KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 30, 2021

Retief Goosen

Quick Quotes

Southern Hills Country Club

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. We're here at Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are joined by Retief Goosen who closed with a 66 today. He's 3-under par for the championship at this very moment in fourth place all alone. Retief, we probably should have talked to you earlier in the week, but you just progressively got better as the week went on and here we are at the end, you're in a great position, a terrific round, one of the better rounds of the championship. What was your experience being out here again this year or at this golf course where you won many years ago?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, the golf course was very inconsistent this week. We had so much rain in the beginning of the week and it was very slow, the course. And then it got a little quicker on Thursday. And then got slow again. Finally today the course has started to speed up a little bit. So it's a pity it didn't play like this all week, I would have loved that. But I just had too much inconsistencies on the greens, pause one day they were quick, next day they were slow, so it was a struggle to get a consistent roll going throughout the week. But it got better as the week goes on.

Q. Going out there today, 20 years since winning the U.S. Open here, different memories comeback to you as you play?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it's obviously always great coming back here and, yeah, as I say, I would have liked to have been more in contention, really, but I'm feeling like my swing is getting a little better now that we're getting into the swing of the season. So I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks and hopefully I can pull out a win.

Q. Was that mostly what didn't go for you this week, the ball striking?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, as I said, it was very difficult this week to get a consistent going. The course was very wet, then they didn't cut the fairways for two days because they couldn't. So I actually got a few fliers off the fairways, so it was not easy to get something consistent going and in a way that sort of affected my swing a little bit or mentally wise too, so it was never really a hundred percent confident.

Q. Base describe on the renovation from two years ago, was there anything, any changes from 2001 to now that you noticed in the course that jumped out at you or is it pretty similar?

RETIEF GOOSEN: The fairways are about double the width than they were back then. The fairways definitely I remember number 10, it was one of the hardest fairways to hit on the golf course, and now it's probably the easiest fairway to hit. I think they're still going to have to work on a couple of greens that's too severe they can't even use that part of the greens. They improved on 18. At least the ball's staying on the green this time. But the course is made for the bombers. They made the fairways really wide and even if they played it at 76, the long hitters are going to love it.

Q. Seems like every time that you show up here you play phenomenal. What is it specifically about this course that suits your eye so well?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I don't know, I like the feel of it, the elevations, you always need to work something into the green or off the tee box and it's not just an open field and off you go. I love the greens. I love the, as I say, I struggled on the greens this week with the speed and I like these greens that a lot of breaks and stuff like that. But we'll, I don't know when there's another event back here, but otherwise I'll probably come and play when I'm 80 one day.