BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 19, 2023

Denny McCarthy

Olympia Fields Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Denny, how would you assess your day and how you feel about how you played and how you scored?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, it was kind of a battle. I knew it was going to be tough, warming up on the range, blowing 20.

Kind of went through some good stretches and some bad stretches, and the good stretches I took advantage of a few wedge holes, and the bad stretches I got a couple lucky breaks to be able to advance it up around the green. Kind of kept it together in the bad stretch there in the middle of the back nine.

Kind of an up-and-down round. To not make a bogey today was pretty good.

Q. Did it feel like it got tougher and firmer as the --

DENNY McCARTHY: I don't know about firmer. Maybe a little bit compared to early in the week. Obviously it was really soft early in the week.

Some of the downwind holes, the tee shots are maybe bounding a little bit more than early in the week, but it's still somewhat receptive.

Q. What's the mindset for you to one round here to potentially get to East Lake with everything that's on offer there?

DENNY McCARTHY: Kind of just do what I did today. I kind of just had a don't-care attitude today and I was just going to commit to the shot, hit it, go find it and hit the next one.

That's going to be the plan again tomorrow. If I do that again, and probably going to have to hit it a little better off the tee to give myself some more chances instead of scrambling and fighting, but if I just keep the same mindset I had today, I think I'll be in good shape tomorrow.

Q. I feel like there was a similar situation last year, right on the bubble heading into the final --

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but yeah, it's a similar situation to last year.

Q. What did you learn from that experience and how to handle tomorrow?

DENNY McCARTHY: Kind of what I just talked about. Kind of just hitting it and moving on. There's nothing you can do about the shot you just hit, so just come out with a really committed mindset and just try and hit each shot as best I can.

Q. At the risk of asking you to repeat that for the third time in a row, we have all this information in front of us, on boards, on projections. Is it overstated about how you guys go about it, you and anyone else in the field? Do you think you tend to just play a fourth round like it's any fourth round --

DENNY McCARTHY: Well, I'm in the hunt to win a tournament, too, so I think the mindset of coming out to try and do what I did today and maybe strike it a little better off the tee -- I hit my irons really nice today, so I'm right there to win the tournament.

That's kind of -- if I just come out with the same mindset I did stepping on 1 tee today where I'm not fazed by anything and it doesn't matter what kind of bad shots I hit and just keep moving on, that's all I can control.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q. Is there anything similarity-wise either in pureness, roll or sloping that reminds you of Muirfield Village here?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, these greens have a lot of slope. Those greens were an ice rink on the weekend. Those things were purple. These have some traction. They're receptive.

Slope-wise, yeah, I'd say these probably have a little bit more slope. These things have a ton of slope, and they put some pins in some flat spots and if you hit it to 20 feet it's breaking a ton the whole way and then it might stop breaking at the hole. They are tricky around the hole here. There is a lot of slope.

I did a good job of kind of knowing how fast certain downhill putts were going to be and kind of managing my ball around the hole, leaving it in the right spots.

Q. The don't-care attitude you mentioned, how often do you have that attitude during a competitive round?

DENNY McCARTHY: I try and have it every day, but we play a really hard sport, and it's not so easy to have a fresh, amazing mindset every day. But I had it today. I'd like to have it again tomorrow.

I'm going to have to tomorrow, I've just got to hit a few more quality shots, I think.

Q. What allowed you to have it today?

DENNY McCARTHY: Just not really caring, not really thinking about the results, really just kind of hitting each shot and just moving on from it.

Q. Are you proud of your season, regardless of what happens tomorrow?

DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, I think I've gotten a lot better from last year to this year. I'm proud of that.

Q. What did you set out back in either January or last September to get better at?

DENNY McCARTHY: Driving the ball and iron play, approach play. Since I've been on TOUR, my first few years on TOUR, my approach play was kind of down towards the bottom, and it's starting to climb a little bit. Just working hard on getting the short irons and wedges a little more dialed and crisp with the mid-irons.

Q. Since the putting has always been in reasonably good shape, when you go to work on something like that, do you ever take time away from putting or do you still put the same time into it?

DENNY McCARTHY: I still put the same time into it. Maybe not as much. I'd say I put more focus on ball-striking. I have really good feels with my putting, and to me, putting is all green reading and picking spots. I've kind of developed a process with my putting that the feels don't get too far off, and if they do, I'll spend a little extra time on it.

Q. Do you plan to look at leaderboards and projections tomorrow?

DENNY McCARTHY: No, I think I'll just go try and do my thing and try and play as good as I can.