PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2025

David Puig

Quail Hollow Club

Quick Quotes

Q. For 15 holes it was looking pretty good. How would you sum it up?

DAVID PUIG: Again, my back hasn't felt okay for the last nine, ten days, and obviously no practice at all since the last day of Korea basically. I haven't hit a ball since the last day of Korea pretty much. So yeah, obviously I can focus on the negatives of the last couple holes where I struggled a little bit, but overall if I'm telling the truth, I think it was a great day, and overall, especially without practicing and having sort of back pain, I think I competed very well.

Obviously, again, the finish kind of sucks in a way, but I think overall, I'm pretty happy with the score, pretty happy with how I got it around. Hopefully tomorrow I'll score a little bit better.

Q. Did it pop up in Korea or after Korea?

DAVID PUIG: It kind of cropped up in Korea. I think I had like five, six holes to go and kind of tweaked a little bit, and since then it hasn't recovered yet.

Tuesday morning I thought for sure that I wasn't even going to tee off today, and somehow I managed to play nine holes yesterday. But yeah, gave it a try today, actually responded quite nice, and I was able to lead the tournament for a while. So obviously, again, that finish kind of sucked because two bad swings on 17 and 18, but overall a pretty good day.

Q. Did you have your physio walking with you the whole round?

DAVID PUIG: She did today, yeah. I've been having a lot of physical therapy the last 10 days, actually, and they've helped me a lot. Obviously I didn't see the results right away. It took a while to actually see my body respond. But yeah, they did a great job.

All the team I have behind me, no one ever talks about them. I think it's important for me to make sure that they were there for me, both physios at home and here and swing coach and trainer, my parents, my girlfriend. Everybody has just been super supportive, and it definitely helped.

Q. What's the hardest part about going from not really practicing to playing a tournament round at a major championship?

DAVID PUIG: Yeah, no, it was weird for sure. I only played the front nine. I've never seen the back nine ever in my life. Today was the first day I actually seen the back nine. I didn't even know where the holes were going and how the greens were.

I mean, it's shocking. You get to those last three, four holes, and you see this finish, and obviously with me even without practicing, too, you're over the ball and it doesn't feel right. There's definitely some discomfort and obviously some things to improve. But I guess it's normal, obviously, without being able to practice.

But yeah, it was shocking. It was tough. Teeing off at 7:00 in the morning today playing a major championship and actually not knowing how your body is going to respond or how the swing was going to respond, how actually the shots were going to respond. Yeah, again, pretty happy overall.

Q. If you didn't know the back nine, did you at least know that 16, 17, 18 --

DAVID PUIG: Obviously I've watched it on TV. I didn't walk it. I didn't chip or putt. I didn't actually see the holes. You kind of have an idea on the last, yeah, three, four holes, but 10, 11, 12, 13, holes that I've actually never even watched on TV I don't think.

It was a total trust in my caddie. He was like, just aim here and hit it there, and at the end of the day you just need to trust him and just try to make the best swing.

Q. What was the swing on 17 that hurt?

DAVID PUIG: I mean, again, you get to 17 for the first time and you're actually playing pretty well. Obviously you want to finish the round good and you see that par-3 where the pin was, it's pretty shocking. To that you add that I haven't hit a lot of 5-irons in the last 10 days. I'd say I hit maybe one or two.

It's hard to commit, and I kind of flared it a little bit to the right and just didn't put a good swing to it. I made a great par.

Then on 18 obviously that tee shot wasn't very good. But again, I feel like I drove the ball very good today, besides that last hole. It could have happened on any other hole, but it happened on 18 and it obviously sucks. But again, overall pretty happy.

Q. How do you feel right now?

DAVID PUIG: Pretty good. I mean, again, obviously there's some -- it's tight and there's stiffness to it. I wouldn't say it's more than that at the moment or at least how I'm feeling. But yeah, I'm seeing a little bit of progress every day, and hopefully it keeps getting better and better every day, I keep getting warmer and my body kind of just keeps progressing the right way, and hopefully tomorrow I feel a little bit better just little by little, and hopefully my swing just actually feels a little better tomorrow, too.

Q. Was there ever a point where technically you felt like your back was the cause of it?

DAVID PUIG: Not a lot. I made a lot of good swings today. 16, 17 and 18, you're obviously thinking about the back, you don't want to do too much, plus the shot itself, it's super challenging. The combination of both, plus again, just kind of not knowing 100 percent how the ball is going to react, it makes it very challenging. But I feel that -- yeah, it was whatever. I was probably tired at the end of the day, too, with all the wind the last few holes.

Yeah, it is what it is, and yeah, hopefully tomorrow I'm just more ready.

Q. When you went through that stretch of four birdies in five holes, was it like beware the wounded animal?

DAVID PUIG: Yeah, it was a good stretch of holes. Obviously I look back to it and I hit a lot of good shots, but at the moment you're not actually thinking about that. I hit a great tee shot on 7 and made a good up-and-down and hit a good drive on 8 and made a good chip, so both birdies were somewhat close. Then 10, hit two good shots and actually the birdie was quite easy. Again, hit a good tee shot on 11 and I made a good putt.

I mean, it didn't look somewhat shocking to me, honestly, because you're not actually thinking. But I look back and yeah, I need to be proud of all the good shots I hit today and I'm just going to take that into tomorrow and hopefully feel a little better.

Again, you're thinking, but obviously you don't want to -- again, I tried my best to commit and just kind of trust all the work I've been doing just off the course. Again, the back responded somewhat nice, and I was able to actually swing somewhat normal, even though I was thinking about it. So yeah, again, hopefully tomorrow I feel a little better and I start thinking less about it.