Denny McCarthy shot a brilliant 64 in tough, gusty conditions and opens up about the grind it took to get there. From blown umbrellas on the range to battling a swirling 30-mph wind, McCarthy shares how simplifying his swing and letting go of expectations helped him thrive. He discusses lessons learned from a tough week at Oakmont, how the wind affects putting, and even throws in some NBA Finals talk. A thoughtful, honest, and fun conversation with one of golf’s best ball-strikers.
danny great playing 64 in those conditions what was clicking for you and how do you feel the day yes sir um it felt nice to shoot a good score um haven’t played all that great lately but I put a lot of work in this week and started to see some good form the last few days um it’s not that easy right right now uh it wasn’t that easy yesterday afternoon either um seems like our wave kind of got the bulk of the wind uh I hope it kind of stays like this for everyone cuz it was kind of nasty out there at times um yeah I’m just proud of how I kind of battled it was just really tricky it would blow 25 1 minute then it drop down to 15 and then it would go to five and kick back up and so when it’s really gusty like that and changing directions a little bit so when it’s really gusty like that it’s hard to get the yardages right also makes putting really difficult too when you when you uh when when the wind’s just gusting it just changes how much a putt breaks or how fast a putt is and so um it was a little uncomfortable coming down on the back n for sure when you see the forecast like that in the morning like do you naturally enjoy those conditions or what’s your kind of mental approach um I do enjoy these conditions i mean my weather app said you know 14 15 16 miles an hour um and it’s a liar because it was blowing like 25 to 30 on the range it felt like this morning it was umbrellas were kind of blowing around um people were kind of just laughing hitting balls you know balls were I mean it was the range is really exposed and it was blowing really hard in off the left i mean we were watching balls go nowhere and sail you know 50 60 yards offline so um I think it was kind of like a lower your expectations just kind of go out um try and hit the shot as best you can and move on type of day um I like those days it’s where I don’t really have many expectations i just I kind of get out of golf swing too you kind of start playing shots you start countering the wind with certain shots or kind of just you know playing with the wind on certain shots not trying to be too perfect just kind of trying to picture a shot and hit it along those same lines when you were warming up and seeing shots flying around like that did you think 64 was out there um it’s hard to say um I didn’t think I didn’t think there was an eight under out there yesterday afternoon and you know obviously the best player in the world shot that um you know Shane and I were talking if somebody shot like five to eight under yesterday afternoon that would have been really really good cuz it was starting to blow and the direction it was coming from made some of those holes really hard um and sure enough we got in and he was nine under through 15 so um you know it’s it’s always out there i mean I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody shot what I shot or a couple better today um yeah I I wouldn’t really say I would had a number in mind of what I could potentially shoot today like I said I was just kind of going out shot at a time sounds cliche but just trying to piece together um kind of build around you know piece shot after shot by your standards yesterday was actually a tough day putting and you said mentioned that you’re putting in a lot of work on other parts of your game your ball striking stuff actually this week has been pretty solid what What have you been working on and does does one bad day on the greens actually get into your head and force you to sort of think about anything or No I didn’t really roll it that bad yesterday it’s just such a dramatic change from last week to this week greens being really fast and slloy last week and then not as much slope and they seemed pretty slow yesterday they might have been prepping for the amount of wind today um so I didn’t really feel like I rolled it that bad yesterday i hit a lot of putts that were good putts um burned edges so it was a little frustrating because it felt like I could have got a maybe a three to five out of under out of the round yesterday and I didn’t um yeah I think some of the most of my ball striking stuff comes when I my I creep into bad tendencies and it’s typically posture and how I start my swing um so if I can get that stuff feeling comfortable um I feel like you know at the top of my swing I feel like I’m going to hit a good shot coming through um when it’s not going well it feels like I’m fighting it and have to compensate so it’s felt better the last few days i think I can still improve on it um just got to yeah like I said trying to keep stack stacking days is is important for me right now it seems like when guys come in and they’re talking about how like they’re working on things more often than not it’s like this really unglamorous much more the fundamental stuff how often do you think people outside the ropes don’t really appreciate that those are the very simple things often times that may end up tripping you guys up yeah it is the simple kind of fundamental stuff for for me and I I try and keep the game really simple when I start worrying about too much about what the club’s doing is is typically when I’m not playing my best um it’s like I work on the stuff on the range and then it’s like I get on the course and I’m still doing the same stuff i’m still picturing i might have that small key in my head but I’m still going out it becomes almost like a different sport when you get on the range got to kind of forget what you’re doing on the range and then just go out and kind of picture play um and hope that some of those feels that you’ve been working on the range have kind of seeped into you know your oncourse stuff on the lighter side of things sometimes when you destroy a ball off the tea fans shout out some crazy things sometimes out of curiosity what are your thoughts on that and what are maybe some of the more fun ones you might have heard i don’t mind it i I mean I think it’s a fun part of the game um you know obviously you hear the the baba buoy and you know you hear all these you know some of these other ones that you’ve heard for such a long time i don’t mind it i think it’s a you know fans just trying to have fun out there and um you know maybe they’ve got fans listening like “Hey listen to you know I’m with Rory listen to the you know his six t-shot i’m going to yell something.” It could be stuff like that i think it’s just a fun part of the game was the Oakmont exhausting at all would you say and did you take any like extra time to rest after that um typically I would but I just I felt like I needed some work i I was on the range from 2 to 6:30 on Monday afternoon um I put a I typically don’t like to hit balls for that long but I put a really good session in on on Monday afternoon uh Oakmont was very exhausting um part of you know you kind of need to throw it out the window but at the same time I feel like I learned a lot like you know if you’re not on your game you get really exposed in certain areas so it really kind of showed me what I really need to work on what I need to get more comfortable with um so I had a pretty good sense of things I had to work on coming into this week and are you following the NBA Finals at all i am it’s just hard man it’s like this game start at 8:30 they don’t tip till like 8:40 8:45 and it’s I I have the first half on and I’d like to watch the second half but I’d also like to go to bed at a reasonable time so I don’t really want to be staying up till 11:30 to watch these games um they just I mean they could put them at 7:30 or 8:00 don’t you think um but uh yeah I’m I am a big basketball fan my caddy is a huge Thunder fan so he’s been staying up late it’s okay if he goes to bed late but um yeah you know game seven Sunday night I believe right 8 or 8 o’clock 8:30 they moved that one to 8 I think uh probably 8:15 tip off I bet but um yeah it’ll uh I’d like to watch it if I can so you’ll be rooting for the Thunder for your uh I guess for my caddy sake but I do like the Pacers i think the Pacers are fun to watch awesome sweet thank you Danny nice
