The golfer talks about his third round at Quail Hollow
Tony Fenol is with us now at the 107th PJ Championship. Tony, a real nice day for you. How would you summarize your third round? Yeah, I was I thought it was a solid go. I had some nice looks there on the back. Um I thought I hit some good putts that uh you know just didn’t go in which uh you know would have been nice to to have fall but to capitalize on some of the good shots I hit. But overall I think uh you know playing some nice golf and find myself in contention going into going into tomorrow. Perfect. Juan, so talking about that finding yourself in contention, tell us about that feeling, especially on Saturday. No, and getting ready for tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, you can’t you can’t win the golf tournament on Saturday, but you can lose it if you’re near the top of the leaderboard and make some mistakes. So, I thought I I did a good job of hitting high quality shots um and just giving myself looks. I think that’s all you can do is try to get as many looks as you can and um I was able to do that and you know I got to capitalize on some of those looks tomorrow but overall I’ve had a nice solid week and um look to try and you know make a run at this thing tomorrow up to Mike 12. Uh Tony you sorry yeah you’ve uh you’ve been in the mix a few times going into the last day at Major. Um just wondered what sort of things you’ve learned from those experiences and and what your mindset is going into tomorrow based on you know being in a similar position a few times before. Yeah, I think every every event is different. You know, your game’s in a different place. I feel like I’m playing, you know, some solid golf, pretty simple golf at the moment, which is a good feeling. And um if I just continue to do that tomorrow, give myself some looks and make some putts, I think, uh you know, I’ll have a nice chance to win this thing tomorrow. So, um, I’ve done a good job of trying to stay where my feet are, I feel like, all week, and it’s kind of led to being within a few shots. Not exactly how sure I’ll be, how many shots I’ll be behind. Looks like Scotty, um, is tapping in for Eagle, I guess, on 14 is what I’ve been told, but, um, I’m sure I’ll be within a handful of shots going in tomorrow. So, no matter what the case is, I’m going to have to play a good round. But, um, happy with the game, uh, how it’s how my game’s kind of set up so far this week. Mike 14. Uh Tony, it’s really volatile leaderboard. Guys are going up and down. Can you feel that energy out on the golf course with the fans? And how do you not get sucked into that and just focus on yourself? Yeah, I think that’s where the experience comes in, you know, being in contention a few times in major championships. Um you just try to keep your head down and stay in your lane and and do what you can do to the best of your abilities at the moment and and see where this the the chips stack up at the end of the round. So, again, I feel like I’ve done um a good job of that this week so far of just trying to stay in my lane, hit quality shots, and and see where kind of the chips stack up at the end of the round, and I’ll continue to do that tomorrow. Um with Scotty on the top of the leaderboard, uh most likely he’s not going to go backwards. So, if somebody’s going to come from behind to catch Scotty tomorrow, you’re going to have to play a really good round of golf. So, hopefully that happens for me tomorrow. Do you hear that noise out there? A little buzz in the crowd when something happens. Yeah, it I heard, you know, a lot of loud cheers behind me, though. I don’t know exactly what was happening. I think maybe Scotty Adam Scott Eagles uh hold out for eagle in front of me in 15. So, I definitely love that energy. You know, that’s major championships bring energy, bring a lot of people and the fans are into it and anytime something special happens on the golf course, you know, rightfully so, is a lot of a lot of noise. So, but I love that energy. I think it’s great to feed off of and um I think it’s going to be quite the show for tomorrow. James, I’m 14. What’s the hardest part about like preparing for the final round in contention at a major? Yeah, the hardest part is uh I I would say for me is just not getting ahead of yourself, not thinking too far ahead. Um no matter how you get off, what type of start you get off to. Um 72 holes is a marathon, but Sundays in a major championships are their own marathon. It’s like an individual race. you know, once you get yourself now into contention, it’s a whole different race now on Sunday than it was, you know, the first 54 holes. So, um, the nerves are there. There’s no question. All of us will be filling them. But, um, at the end of the day, you try to try not to get ahead of yourself and you guys hear it from the guys that win every week. You know, stay stay in the present, stay where your feet are. That’s you try to do that to the best of your ability. I’m going to try to do that tomorrow and and we’ll see what happens. How much harder is that to do when you’ve got a guy like Scotty leading the tournament? Yeah, I mean, as I mentioned before, Scotty, he’s the best player in the world and he’s an incredible front runner because of how good his ball striking is. He can ball strike his way into winning golf tournaments. Um, even with an average putter. And so, when he’s on top of the leaderboard, he’s extremely hard to catch. Um, but that’s the task that I’m presented with uh this week. It looks like Scotty’s going to be leading after after today. He’ll be a tough guy to catch tomorrow, but uh you know, we got 18 holes to see to see what happens. Wrap it up here on seven. Tony, just kind of wondering how you’d assess your season so far. Kind of mixed bag. Yeah, I would say exactly that. You know, mixed bag for sure. Um I’ve had a couple good finishes and uh I would say mostly kind of disappointing finishes. You nothing too special. But the great thing about the again having the experience that I have being out here, this is my 11th season now. Um, every week you have an opportunity to do something special and I I try to not be nonchalant about every week and approach each week that you know you can change the mojo of your career, your season in that week. So, uh, again, I try to use my experience to my advantage. It hasn’t been a the season that a season to remember, you know, to be quite honest, but that can all change in a week. And I try to keep that attitude, that fresh attitude every time I have an opportunity to tee it up. And I got a cool opportunity tomorrow to to change the season and change the the course of my career. And so, we’ll give it the best shot we have tomorrow. Thanks for your time, Tony.
