PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2026

Maverick McNealy

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Maverick McNealy is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. A nice 67 for you today. What did you do well out there?

MAVERICK McNEALY: I feel like I played 4 1/2 really good hours of golf. Didn't play my best coming in, but there's always good stretches and bad stretches. Had a lot of things go my way today, I think. I had a good tee time, that helped. This afternoon played a lot easier than the morning, I think.

Didn't take advantage of it as much as I would have liked, but that went my way. Had a couple short game shots go my way. Bunker shot going in on 16 was a good example.

Honestly, it was a lot of fun playing with Paddy Harrington out there today. It's kind of been a frustrating year in some ways for me on the golf course, and seeing a guy that has such a great attitude and really loves the game and loves to compete as much as he does and just quintessential great professional golfer, that was a great example for me out there today from an attitude standpoint. And he played great today, so that was a lot of fun.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions.

Q. You had an impressive recent showing at Augusta National, the Masters. You co-lead the tournament going into the weekend. How much would you say your confidence levels and comfort levels are playing in major tournaments have now really soared?

MAVERICK McNEALY: I honestly wouldn't say they're that high. I didn't feel like I played that great. I somehow got a lot out of my game, and this is obviously new territory for me. But I am confident that it's going to go into the experience bank, and good or bad, I'm going to learn a lot from it.

And really excited to test my game in ways it hasn't been tested before, and I think this is the next step for me as a professional is competing and playing well in this type of tournament.

Q. Tough course, tough setup, what was most challenging about it all out there today in the heat of battle for you?

MAVERICK McNEALY: I think the thing that's hardest to see is that every hole location's on a crown. From TV everything looks kind of flat, but you get up there and everything's on a crown. If you miss the putt right, it breaks right. You miss a putt left, it breaks left. Lag putting's different -- difficult because you're going through ridges, there's competing slopes, so is the hill going to win or is the little mound going to win?

And then it seems like every lag putt it falls off behind the flag. So if you hit it just a little too hard, it's going to run out an extra couple feet. So I think that's been the most difficult part of the setup here.

Q. Could you give us the details of 16, and how special was that coming off of the bogey at 15?

MAVERICK McNEALY: Yeah, bogey at 15, that was my one of my three 3-putts this week, I think. So it hasn't exactly been really tidy, but that tee shot was big. It's a left-to-right sloping fairway, I knew I had enough to cover the bunker but wind off the left, it's a hard fairway to hold. So quality swing there, rewarded myself with a 4-iron out of the fairway.

In off the left, and I knew that left bunker was better than right bunker, but didn't hit the best shot but at least missed it in the correct bunker. Walking up, I saw it was a decent lie and thought it was makeable, and it came out perfect.