AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2023

Jack Wagner

Edgewood Tahoe

Quick Quotes

Q. Jack Wagner, 38 points. 21 points today. So just walk through your round. You kind of -- slow start, but then you had four birdies on the back. Walk through your round a little bit today.

JACK WAGNER: I actually had a good start. I parred 1 and birdied 2. But unfortunately I chopped the round on par-5 number 3, made a double, which is very unlikely. I don't make a lot of doubles.

I made another double bogey on 5. I 4-putted. It was a slow -- I'm proud of the way I kept it together. I came back from the back nine and shot 3-under. It's hard to do for me at my age, to be honest, but it feels good to be able to do that.

Yesterday I was 2-under on the back. Today 3-under. So I haven't been able to do that for quite a few years.

Q. You're one of two, you and Jim McMahon played in every single one of these tournaments. Talk about your longevity playing here every year. You've won here twice so you know what it takes. Talk about you're tied for fourth right now, about being in contention going into tomorrow?

JACK WAGNER: First off, I saw the leaderboard. I think it's fantastic that Steph Curry is playing so well. I think it's great for the tournament, and he's a really great golfer.

I think Mardy's second or whatever, right? And then Mark Mulder and myself and I think Pavelski is right in there.

This has been an honor to be here for 34 years. Jonathan Thomas of American Century, Jon Miller of NBC, continue to invite me back.

I feel like I'm part of a group here that it's really, as you can see, not only the people, but the athletes and celebrities, we really have fun up here. This is really a blast.

Q. Talk about going into tomorrow, talk about how it's a blast and all that, but tomorrow is going to be game mode. What's it going to take to get up the leaderboard tomorrow?

JACK WAGNER: They have 18 to play with the leaders. I'll probably be at least 10 points behind or more. So all you can do then is just be patient. I was really patient today, and I made a couple of putts and was able to shoot 3-under on the back.

So tomorrow, you just never know with golf. Guys can have problems and bad rounds. I'm just going to be patient and try to just go for the flags.

Even though that's not patient, that's what I'm going to do.

Q. We touched on a little bit about you've played every single one of these tournaments this year, the 25th year of the American Century, title sponsor. So just tell me a little bit about the evolution how this tournament has grown since 1990 and how you've seen this grown to where it is over the years.

JACK WAGNER: This tournament has evolved more than, I think, any professional event. We're going to break the record probably, 70,000 people here this weekend. We do karaoke night with guys from Rascal Flatts and Chicago, they get up. We had 15 contestants the other night. It was just a blast. We have events with American Century every year.

You're getting Patrick Mahomes up here and Kelce and Josh Allen all in the same group that play in Super Bowls against each other. You don't find that very often.

And Steph Curry leading the field here this week, I think, is fantastic for the tournament. For me to be in the top five, I guess, is, for me, incredible. I'm extremely happy.