacteristic, 16 favors my eye off the tee. Got a little unlucky, hit a tree, kicked it into the trees and made double there.

You can't go backwards. These guys are good. They're good players. Joe Pavelski is an awesome player. Steph can play. I've seen him shoot mid-60s in his sleep. He can absolutely do it again.

Q. That's what I was talking about days past here about game management, looking at it long term, whether you realize that ability you have or not, be like losing the first two sets and coming in and winning.

MARDY FISH: Still a lot of golf left. There's an entire round of golf. A lot can happen, but I'm happy with the position I'm in certainly after yesterday, happy with the round of golf today.