MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2024

Denny McCarthy

Quick Quotes

Q. First thing is first Masters.

DENNY McCARTHY: Yep.

Q. What do you imagine from what you've seen before? First impressions, what do you think?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, spectacular. This is kind of -- people always say it's like heaven on earth but it really is.

Played it four times in the last month and a half. It's amazing every time. It's just a great walk. I've really enjoyed it.

I got to play with my dad and brother out here. Member Fred Sims hosted us, so that was a special round we played out here two and a half weeks ago.

Yeah, just an incredible piece of property. You know, it's crazy how much the slopes, you don't really see on TV. When you get to it in person you realize why you see balls moving so fast in certain (video interruption.)

So kind of going back to what I said about bringing out your creativity, you got to hit some shots off certain lies and maybe with the slopes, figure out a way to stand and brace yourself to get comfortable over the shots.

You know, kind of just trying to use your athleticism and be creative, which I really like.

Q. You finished strong last year. Beginning of the year has been amazing, two runner-ups, top T4 or Top 5. So the first thing is is that an effect of the married life?

DENNY McCARTHY: No, I mean, this year has been really slow besides last week. Last week was -- I got married in December. It's been a slow start to the year, but feel like I've been doing a lot of things to get better. I wasn't quite showing that on the course.

Some of that hard work that I've been putting in kind of showed last week, so it was a nice week I had last week coming into this week to get some confidence, a little momentum.

And, yeah, game feels good. I love this place. Good vibes. Obviously I haven't played a tournament round out here, but it's a please I feel like I can play well at.

Q. From that experience what do you think is the difference between runner-up and winning a tournament? What needs to happen?

DENNY McCARTHY: I mean, I would've won the last 170 events -- I you saw some stat, I ran into a guy that shot the same score as me last week. We were nine clear of third place.

I wouldn't say I lost the tournament last week. Yeah, it's unfortunate I didn't win, but I did all the right things to win a golf tournament last week; it just didn't happen.

Just got to keep putting myself in that position and I'll knock the door down soon.

Q. You have something in your shoes. Can you tell us the meaning?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, so a family friend of ours, her daughter, Madison Smith, passed away in October. She was a 16 year old girl; had a couple year battle with cancer.

She played golf and she really liked me and a couple other players out here, but I got to know her really well over the last two or three years. You know, played a couple rounds of golf with her and she was just the sweetest girl.

Her favorite thing was a rubber ducky and her favorite color was yellow, and she loved rubber duckies, so I put a rubber ducky on my golf bag in honor of hers and got some custom shoes that my wife and a company, Painter, that I wear they designed and one of the insoles has a ducky in the show.

Yeah, just something to remember her. The way she kind of handled herself through the couple-year battle she had was amazing. She never complained. She was extremely resilient. She was just one of the nicest people I've ever met, so this just kind of paying honor to her, respect to her. I think about her all the time.

So honestly, I learned probably way more from her in that couple years than maybe she could have learned from me or something. She taught me a lot of the life lessons were kind of carry that on with me from now on.