NSN Tonight caught up with PGA tour golfer Patrick Rodgers after his first round of play at the 2025 Barracuda Championship
[Music] NSN tonight from the Barracuda Championship rolls on. Thrilled to be joined by Patrick Rogers moments after he finished his first round, nine points. You shot a 67. How’d it feel out there? Yeah, it’s it’s always great to be here in Truckucky. Um just an amazing place all all four seasons, but especially in the summertime, you know, just it’s a good feeling just just being here in this town. And obviously I enjoy this golf tournament. It’s a fun format. We got perfect weather and um it was nice to play really solid out there today. We were talking before we started taping. Yeah. Nine or 10 times to this tournament. You’ve experienced it at Montro and Old Greenwood. What keeps you coming back? Yeah, I mean, of course, we’re all aspiring to be in the majors at the Open Championship. Uh it’s a tough one, tough one to crack, but this is uh to be honest with you, this is almost a better alternative. I watched the golf this morning and they looked pretty miserable over there. Um so yeah, I will definitely take it. And um yeah, with the Sable format, it’s really fun. It’s a part of the country that my family and I love coming to. So yeah, there’s just great vibes around here. you’ve come so close uh to winning this thing. Actually, even went to a sudden death playoff a couple years ago. Uh and I remember that whole it was just the way it all kind of set up. It was it was tough. I wish what do you remember about that situation and and what do you sort of like use as that to maybe inject some confidence into yourself to that maybe this weekend is the time to get done? That was an it’s an interesting experience playing this tournament with a lead because you really need to stay so offensive in this format. Like par obviously isn’t going to get you anywhere. um it’s going to keep you, you know, in the same spot. And so, um to stay to stay on the offensive, stay on the gas, keep trying to make birdies. I kind of stalled out my last nine holes and gave Oshay an opportunity to to come come back and chase me. Um but yeah, I’ve had had a lot of chances to win here, which has been fun. I really enjoy the format because I think um it naturally just makes me more aggressive, which is something that I try to implement throughout the whole year. Um but yeah, hopefully this week is my week. How have you been feeling so far this year? I know you’ve had a couple top 20 finishes. You finished in the top three at the Genesis. How’s the game kind of been so far all year? Yeah, I got off to a nice start. Um was right there in the mix there at the Genesis. Um and I’ve kind of struggled the last month and a half or so. Um just a few things that have creeped up in my ball striking, but I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work. Not really seeing a ton of results. Feeling like I’m close like every, you know, tour player says. Um but I I feel like I’m starting to turn the corner. Today was really solid, so I need to need to put three more rounds together just like that. Well, you can look up Patrick’s career earnings. The game has treated him well, but you don’t need me to tell you. Over 300 events, still without a win. I believe it’s the most starts on the PGA Tour without a victory. Is that does that hang over your head or do you just kind of enjoy where you’re at and it’s going to come one of these days? It definitely hangs over my head because I’m competitive and I play to win. Um, so I’ve played 300 and however many times and I haven’t got it done yet. So, um, you know, as a golfer, that’s 300 failures. But, of course, I’m I’m I have a growth mindset. I’m trying to get better. I’m trying to improve over the course of my career. I think I’m more served or better served now than I ever have been. Um, and so it the difficult part is wanting it to happen so badly, but needing to let it happen in order for it to it to become a reality. So, that’s kind of where we’re at. Well, you certainly won a lot in college. Tied Tigers record with 11 wins at Stanford. I know that’s going back a few years now, but how much did that I mean, how enjoyable was that experience? Did you come out to this region at all when you played for the I love love love being out on the west coast. Um yeah, it brings back a lot of great memories from my college days. Um Tahoe is a place that’s really close to a lot of people uh that that went to Stanford and live out in the Bay Area now. Um so yeah, this this feels super familiar. We really enjoy coming here. We try to turn this into like a little summer vacation and I think it brings out some good golf and and a really enjoyable week. When you look at this golf course, old Greenwood, are there any holes in particular that you just really enjoy playing that kind of just stick out in your mind? I know they kind of flip the nines and now like seven, eight and nine used to be 16, 17, 18. Obviously those are very scenic and just interesting. Uh but is there a part of the golf course that you like? Yeah, I just think in general this is a great venue for Stableford. Um because there’s so many riskreward shots. Um there’s there’s so many shots where you can hit a decent shot and be penalized whether it’s in a hazard or whatever, but the rewards are really good. There’s I think three or four par fours that you can drive. Yeah. Uh there’s three par five, so there’s a lot of opportunity to be aggressive and kind of try to take the reins. Um and so it’s fun to have a format that allows you to do that and kind of play loose and free. Um but yeah, that closing stretch is a lot of fun, but there’s there’s tons of stretches. Even getting off to a hot start, it feels like you’re always a few holes away from from really tipping the scales and and getting yourself near the top of the leaderboard. Take us into some of the extracurriculars. You find time to have some fun with the family out here. Yeah, I think we’re going to go to Donner Lake this afternoon. My family and I have all been a little under the weather so far this week, so we’re looking forward to feeling good and getting back outside and enjoying enjoying outside here in Truckucky. Big Indiana guy, right? Pardon me. We of course cover Steve Alfred down in Reno. That’s still a pretty big name around those parts, right? Yeah, absolutely. That’s an Indiana legend. That will always be the heck of a year for your Pacers, too, man. They were right there. Oh, man. I I I still don’t know if I can talk about it. I’m so sorry. It’s uh it was the the most fun few months of of my life as a Pacers fan and then one of the the hardest things to watch. So, but uh I I I will live and die with with my Pacers and they uh gave me a lot of great memories this year. They’re going to be in the mix again for sure. All right. We appreciate you joining us, Patrick. Uh we hope you can get it done this weekend and uh good luck out there. Good luck. See you in that final group Sunday. Sounds good. All right, NSN tonight from the Barracuda rolls on as Pat gets ready to jump in Donner Lake.
