HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 29, 2026

Joe Pavelski

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. We have Joe Pavelski here in the interview room. Joe, great playing on the course today. Looks like you're currently in fourth place, about five points behind Mardy Fish, the leader. Talk about your round, please.

JOE PAVELSKI: Yeah, it was great being back here, first off, getting out. Course is in tremendous shape. Greens are good. Staff has been amazing. To get out there and start competing again was just a blast.

Got off to a pretty good start. Front nine went really good. Made the turn at 1-under and then kind of fell asleep there 10, 11, 12. Went double bogey, single bogey, double bogey, you know, so you're starting to grind a little bit.

Then was able to find it and made a couple birdies down the stretch to keep it together.

Q. Any of those birdies really stand out as significant shots?

JOE PAVELSKI: Probably -- there was a putt on 16 that was nice. It was probably about a 20-footer and rolled that in. It was nice to see it go in. It was one of those that was up the hill, kind of feels like it's going to start going down, and got it on the right line and speed. It was one of those that after the start I had to the back nine you're trying to find something -- I had just birdied the par-5 before that, so to stack a couple on top was good.

Q. Can you talk about the group you played with today?

JOE PAVELSKI: Yeah, I got to play with A Lim Kim and Derek Lowe. Haven't played with D-Lowe for a little while. Last time was probably at the American Sentry Championship probably five, six years ago. He's an awesome person, great golfer, so you know your group will be fun.

With last year, I got to play two days with A Lim Kim and then she won it, so we obviously got to spend some good time, and I think had some good thoughts and vibes going back to last year and spending time.

So it was a comfortable group for myself. She played really good. She was solid through it. Yeah, you just really enjoy watching her play with how solid she is.

Q. Obviously beautiful day today. Any preparations going into this weekend?

JOE PAVELSKI: We would take three more days like today. It was awesome. Obviously I don't think we're going to get that, but we can hope for it. So the warm weather is nice, that's for sure. You understand with some of the weather coming that there will be a time you got to just try to find your -- stay connected to the leaderboard towards the top and knowing there will be some moments you're going to have to grind through some weather probably and hit a few shots that you maybe normally don't hit and try to figure it out from there.

Q. A just a little bit about the uniqueness of this tournament, and in general having the LPGA players play with the celebrities.

JOE PAVELSKI: Yeah, they're great. They mean a lot to us as players, especially the athletes competing. Really kind of brings back just that competition that comes out of you when you played your sport.

Then you get to go see the best in the world do it, players that have won within the last year or two that are playing good. You have just such an appreciation for how professional they are, especially in this game and how they really don't throw shots away and just the consistency in their game plan and their execution.

It's fun to watch.