RBC Heritage

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Graeme McDowell

Quick Quotes

Q. Good start, 3-under par. Had a chance there at 9, almost, not quite, but still you've got to be pleased with your first 18?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, I am. This golf course gets you defensive, especially off the tee. You don't get on many tee boxes here and feel like you can open the shoulders and give it a rip.

I felt a little steery out there. My iron playing was a little off. There's lots of room for improvement. But scoring-wise, it felt good. And the greens kept the ball reasonably under control. On the tee kind of did what you have to do today, give yourself a few looks at the greens and make a few putts. But blustery enough out there, kept us on our toes.

Q. Speaking of blustery, you have a 12:40 tee time tomorrow and the weather forecast is not great. So your thoughts on just what lies ahead on Friday?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, I mean it's an unknown. This golf course is in such great condition, I hope it just doesn't get a big dump of rain tomorrow afternoon. With the gusts forecast in the morning, the PGA Tour is extremely experienced so they'll be able to monitor the situation and make sure it's safe for players to play and fair for players to play. The late tee time I'll adjust accordingly, if need be.

Q. Now that you've had a little time to let that settle in, what has that done for you mentally, professionally, every way?
GRAEME McDOWELL: It's lifted a you huge weight off my shoulders. I've been kind of half my mental self the last two years. I think that's probably a fair description because I haven't allowed myself the opportunity to go and play free golf. I needed it way too much. And I've needed to simple things. I needed a playing status for the PGA Tour. It's not something I'm used to trying to fight for. And it's different. It hurts you on a Saturday, Sunday, especially, because you don't have that freedom of, okay, now we've made the weekend, let's put the accelerator down, and go see what we can do. It's more like, man, I need a 15th here; man, I need an 8th here. It's kind of like -- it's been a bit small minded, I suppose and, like I say, it's affected me mentally and led to some frustrating golf the last few years.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #178 at 2019-04-18 17:03:00 GMT

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