PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026

Aldrich Potgieter

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Aldrich Potgieter is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Aldrich, what can you tell us about your second round?

ALDRICH POTGIETER: Yeah, it was great. I think looking at those last two holes was kind of unfortunate, but, yeah, I felt like I was in control most of the round and had some really nice par saves that kind of kept the momentum going. So I was quite happy with it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. You're young. Are you going to be able to just put out of your head what happened at 17 and 18 and just get back to business tomorrow morning, or will that stick with you for a little bit?

ALDRICH POTGIETER: No, I think you kind of are looking at it as an aspect of, okay, sleeping on the lead is not -- it's always good, but it's mentally probably draining for a week like this where it's so big. So I think being in a couple shots back kind of puts me in that position to be able to go and go look for a low round instead of defend.

Looking back to some of the positions I was in through on the PGA TOUR, with the Rocket Mortgage, it was tough sleeping on that lead, and that opening Sunday round was pretty hard at first, six holes until I lost the lead, and I was like, okay, if I win today, it's fine, if I don't, it's also fine. There will be a hundred other opportunities coming.

So it was nice for me to kind of get to that point where I lost the lead and I was like, well, now we can just go and attack again and kind of be in that position where I'm not really thinking about it too much. So I think if we can kind of keep that mindset going for the weekend and kind of stay inside a reaching range but also attack a little bit, I think it will be good.

I think the weather's also looking good, so might be able to go and get some more birdies.

Q. Coming into this week, what was your mindset, what was your goal, and where are you on that trajectory?

ALDRICH POTGIETER: Yeah, playing some good golf the last couple of weeks leading into this. So I am going home for two weeks as well after this. So it was also kind of make something worth taking home. So but, yeah, there was no big expectations to maybe winning or something like that, but it's also a lot of points for FedEx, so we definitely want to make the top 30 and top 50 at least.

So it's a really good week, and the golf course was set up nicely for me. So we just thought giving myself a chance on every hole to kind of build on and have a good result at the end of the week was kind of, that was it.

Q. Tomorrow you'll be paired with some of the top guys here. There's going to be a lot of people following you. What do you do mentally to deal with this situation, and do you rely on people like Ernie to talk about the experience and how to deal with the situation like that?

ALDRICH POTGIETER: Yeah, there's going to be a lot of people out following us. But I think it will be better than the final group maybe or something like that. So I think there's a lot of positives still taking into this weekend being in the position I am instead of leading by one or being tied for the lead.

So I think I'm pretty confident on what I can do on the golf course, and now it's just kind of giving myself chances and just staying where I'm at.

Q. You used the word attack a few times. Can you be aggressive on this golf course? We've heard so much about the hole locations, but you still feel you can be aggressive?

ALDRICH POTGIETER: Yeah, I think it comes down to, it's going to get warmer, so I'm going to hit my driver a little bit further as well. The winds are going to stay up, so it's kind of picking those five or six holes where you're like, okay, I want to make a couple of good -- give myself a couple of good looks, or there's five or six holes where it's like, if you shoot level par through this five-hole stretch, you're going to be up on most of the field anyway.

So it's kind of more taking it to the golf course and having that aggressive mindset on certain holes. But, yeah, I think if I can hit a lot of fairways and hit it really far, I'm going to have a lot of wedges into most of these greens. So I think that will beat a lot of guys coming in with their 9-irons or 8-irons.