Media Center Interviews
April 5, 2024
Second Round Interview with Denny McCarthy
Q. Two-under 70, I know it wasn't the finish you wanted, but you talked yesterday about how important your attitude was. Much, much harder today. How much more important was it?
DENNY McCARTHY: Very. It was a brutal golf course today. It's probably pretty obvious that it was not the good end of the wave. Yeah, I knew it was going to be a challenge today. You've just got to kind of come in with the attitude that I'm going to try and enjoy it as much as I can.
Kind of been joking at home that it's been really windy at home where I live in Jupiter and I was kind of asking for some calmer days so I could work on some stuff, but this is kind of the weather I've been playing in at home so I felt pretty comfortable out there.
Q. Your short game has been key this week, I think you're 15 for 18 in scrambling. Is that a matter of how well you're playing at the moment or maybe, we talked about it yesterday, just missing in the right spots?
DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, I think a little of both. A lot of those have been just off the green or just in the fringe. Yeah, I made it a point to try and miss on the correct side or into the wind. I think that's why it's more -- speaks more to my course management really than the scrambling aspect. I've been using my head really well.
Q. Similar forecast for the weekend, does that make it easier or more difficult trying to run down Akshay when he's got such a lead?
DENNY McCARTHY: I don't know if it's easier or harder, I just know that I'm comfortable in it and he maybe didn't quite get to experience how much of a beast this golf course was today. I know what it can play like, so I'm comfortable playing in the wind. I feel like I have really good control over my ball right now and I'm excited for the weekend.
Q. Denny, 2-under 70 today, we heard you describe a beast-like golf course today. Just how good is the 2-under 70 given that?
DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, it was really good. I played really solid, I hit a lot of really good shots. Even my not-so-good shots I missed them in the correct spots. There was almost probably two to four shots today I knew I got slightly out of position or mis-hit it off the tee and I almost knew that I wasn't going to be able to hit the green, which is kind of crazy. You're in the fairway and you're playing to almost miss the green in the right spot, but that's kind of what you had to do today. Yeah, just a brutal golf course when it blows like that and the greens firm up and I handled it pretty well.
Q. You touched on with Rex your management style, your mental style. That obviously must have kind of kept you obviously not in the game but rising up top.
DENNY McCARTHY: Yeah, I think there were definitely a couple frustrating moments out there today, but you just kind of need to expect that going into a day like today, like you're going to have some mishaps like the one on 18. I'm a little angry right now, but it's part of it. I mean, 18's not an easy par 5. If you hit the fairway, it's a hole where you can hit it up near the green and it's a birdie hole. If you miss the fairway, all of a sudden with the wind that we had today, laying it up, it becomes kind of a sneaky tough hole. There's a lot of holes like that out here where you can get going poorly quickly if you're not smart.
So just kind of, yeah, like you said, going back to my attitude, I knew it was going to be a tough day so tried to just really commit to each shot, hit it and move on and forget about it and kind of just keep doing that throughout the day and see where that would put me.
