KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2022

Rod Pampling

Press Conference

Harbor Shores

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores. We're joined by pod Pam believing who just posted a second-round 68. He is 5-under par for the championship. Tell us about your round. You put yourself in a pretty good position here at the 36-hole mark.

ROD PAMPLING: Yeah, obviously I got off to a nice start. Hit it really close on 1 and then knocked it on in two in that short par-4. They had the tees up for us. Had a nice start.

Then obviously the weather was kind of -- stopped play for a little bit -- it was a grind out there with the rain coming in and then with the wind coming I think a little bit earlier than predicted. It was a battle out there, but then the rain stopped and we got back into playing some good golf. It was nice. Just very steady. Drove it really well and just hit the middle of the greens and took a lot of pars and went from there.

Q. Totally different mindset than yesterday afternoon where it seemed like everyone was attacking and making a lot of birdies?

ROD PAMPLING: Definitely. A lot more cautious I think on your iron play because it's close to being -- you could get a flier off the fairway, so you're definitely a little more cautious so you're not as aggressive. And then the ball wasn't going as far, so some of those back pins you really didn't want to be long, so you just had to play the safer side, where I'm sure yesterday afternoon you were getting good lies and you could just hit your number, and it would finish there.

Definitely a little bit more on the cautious side.

Q. We had Steven Alker in here yesterday. He's been on such a great run. I wonder if in your background you've played a lot of with him through the years?

ROD PAMPLING: Not a ton, but obviously I've seen Steven out there quite a lot when we were on I guess the Korn Ferry TOUR and all that. Always been a very good player.

I think from what I saw, just lacked confidence, I think, when he got to the main Tour. Played very nicely on the Korn Ferry, was out there, and obviously he's found his feet out here pretty quickly.

You don't need to hit it -- although he hits it a nice distance anyway, but yeah, I'd say confidence is high and he's just playing great. He's always been a good player, always been disciplined with his work, and it's showing now. He's obviously on a pretty good tear right now.

Q. For a novice golfer, how much do you actually have to change your approach on two very different weather days, a muggy day yesterday and a colder, little bit rainier day today?

ROD PAMPLING: It's just working out how far the ball is going to travel, what the lies are on the fairway. Obviously experience tells you which pins to go to, which ones not to.

There's really at lot of things you've got to work out as to how the conditions are playing and what is the ball going to do from certain lies. From one day to the next out here, it was a big extreme where from we were hitting drivers yesterday to today, some holes was 20, 30 yards different.

You had to really be patient, I think, out there was the big thing. Just happy to be done before I guess the cooler weather comes in.

Q. How common is it to go from such a drastic difference in two separate days?

ROD PAMPLING: It doesn't happen all that often, but I guess up north here, there's a bigger chance for it, so I would imagine up here you'd get it quite often. It's not unusual for up here.

Q. How long does it take you to warm up? Not necessarily with swings but where you feel comfortable body temperature when you're out there? Today the temperature is dropping a degree or two an hour. Does it take two or three holes, or were you warm on the first tee? What's that process like?

ROD PAMPLING: It certainly takes a lot longer to warm up these days as the age kicks in, but no, you're generally ready to go. That's what you've got to plan. I know for myself, I changed my routine over the years where I finish just before I tee off, I'll make sure I'll go and hit some drivers and then basically walk to the tee so I'm ready to go.

Yeah, unfortunately we cool down a lot quicker than we used to. But in these temperatures, you've got to make sure you're keeping your top half warm just to keep the muscles working.