Media Center Interviews
April 3, 2025
First Round Interview with Sam Ryder
Q. Sam, 63, just one shot off your career low round on the PGA TOUR, what a day. If we can get some comments on your play?
SAM RYDER: Yeah, that wasn't any kind of stuff I was really thinking about too much today. Just played a really solid round. Hit fairways out of the gates, birdied 1, birdied 2, just kind of eased into the round. Had a couple nice par saves on some tricky hole locations, tricky winds. Had a few nice stretches on the back nine, went on a couple birdie runs and took advantage of some par 5s, snuck a couple birdies in on tough par 3 holes that you don't really expect to birdie. Yeah, all in all, it was a pretty good day.
Q. Sam, you mentioned to radio that you weren't exactly 100 percent today. Would you mind explaining again what you were dealing with?
SAM RYDER: Yeah, I had to withdraw from the proam yesterday. Tuesday, after playing nine holes, I was hitting some drivers, everything was feeling really good with my swing, speed was ramping up and I kind of just felt something kind of strained a little bit in my upper back, kind of neck area and didn't feel quite right. Kind of got progressively worse. My physical therapist is here, got some treatment but didn't practice the rest of the day. Wasn't able to go on Wednesday, didn't touch a club, yeah, didn't putt, didn't do anything.
Just really rested. I watched HBO and Netflix and some shows and just tried to rest. Didn't know how I was going to feel. I got out early today. My tee time wasn't until 12:40, I got out here at 9:30, I wanted to make some swings and just kind of see where I was at. If I wasn't going to be able to play, I wanted to let them know that in advance.
My coach was here and I kind of was able to make some swings and I kind of was a little gun shy early, and as I built up the speed I kind of got more confidence and trust in what I was doing. Yeah, once I got on the course, you're really not hitting thankfully, I didn't hit that many shots today, but you're not hitting that many drivers, you know, so I was able to play. Like I said, I think the warm weather helped a lot, too.
Q. You rolled in a lot of putts today, you mentioned you were tinkering with your putter. What exactly is your setup right now and what's the kind of feel you get from it?
SAM RYDER: Yeah, it's a Spider putter. Actually, it was Beau Hossler's backup putter, I started using it my rookie year in 2018. Yeah, I always kind of do my little things to try and make sure my setup's good. I think putting for me is a lot about my setup, so just try to make sure everything, you know, everything's lined up.
And then at that point I can just kind of free it up and just focus on the target and kind of just be more of an athlete. Yeah, nice to see some putts go in, build some confidence.
Q. Speaking of building confidence, you haven't missed a cut yet this season after a very nerve racking end to your last season, you kept your card on the number last season. How did that experience maybe light a fire under you or contribute to this run that you've started the year on now?
SAM RYDER: Yeah, I think it definitely contributed. I'm happy to be playing, happy to be getting starts. To start last season I felt like I was in a couple Signature Events early, had a really good season the year before, finished top60 on FedExCup was just kind of right there. So it was an adjusting kind of year. To find myself in that position of try to just finish 125 was not something that I really anticipated.
But it definitely, like you said, it lit a bit of a fire. I've been focused. I've been you know, I feel like my game's been in a good place and I've been generally healthy so I feel like I know kind of my DNA as a player and I've been able to just kind of hone in on that. The putter's been good this year, I think that contributes to my consistency.
Q. Did Keith's number give you any indication of how things would play today as you got started?
SAM RYDER: I saw that. I mentioned to my caddie, he was 8 under through 15 or 16 holes and I was like that's a really good round of golf. I didn't expect to necessarily see that, but also guys that are 1, 2 under was right around top10 from the morning wave.
I figured it was going to be anything under par is always usually pretty good out here. Didn't go in with any intentions of trying to be more aggressive or anything like that, was just trying to put one foot in front of the next and have a solid round, hit fairways and as many greens as possible.
Q. He got started early and he said as the cloud cover lifted and it got a little hotter, he was able to go for more stuff. Is that something that you were able to do, especially on that back nine? Were you just able to
SAM RYDER: Yeah, I think the fairways were pretty receptive. The greens get bouncy in areas, this place is always a premium on ballstriking.
Yeah, I think I was telling myself and my caddie, like I want to stay aggressive here, I don't want to kind of feel like just because you get a few under par, I wasn't trying to hold onto anything. It's Thursday, it's really early in the week, and Keith had a good round. So I'm not really thinking anything about trying to get to the clubhouse at this point, so early. So I was just trying to stay aggressive and was able to make a few more birdies on the back nine coming in.
