KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2022

Steven Alker

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship here at Harbor Shores, Benton Harbor, Michigan. We are with Steven Alker, who just posted a 1-over par 72 today. He is 7-under par for the championship. Pretty adverse conditions out there, but to use the vernacular of another sport, you kind of held serve and are in a pretty good position, aren't you.

STEVEN ALKER: Yeah, not too much away. I didn't do too much damage. I bogeyed my last hole. Just missed a couple of fairways today and got myself out of position a little bit on the greens, so it just seemed like I was putting over slopes and across mounds and all sorts of things today, so it was just -- it was kind of a grinding day, yeah.

Q. In a four-round tournament you're going to have one of those days. Could you just talk about the battle to fight and shoot a score today?

STEVEN ALKER: Yeah, as I said, I just got out of position. It just seemed like I was playing a lot of defensive golf today, especially on the greens. Obviously I didn't hit it as close as yesterday. The wind was a little different, and the rain, just holes played totally different. Couldn't reach the par-5s. Yeah, it was just a different golf course.

Q. At the end of the day when you look at this, you guys are going to -- I know it's hard to believe, but you're going to have the better end of the draw. Do you look at that and say that that's a benefit that you're getting going into the weekend?

STEVEN ALKER: I don't know about that so much. I mean, obviously it's just -- it kind of is what it is. It kind of works out weeks like that. You just get them. I think going into the weekend maybe, if it gets cold and it keeps raining, it's going to be a grind out there. Yeah, it'll be tough.

We got probably the best of it kind of early on, just a few holes we got some rain. But all in all, yeah. I guess we probably did get the better draw, and hopefully -- what we played in just kind of conserved our energy a little bit.

Q. When the weather is like this and you're wet out on the course, how much does the mental aspect kind of take over in a game of golf?

STEVEN ALKER: Yeah, a lot. Bernhard Langer only shot 3-under today, and he's about the mentally strongest we've got out here. It goes to show if you kind of hang in there -- I was just hanging in there just trying to grind it out. So yeah, it certainly helps. It's a huge part for sure. Physically, everything, really.