HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 18, 2024

Jeremy Roenick

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Thank you, ver have Jeremy Roenick here, current leader in the celebrity field. Great round out there. Looks like you had four birdies for an even par 72. If you can just describe how it felt on the course today.

JEREMY ROENICK: Scary. A little scary out there because the greens are really fast. I think you really got to be careful with the speed of your putts. I had two three-putt bogeys today which flustered me a little bit. The other two were bogeys from the middle of the fairway.

The course is running so fast and it's a touch system right now, so I'm happy with what I did. First day -- you can't win it in the first day but you can lose it in the first day and I'm still there, so that's good.

Q. And three of those birdies are right there in the middle of the round, correct?

JEREMY ROENICK: Yeah, 8, 9, and 10 birdies. 10 was a great birdie. I actually was in the left bunker between the tree. I had to hit it out of the bunker and wrap it around the tree and I hit it to about two feet, which was probably one of the best shots I've hit in five years.

Like I said, I made a couple three-putts but I also made a couple birdies I shouldn't have made. Everything washes out in the system I guess.

Q. What was your club at 10?

JEREMY ROENICK: I hit a 7-iron out of the bunker.

Q. Right to left?

JEREMY ROENICK: Yeah, bent it around the tree and just happened to roll up right next to it. It was just one of those -- you know, things are going to go right for you when that happens. My three-putts didn't bother me as much.

Q. On the celebrity circuit is this one of the harder setups you'll see?

JEREMY ROENICK: It is because it's four days. For us guys that aren't in great shape it's a long time -- anybody who says pro golfers aren't athletes, they don't know what it's like to play four, sometime five rounds with a pro-am.

It's a grind. It's really challenging. It's hard on the body and hard on the mind. I found myself just trying to hang in there at the end and just mentally, just let's put a couple shots together and get in and be in a good spot going into the weekend.

Q. You've had some good runs at this event. What would it mean to get over the top?

JEREMY ROENICK: I really don't want to talk about it. It's almost like the kiss of death, right? Happy with the way I played. Played very solid. Literally missed one swing all day.

You know, putts are going to be putts but I literally missed one contact of a golf swing all day and it was from 60 yards, the touch shot. I'll take that all day long.

Q. Talk about how unique this tournament is having the LPGA players play with you guys.

JEREMY ROENICK: That's what makes it exciting, because we get to play with the greatest players in the world on the female side.

And they're so fun watch. So good and they're such great athletes. You really get humbled watching professionals. I don't care if you're a female or male, professional. A professional is a professional.

To watch them hit the golf ball is humbling and makes you want to work harder to play the game.

They're so much fun to watch and so consistent. For us, it's the greatest thing in the world to play with the professionals. I don't care what your gender is. Professional is a professional.