Patrick Rodgers breaks down a challenging windy round at Sea Island, where strong driving kept him in contention despite struggles with the irons. Still searching for his first PGA TOUR victory, Rodgers talks openly about patience, growth, and focusing on the internal process rather than the outcome.
He reflects on past near-misses — including the 2018 playoff loss to Charles Howell III — and how years of trial and error have shaped his mentality. Rodgers also discusses the pressures of early-career expectations, why failure has been his biggest teacher, and how becoming a father has given him both balance and renewed motivation.
A thoughtful, mature, and honest look at Rodgers’ mindset heading into a Sunday showdown.
All good. Patrick, how would you kind of characterize the day? Especially a little bit different, more difficult conditions on the day as well. Yeah, it was more like typical, you know, seaside golf course. Um wind picked up a little bit and made it trickier with the irons. I drove it great. Gave myself a lot of opportunities and struggled with my iron play. Uh couple costly bogeies and and just not enough great looks with quality iron shots. But um but yeah, I’m in great position for tomorrow. I I know that starting uh the weekend near the lead, it’s a really long 36 holes and so I’m just trying to tried to stay as patient as I could uh today and um it’s going to take a good one to go win it tomorrow. You talked a lot over the years uh you know, still looking for that that first win. We Is there something you feel like you you’ve learned, you know, recently that may that might help you, you know, maybe get over that hump? Yeah, I’m just trying to get my game as good as it can possibly get. Um, I’ve tried to get my focus to be a lot more internal. I feel like the both the the process and the reward of playing this game competitively is more about the the internal process and the internal struggles. Um, those create the outcomes. So, I’m trying to bring the best version of myself to the golf course each and every day. Um, each day feels like it asks a different question of you. you know, some days you feel like you’re firing on all cylinders and some days it it feels a little bit more difficult. And so, it’s just kind of having the wisdom to know what to do in each situation and um I’m excited for a new one uh tomorrow. Uh kind of turn the clock back to 2018 here when he lost to uh Charles Howell in the playoff at at the time. Uh what was like what was the feeling like for you? I mean, you’re still relatively new on tour. Did did you think at that time that you know you’d be knocking on the door more more often and break it down? At the time I I felt like it had been a really long time on tour and a really long time that I hadn’t won and so um so yeah, I fel I felt very ready for my opportunity there. Um and so yeah, it’s just unfortunately in this game you can’t control the outcomes. I really try hard to control the outcomes but it it doesn’t work. Um so yeah, I need to be the best version of myself that I can be. um look to build a really quality golf game and um you know trust that that’s going to give me the the most opportunities throughout the season. I think anytime you do transcendent things early in your career as an amateur it’s kind of a blessing and a curse, right? Because you have to then hear all this time about how you were stud in college and am golf. Was there a particular moment or person that maybe helped you realize that you know none of that really matters? Yeah, everyone’s on on their own journey. Um, for me, a lot of a lot of my sort of understanding at this point of of my career has been through failure and through trial and error. You know, kind of learned a lot of lessons the hard way. Um, but I feel really at peace with who I am as a player. I don’t feel like um, you know, my my life as a PGA Tour player hinges on me winning tomorrow and I think that’s a powerful place to play from. Did that change when you had kids? Say that again. Did that change when you had kids or um, yeah, having kids definitely puts more things in perspective. it gets me a lot of balance on on the, you know, off the golf course. Um, but in in some ways, you know, I’m desperate to to perform and be the best I can be for them. And so, um, yeah, it’s given me kind of a renewed purpose and passion for my career, but also sort of a balance of perspective, um, that there there are a lot of other important things in life. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks. How the kiddos doing?
