PGA Championship Wednesday, August 5, 2020 , , USA Harding Park Golf Club

Shane Lowry It's just going to be a difficult week, and I just feel like if I Press Conference can play my best golf, I can give myself a chance this week. But it does need my best golf.

I did play well last week, but I'm one I never really try and JOHN DEVER: Good morning, everybody, and welcome peak for a big tournament. I just kind of warm up and back to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding practice and prepare as best I can and see what it gives Park in San Francisco, California. We are pleased to be me on that given week. joined by 2019 Open Champion . Look, I'll give it my best tomorrow and the next few days Thank you, Shane, for being with us. Welcome to what is and see what happens. your eighth PGA Championship of your career. You've got something quite distinct, and that's 13 months as golf's Q. It would be really unfair to ask you about the rough reigning major champion. Plenty of time to celebrate I based on what I witnessed on Monday. What had you would think, but as fun as it sounds, I bet you're also heard about Harding and what were you expecting, anxious to measure yourself and go for two in a row here. and what's the biggest challenge you see of this week and the way it's set up? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I mean, obviously very strange times the last sort of six or eight months, and yeah, I am SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, so I just heard last weekend the most recent major champion; although it doesn't feel somebody said that the rough was -- I think I heard like it because it was so long ago. But yeah, I'm happy to somebody said they were talking to someone who played be back playing a major championship. it; the rough was pretty thick, and they were not wrong. But it is quite patchy in places, so you can get some good You know, it's nice to be here at Harding Park. I really like lies but you can get some bad ones. There is a bit of luck the golf course. I think it's going to be quite difficult this involved, but then there's no crowds to trample down the week, which is good. So yeah, I'm excited for the week rough where there normally is. ahead. And courses like this, like Bethpage last year, was similar I managed to play myself into a little bit of form last week. I to this where really thick rough, where if you hit it a good bit played okay, so I was happy with that. We'll see how it off-line you're actually okay. So yeah, that'll be interesting goes. to see how that plays.

Q. Is there a certain freedom in a golfer showing up to Yeah, look, I think it's there in front of you. It's playing a major having already won one? quite difficult. The greens are a lot firmer than they feel like they should be because it's so cold, and it's just going to be SHANE LOWRY: Don't know because this is the first time a great test of golf. It's stand up and hit your driver on I've done that. Look, it's kind of like you're going out there every hole, and I'll try and shoot the best score I can. It's -- I think -- no, I think no matter what happened in the past going to be difficult. you're going out there in any given week just trying to perform your best. That's kind of the way I try and do Q. The guy who wins this week will have to do what? things. The only thing I can do tomorrow -- the only thing I can do this week, is go out tomorrow and try and shoot the SHANE LOWRY: He's going to have to drive well and best score I can. scramble well, I would say. Because with how windy it is and how cold it is, it's going to be quite hard to gauge your Like I said, the golf course is playing great. It's going to be distances. Like coming from Memphis last week where it's very difficult because it could be quite cold and playing almost 100 degrees, or it was in the 90s, anyway, and your long and the rough is thick and bad in places. ball is going quite far, there's a lot of distance to take off this week.

100394-1-1003 2020-08-05 16:16:00 GMT Page 1 of 4 had 190 or 180 something to the hole, and I just tried to hit So just getting used to that over the last couple of days, a good shot and hit it to a foot, which was nice. that's kind of what I've been trying to do over the last couple of days in preparing for this tournament. But it was nice because I think if I'd have bogeyed that hole or doubled that hole to finish 12th or 15th or whatever, I Q. spoke glowingly of your game would have been very disappointed coming off the week, yesterday, said he expected you to be right there come whereas feeling like I played quite nicely last week. Sunday night. Do you expect yourself to be right there, as you said, and what are your confidence levels Look, on Sunday last week I gave myself a lot of chances coming off Memphis last week? And also can you talk in the first 16 holes and I didn't really convert any of them, a little bit about the course in terms of suiting your and I felt like I could have been there or thereabouts when eye? I think you liked it in 2015; and the conditions, a it came to who was going to win the tournament. bit of Irish summer conditions coming up, how they favor you. I was very happy with last week. It was my first week with Bo back on the bag, which was nice. It was nice to have a SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, obviously, look, Brooks is familiar face there. So yeah, it was good. I'm very happy standing here, and when he gets asked about someone, with it. he's not going to speak badly of them. Q. I don't mind to sound too personal, but how But no, I played a little bit with Brooks in lockdown, you difficult was it waving goodbye to Wendy and Iris, and know, when we were down in Florida at the Floridian and what are the arrangements over the next several weeks stuff. I obviously know Ricky Elliott quite well and Claude for you? Harmon, and we just organized a few games, played with Stephen Grant and we had a good time. SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, well, it was very difficult saying goodbye to your wife and your three-year-old for 10 weeks, And it's great. It's nice to be able to play with some of the but like I said to them, I'm not going off to war. Like I'm best players in the world, and I was fortunate enough to be going to play golf. It's not the end of the world. It's strange able to do that during lockdown. times in our life, and it's something that I have to do.

But do I expect myself to be there on Sunday? Look, if I You know, it's not easy, but it's fine. Like I'm not going to bring my best golf, I can there, but I try and lower stand here and want everyone to feel sorry for me because expectations as much as I can on a week like this. I just try a lot of people have to do it in much more difficult and go out tomorrow and worry about what I'm going to circumstances. That's kind of the way I'm looking at it. shoot tomorrow first, and you know, keep going from there. As it stands, I'm probably out here until after the U.S. Open And the golf course itself, look, it's just a difficult golf because even if I don't get in the FedEx, when I have to go course. It's probably quite similar to Bethpage where I home to Ireland I have to quarantine for two weeks so that think the guy who drives it in the fairway will also probably doesn't really make much sense. So yeah, I'm here until win, but you still need to hit it a decent distance. It is after the U.S. Open. playing very long, like there's a couple of 500-yard holes where they're playing really, really long, especially if you Like I said, when they were going, I said hopefully I can get them back into the wind. play some good golf and make it all worthwhile, and last week was a good start to that, so hopefully I can keep Look, it's just going to be a bit of a slog out there, but I'm going. looking forward to it because I like weeks like this. I think it's mentally challenging. If I can get myself in a good Q. Just wondering are you able to tell us what Doug frame of mind come tomorrow morning when I tee off, who witnessed in the rough on Monday? knows what could happen. SHANE LOWRY: He was walking down by 9 fairway, and I Q. Just a quick question from last week, and well done just threw a ball in there and I said to Bo, "Let's see if a last week, too, your result. How do you rate that 5-wood can get out of this," and it didn't. save down the 72nd hole? Yeah, look, it's patchy in places. So I was just trying out to SHANE LOWRY: It was interesting. Look, I hit a bad tee see if my 5-wood could -- I could gouge it out of the rough. shot, hit it in the water and I found a decent drop where I But I think when you get some bad lies in the rough, you

100394-1-1003 2020-08-05 16:16:00 GMT Page 2 of 4 probably have to be fairly disciplined in what you're doing. whole lot up for grabs, and winning one of these things for I feel like there might be a few layups on par-4s and leave certain players can be career-changing, life-changing. yourself a good numbers and try and make par that way; that could be a good way to play it, but we'll see. I think people will feel it. I know if I have a chance on Sunday I'll probably feel it a little bit, but it'll be nice to be in Q. What was it that clicked in particular for you last that situation. Will it be the same as if there was 40,000 week in Memphis? people out there? No, absolutely not. But I still think everybody knows how much these tournaments mean, and SHANE LOWRY: You know, I think it was just a everybody knows how much they want to win one of these combination of things. Like I feel like I've been playing things. good golf recently, and I've really struggled on the greens. I've really struggled with -- I've been on my own trying to I can imagine it'll still be good. figure it out for myself. I hadn't seen my coach, Neil, since March. Hadn't seen Bo since March. He obviously has Q. You mentioned making the adjustment from watched me playing for the last two years. Memphis to here; how do you go about doing that? Is it just by feel and hitting shots out on the course, or do So it was nice, even no matter how many videos you send you get more scientific and use a launch monitor to to them or how many calls you do over the phone, it's quite help get a sense of the difference between this week difficult to do it when you're not in person. and last?

So Bo just kind of said a couple of things on the putting SHANE LOWRY: No, I just do it by feel, by numbers on green at the start of the week, and I feel it clicked and I feel the course. I mean, like I'm not too -- I'm used to kind of a little bit more comfortable. Even though he didn't have wind like this and cold wind, so it's pretty easy, I think. the best putting week last week, it was a little bit better, and that's why I did a little bit better. But on the range here, it's straight downwind. So that's not really very helpful when it comes to using your launch Like I said earlier, I don't want to throw too many flowers at monitor whatever. I don't really use launch monitors too him and give him too much press, but it was good to have much, only when I'm trying a new driver or something. Bo back on the bag last week. But yeah, just out playing a practice round, you kind of hit Q. I think it was Rory who made a point that outside of some shots and hit some full shots in different winds, and the landscape of the tournament that what you kind of get a gauge. differentiates tournaments is their atmosphere. I know you know this is a major this week, but is it hard to But I would say it's probably half a club. What is it from distinguish this between some of the other Memphis last week, if I hit my 7-iron 185 last week, I'm tournaments you've played this year without probably hitting it maybe 175, 178 this week, so something spectators and the surrounds? like that.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's funny, like I played with Dustin When you play golf in this type of wind, as well as this type and Phil Saturday last week. You're kind of out late on a of cold, there is a lot of feel involved, and the temperature Saturday doing well in a WGC. I can imagine if there was can change throughout the day here. So it's important to crowds it would have felt a little bit different. And even be on the ball with that, as well. Sunday coming down the stretch, I sort of felt like I had a chance going out there Sunday, and to be honest, I did feel Q. I'm wondering after winning at Portrush last year it a little bit. and the shutdown coming earlier this year, was there any part of it that may have been a blessing, giving I don't know if it was as much as you normally would feel it, you a chance to sort of catch your breath and maybe but I did feel the heat a little bit coming down the stretch on hone your form with these big tournaments later in the Sunday, which was nice, because I hadn't been in the year than they would have been? situation since we started playing without fans. SHANE LOWRY: No, I don't think -- I feel like I was This week, will the players that have a chance on the back playing some decent golf going into the lockdown. nine on Sunday feel it like they would do if there was 40,000 people here? Probably not as much as you might So straightaway for me personally, I don't feel like it's a think, but I still they'll feel it a little bit. I still think there's a blessing, or it was a blessing. I came back out then and

100394-1-1003 2020-08-05 16:16:00 GMT Page 3 of 4 played some average golf for the last few months.

I was so looking forward to going to Augusta in April as the Open Champion. I was looking forward to going to Ireland to play the at Mt. Juliet, a place that I love, and as the Open Champion and just getting to enjoy and all that.

All these tournaments, yes, it's great to be back playing golf, but it would be better if things were just normal and we were playing in front of crowds and you were getting the chance to live life normally.

But like I keep saying, it is what it is now and we just have to deal with it and make the best of a bad situation and get on with it.

Q. If you could just rub the genie's lamp and have one aspect of your game really firing on all cylinders this week, what would it be? Would it be the driving?

SHANE LOWRY: Look, I think if I can hole a few putts this week, I can probably do something decent anyway. I can probably give myself a chance. Look, like I always say, the best players in the world are here, and if one of them brings their "A" game, they're going to be very hard to beat. I'll go out there and do my best, but if I can roll a few putts in -- if I can roll a few putts in early this week and get a bit of confidence going, you never know what could happen.

JOHN DEVER: Shane, thank you for stopping by.

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