COGNIZANT CLASSIC

February 27, 2024

Max Greyserman

PGA National Champion Course

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Max Greyserman to the interview room here at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches. You're making your fifth start this season, first at this event. We've heard you've got some personal history here and you've lived here a little bit in the Palm Beach area in your childhood.

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, I'm originally from up north but spent a lot of my junior years down here. I actually lived -- there's some villas right out here, and I lived in one of the townhomes that's about as close as it gets to here.

It's pretty special. Kind of something that I circled on my calendar, and I was like, this kind of feels like home to me.

I remember kind of walking from home and putting and chipping out here. I played not the Champ course a lot, but it used to be called the Haig. That's kind of what I remember it as. Played a lot of golf here.

Q. You actually broke par for the first time on the Fazio course when you were around nine. Do you remember anything from that day?

MAX GREYSERMAN: I do, yeah. I've played so many rounds of golf since then, so it's hard to remember. But yeah, that was the first time. I was in a tournament out on the -- what is it called now?

Q. Fazio.

MAX GREYSERMAN: I don't even know what it's called now. I just remember it by the Haig, but yeah, it's right over here on the back.

Q. You had a chance to play the course. Just some opening comments on what it's like out there this week.

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, I've played this course quite a bit before, but obviously during this tournament, like they do with most other tournaments, things get tough. The greens get firmer. Rough is a little longer. In previous years, the scores have been pretty high. If the wind is blowing, it could be a single-digit winner under par, and if it's not blowing it could go double digits. But it's fairways and greens out here. It's a premium on ball-striking.

Q. You mentioned you've played a lot of times. Could you estimate how many times you've played combined all the courses?

MAX GREYSERMAN: I mean, I had to have played hundreds of rounds at least out here. The Champ, probably 50 times. The Haig, probably 100 times. I think it was called the Palmer is another course, the Squire, another one. Are there five courses here? Estates, yeah. That one I haven't played as much, but the ones here I've played a lot.

Q. Do you remember coming to this tournament and specifically watching guys? Any memories from your childhood here?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, I came to this tournament a few times. Went to quite a few PGA events I would say as a junior, not just this one. So just kind of more family memories around here with my sister. I have two younger brothers, but they were -- when I was living here, they were too young, so it was kind of me and my sister out back here and screwing around.

Q. Is there plenty of family and friends that will be here watching you this week?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, my parents live about 45 minutes away, my sister a little over an hour in Boca Raton, Miami. A lot of work friends from my brother-in-law. Yeah, I'm sure -- I've had plenty of tickets handed out this week.

Q. I understand your introduction to golf was sitting in a baby stroller on the range here where your mom and dad took lessons?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, so neither of my parents are from the U.S. They're both from modern-day Ukraine, which was the Soviet Union back then, so obviously there was no golf over there. There were no golf courses. They had no idea what golf was. My mom played tennis growing up, so that was kind of the athletic endeavor.

I think they just kind of picked it up over here a little bit, but it kind of started with they saw a sign -- they kind of were vacationing down here, as most people do from New York/New Jersey area, and they saw a sign for free lessons with Mike Adams, who's a famous instructor, who I took lessons from growing up, and that kind of got the ball rolling. They took me out in the stroller, and all of a sudden I got into it, and then I kept going, and actually neither of them have played golf in a long time.

Q. Do you have dual citizenship?

MAX GREYSERMAN: I don't, no. My parents moved when they were both kind of in high school years. They don't have citizenship over there. So no. I can kind of speak Russian. I can read Russian. That was my first language growing up.

Q. I was wondering where you keep all of your amateur trophies that you won.

MAX GREYSERMAN: They're all in my parents' garage kind of above -- they have a storage area, and they're all up top, and I'm very certain that a few of them were from here.

Q. Is there one trophy you dream about holding up as a pro?

MAX GREYSERMAN: I mean, obviously you dream about winning majors and then maybe some hometown events like this one. I would say people circle their hometown event or something that's special to them, and then the majors.

Q. Do you ever think about what a time to be a professional golfer starting your career, given how much money has flowed into the sport here recently?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, that's all kind of TV and the players and media talk about right now, and it's a good thing for the players. Unfortunately kind of for the fans, it's kind of been diminished a little bit with players going separate ways, and the money gets talked about a lot, and it's definitely something you think about. But when you go to the course every day, you're focused on the job at hand and to shoot the lowest score that day.

Q. Can you wrap your head around the fact that if you play really well, you could make NBA money, NFL quarterback money?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, you saw with Jake Knapp last week, we've had three rookies win this year. Jake is a good friend of mine. We stay together in AirBnBs. I'm actually going to go play nine holes with him after this. Your life changes overnight. It's life-changing money.

It's not just the money that you win that week. That sets you up to go play the Masters, future Signature Events. It's crazy what it is now. It's not like it was even five, ten years ago.

Q. Is Jake toting around the Robb Report now and looking for cars --

MAX GREYSERMAN: Yeah, I'm trying to bring him back down to earth. I joked around yesterday he still hasn't won in the U.S. because he's won on the Canadian Tour a few times.

Q. A little bit back to your history here, is there a comfortability to playing here this week, and does that factor in, and does all the family and friends around, does that help you out do you think?

MAX GREYSERMAN: Absolutely, yeah. I've got a ton of support coming out. I live in Palm Beach Gardens right now. I live 10 minutes away, so I get to sleep at home. I've got my wife, my dog with me, family, friends. Just knowing that this is kind of like a second home other than up north, it's kind of where I grew up and learned the game. Yeah, certainly comfortable.

Q. Is there anybody here this week that has never seen you play professionally that it might be their first time, and what's that conversation been like?

MAX GREYSERMAN: My grandparents. I have one set of grandparents, my mom's parents, that live probably an hour and a half away. They'll come out.

Then my dad's parents live on the west side of Florida, probably about two to three hours, so I'm hoping they can make it, and that would be really special to me, for my grandparents to be out here.

Q. When life-changing money is the prize, why do trophies matter? Why do they still matter?

MAX GREYSERMAN: I think it's something that certain players have talked about before, like guys that have not gone to LIV, they talk about their legacy. You have guys like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, et cetera, et cetera, that have their names on the trophies. I feel like as you get older, you start to think more about grandkids and legacy and what you're leaving behind, and I think having your name on a trophy with other players like that and the history of the game, I think that's what comes to mind when people talk about legacy.