ROGERS CHARITY CLASSIC

August 16, 2024

Alan McLean

Canyon Meadows G&CC

Quick Quotes

Q. Great start today. Talk about your round.

ALAN McLEAN: Yeah. You know, we, naturally harp on the bag, right? That's just the nature of golf. It's honestly very disappointing to finish with a bogey, but on the whole really solid day of golf.

I suppose I feel like I could be one or two better, but I think last year I started at three and this year I'm at four, so --

Q. An improvement from that.

ALAN McLEAN: An improvement for sure. Course is playing great. Loved it. Obviously have a certain level of comfort here, so something to build on.

Q. Did the rain factor in at all?

ALAN McLEAN: No. No. I've just found the ball is really going a long way. Sometimes you have to mentally get around the fact that I'm potentially hitting an 8-iron maybe 200 yards sometimes.

Q. Wow.

ALAN McLEAN: That's way outside of the norm. So the last hole is a good example where I think I had 208 yards. You know, I'm hitting a smooth 6 knowing that I should probably hit a 7.

Just got caught in between.

Q. Did you get a sponsor's exemption?

ALAN McLEAN: I did. I got a late sponsor's exemption. Very thankful for that. The qualifying is always a crapshoot, and to have to go through that process, if you can miss it, that's a good thing.

Yes, Shaun phoned me just after 12:00 on Monday to say that they had got the sponsor invite back and they were offering it to me, and I think I was over here in 20 minutes. (Laughter.)

Q. And then I know last year you started 3-under, but didn't sort of have the weekend you wanted to. What do you have to do to improve upon that?

ALAN McLEAN: I think that, you know, it was a learning experience last year. Again, just build just slowly. You can't win the tournament tomorrow. Last year it was just the back nine, so would love to be in the same situation I was last year and go one better.

That's all I can do, is play one shot at a time. I know it's a cliche, it really is a cliche, but it's hard work to do it. So that's my goal, just try and play each shot on merit.