AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 2024

Mardy Fish

Edgewood Tahoe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Mardy Fish. One of the best rounds was 9-under 63.

MARDY FISH: I 3-putted the first hole.

Q. All the other players are talking about you playing the best golf of all of you and that you're the prohibitive favorite. Would you agree with that?

MARDY FISH: They like to put a lot of pressure on me, those guys. I don't know, Derek Lowe is over the top with just giving him the trophy now kind of thing, which doesn't -- I've only won this once. It's not like it's been going on 35 years. One time.

I feel great. I played in Dallas, played in Maine and won both of those. So certainly coming in playing well and playing recently. Maine was a second-year event and first time I played it.

I played the tournament coming into this a couple weeks out. So hopefully that helps with the first round or so. Usually struggle in the first rounds, just kind of getting my feet wet and everything.

So we'll see if that has any effect. Otherwise, obviously it's great to be back, great to be invited back and looking forward to getting out there.

Q. Speaking of invited, you won that tournament down in Dallas, I think, back in April, with a pretty good last-day surge, if I'm not mistaken.

MARDY FISH: Well, the last-hole surge, it would have been. Didn't play particularly well that day but stepped up on the last hole of that tournament thinking I needed birdie to tie, and the scoreboard was wrong. I actually needed birdie to win. So I didn't know that. I probably would have laid up on the par-5.

But I just played there, played well. I play well at that tournament. I enjoy that tournament as well. So it's always fun to play. Never get too much competitiveness going on in our lives other than some of this stuff. So it's fun to be included in it all.

Q. Couple of the odds talked about the most lately, you at 5-to-2, I believe, to win this one. And the other one is Charles to finish in the top 75. So let's get your take.

MARDY FISH: What are the odds on that?

Q. It's just a prop bet.

MARDY FISH: Minus 110, okay.

Let's see. Let's see, Steph last year said he wasn't going to do it. I said he was. He did or did not do it. Did not. Everybody's shaking their head, no.

Q. He just missed.

MARDY FISH: I said he was going to do it last year. I think he's going to do it this year. I saw him on the range grinding. Hit like three shots but then he went under the tent. That was him grinding. It's hot out there for Charles.

We'll see. He knows the course. We know that. He's seen it all. He's seen every hole, every nook and cranny of every hole.

Q. Talk about your other competitors that you're looking at. We talked about the top five guys, every year, top six or seven. It's expanded over the years as you've seen it. I think this is your 13th year in the event.

MARDY FISH: 10th year.

Q. As far as the guys that are in the top, who else are you looking at? Anybody different that you see?

MARDY FISH: There's a couple first-timers. Taylor Twellman is a very good golfer. I played with him in Maine. Tried to run away from him and I couldn't. He was 5-under through 10 on his own ball. So he can play.

Austin Reaves, I hear, is a phenomenal player.

I find it fascinating that I feel like there are two types of athletes. One that's really good at athletics, run, jump, sprint, LeBron James type athlete, which is a basketball player type. And then another athlete where his hands and touch and feel and all that and kind of pick up a sport and play it pretty well or pick up a baseball or football or catch something pretty well, that's another type of athlete. It's pretty rare to get both combinations together.

So I find it pretty fascinating that someone like -- Steph is a perfect example of that. But Austin Reaves, who plays shooting guard for the Lakers on his day job, and then on his off time he can go out and shoot under par on the golf course, which is a completely other set of skills.

Adam Thielen is another one like that where he's pretty slow in terms of like a wide receiver but very good hands.

It's very rare. He's another great example of that where you get two types of athletes put together. And I am not one of those. I am very slow. But I've got good hands and touch. Anyway, it's always fascinating to see those types of guys.

Q. You've been here, like you said, this will be your 11th year --

MARDY FISH: 10th year. This is my 10th year. 2014-2024. I haven't played this year yet.

Q. It's your 11th year.

MARDY FISH: Oh, shoot, it is my 11th year? Is it my 11th year? I didn't finish my junior year of high school. True story. I was a good tennis player. Hard-hitting questions.

Q. Reaves was in here a little bit earlier, he said he's self-taught, never taken a golf lesson, which is amazing.

MARDY FISH: It's a good way to -- I am similar to that. I have never really had anyone look at my swing or certainly not tell me what to do with my swing or anything.

I think it helps in terms of what you've got going on in your head and I think you can kind of get messed up with that on the golf course and have so many swing thoughts and things. You go to a teacher and he gives you a couple of things to think about, and I think it can really mess you up sometimes.

So I've stayed away from that. I think a lot of solid players, athletes, can sort of pick up a club, figure it out with their hands. He's one of them.

Q. Your pick for the British Open next week. We know who you're picking here.

MARDY FISH: Here or the British?

Q. British. We figure you're picking yourself.

MARDY FISH: I don't pick myself. You know who I think has a great chance here is Joe Pavelski. He's played well here in the past. Probably should have won maybe two, three years ago. He was in the final group last year. I think he's got a great shot this year.

British, I don't know, is it like a Scheffler versus the field type thing now? I don't know.

Q. I haven't seen that. Seems like a lot of guys are picking Spieth.

MARDY FISH: That's out of nowhere. Jordan was good -- is he in the tournament? Yeah, Jordan's won it over there. We'll see.

Q. 2014, your first year you finished 17th. Since then, in the last nine years, you've always been in the top 10. You've never been any higher than that. What was the magic switch that went on between 2014 and 2015?

MARDY FISH: It's really hard to get used to playing in front of this many people. I'm very comfortable playing tennis in front of however many people, but golf was very hard to get used to the people, get used to cameras and things like that around you.

I was really bummed after that year. And I remember going home and there's prize money in this tournament, and we went home and Wednesday came around, I guess, and the check came. It was $8,000. I was like oh, my gosh, eight grand, I won $8,000 to play the tournament. They paid me 8,000, that kind of thing. It was such a fun experience and a week that I would never forget away from the golf course, and I can forget the golf being played that year.

But I thought it was kind of a fun thing to be a part of and then just tried to get invited every year and try and play as well as I can so I can come back.

Q. In 2015, you settled down and have been in the top 10.

MARDY FISH: I felt more comfortable. I don't know where I finished in any of those years. I know I finished second a bunch of times. Obviously last year, too, but I don't know. A lot of the Florida golf, when I played down in Orlando or in Dallas, almost playing in like a dome here, it's like perfect conditions here. I grew up playing in Florida and a lot of weather and wind and rain and all that stuff, and I'm kind of used to that type of playing.

And sometimes some of the holes out here, I'm a lefty, obviously, and play a right-to-left shot, and every hole goes left-to-right the other way.

So to my eye it sets up a little weird as well. So kind of partly nerves and all that, and then the golf course, the setup, and just trying to figure that out because you may look at the yardage and look at the distances and stuff like that and think, well, I should be birdieing this hole or having a birdie putt on every hole and it doesn't work like that.

Q. You finished fourth in 2014. And 2016 you were second and tied for second in 2017, and last year, of course, the behemoth, Steph Curry.

MARDY FISH: The chosen one. Whoever says LeBron is the chosen one is wrong. Steph Curry is the chosen one.