SHRINERS CHILDREN'S OPEN

October 18, 2024

Doug Ghim

TPC Summerlin

Quick Quotes

Q. Doug, I bet you're happy to be in. That round was kind of almost the same amount of birdies, bogeys, and pars. How would you characterize it today in that weather?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, it was probably a test of patience. It usually is when it gets that windy. I think the toughest part was trying to figure out when we were going to play. I think I was in the fitness trailer at 5:00 this morning. You can't really be caught off guard and expect to be a delay and not be ready.

So to kind of be up that early and then get a two-hour delay, then another two-hour delay, and looked like maybe another two-hour delay, and all of a sudden they were like, we're going out to play, that was probably the toughest part of the day.

But happy to be in. I feel like I played pretty good golf. Hopefully the wind continues to blow.

Q. You said earlier that typically a 70 around here you kind of lose ground. Today looks like you might make up some ground. How does that feel to do that while you're out there, knowing that you can shoot a score like that? Are you thinking about where you might be positioned?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, I mean, a little bit. Obviously going into the day having past experiences like The PLAYERS back in 2022, just seeing conditions like that. You know that if you shoot something under par you're probably going to -- you're not going to lose a lot of ground and hopefully gain some.

It kind of shifts the attention a little bit less to making as many birdies. Obviously was blessed enough to make a fair share to cover some of the mistakes I made.

Yeah, just a lot of patient golf and knowing the value of a par today was going to be a little bit higher than normal.

Q. Five bogeys and six birdies. Do you remember the last time you had a scorecard that wild?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, I mean, whenever the conditions are this tough you know there will be your fair share of bogeys, and you hope there will be some birdies for the run.

Yeah, wish that I didn't make at least a couple of those bogeys, but definitely made a couple birdies that I didn't expect as well.

Q. You played in Scotland this year. How much more did this feel like Scotland than playing in Vegas?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, this being my home course it's usually a wedge-fest. You drive the green pretty easily on 15, a lot of irons into par-5s, but today was a lot more of trying to control your ball, hitting a lot of the greens and not really caring if they're stiff. Just trying to get to 15 feet so you don't have a five-, six-footer for par coming back.

It was tricky too because a lot of the putts we're use to, especially as locals, you know they're fast, but with the wind being up, the greens being a little bit slower, it tests your memory bank a little bit and it's hard to commit to those changing speeds.

For the most part, yeah, definitely felt a little bit more like Scotland than it did Vegas.

Q. How do you strike a balance mentally knowing the wind can take the ball for a ride, but you still have to stay focused on shooting the lowest score possible without giving up the round mentally?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, I think what you kind of have to do mentally is accept the fact that the wind -- you're playing an outdoor sport. It's really, really hard to guess what the wind is going to do all the time.

It might be in off the right and randomly downwind on a shot when the ball is in the air. I think for me personally, just knowing that at least if I hit a good shot it'll give it the best chance for the ball to do what I hope it does.

So just focusing on those things and the things I can control and not necessarily what Mother Nature has in store.

Q. Being a Vegas resident, local, you said you play here all the time. How common or uncommon are these conditions?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, it can get windy for sure. For most of us those are the days we don't play. It does get pretty windy. The temperature drop is kind of rare. It does seem like in this tournament in its history, I think when Patrick Cantlay won one year the scoring was pretty high I guess. It gets kind of cold. It's the changing of the seasons.

So I would say it's pretty abnormal, but I guess it hasn't -- it's been seen before so I guess that's how I would characterize it.

Q. You said this is your home course, played it a bunch. Pretty strong wind shift out of there today. Is that something you've had experience with and how do you tackle that situation?

DOUG GHIM: Yeah, the winds can kind of change like crazy here. Even yesterday I think through seven holes we had pretty much no wind. When we got to the eighth green, like there is no buildup, it just goes from zero to blowing 30 very quickly.

So just having that, knowing that can happen at any time. Obviously leaning a lot on my caddie, Shane. He did a really good job mapping the wind and you kind of -- the wind kind of did what it was supposed to do forecast-wise. He was telling me about this time of day it's going to shift a little bit more in this direction, and having an experienced caddie like that definitely helps.