PAUL STANKOWSKI: It was great. Fun week. Grinded with the putter. Always a spectacular golf course. Lots of room off the tees, but everything was about where you put it on the green. We just had to be smart.
Josh and I, our game plan was just fairways and kind of go for the middles of greens and putt to the corners. It was funny, I didn't miss very many greens this week, but I chipped once. I had probably four, five or six bunker shots, but we hit it behind the 14th green today and we were down into the first cut, and I was like, I haven't hit a chip shot all week. I chipped one time in the short game area. I was like, what do I do?
But I kept it in play. I kept it in front of me. I drove it like a champ the last two days and just missed the fairway there by two inches, through the fairway. I drove it good.
I think yesterday was probably the most consistent from start to finish on all facets of the game, which was great. Today I didn't try to get sucked into trying to go low and win the thing. I just wanted to chip away at it.
I just wanted to go play the game, and it was fun. We had a good time.
Q. What led up to this revival of form over the last few years, particularly this week?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: You know, I quit in 2013, right? I didn't play at all professionally. I didn't play much at all at home, only on golf trips with Icon Golf. So to turn it back on when I was 49 and play a couple weeks on the Korn Ferry to see if I could do it and go through Q-school -- my status wasn't going to get me in anywhere.
To chip away at it through sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifyings and then I played my way into basically fully exempt status the last four years, and I'm a different player than I was when I was a young kid. I was wild and just swung it hard and --
Q. That's the point of golf, isn't it, swing it hard?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: That's what they do now. I swing as hard as I can but it doesn't go any farther than when I just swing smooth. I'm kind of a fairway finder now, and I don't hit it very far. I don't carry it far out here. I think I roll the ball on average 100 yards every hole because the fairways are rolling 13 on the stimpmeter.
Q. It sounds like a U.S. Open kind of, fairways and greens.
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Exactly. If you look back, the last three years I've had three top 10s now and the year before that I believe it was a top 20. I like hard golf courses.
This week was special. My brother -- my son and I came 10 years ago to watch my brother play, and he passed away in April.
Q. What was his name?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Tom.
Q. He must have helped you out this week.
PAUL STANKOWSKI: I just thought about him a lot, like how much fun it was to watch him here. I was excited to get to come back and to -- yeah, it was fun.
Q. How did he play that week?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: He missed the cut, but he needed to birdie the last two holes on Friday to make the cut, and I was videoing -- I was probably breaking the law by videoing and FaceTime live and I was so fired up for him. He was my big brother.
I caddied for him at the Broadmoor, so last year at the Broadmoor was a treat for Josh and I because we both went. I caddied that week in 2018.
Q. He plays as an amateur or a pro?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: No, he's a pro. He's played all over the world, and he won the Canadian Tour championship in 2008 or 2009 and played all over the world.
Anyway, it was special. Yeah, just kind of tried to play in his honor, knowing he would have given anything to do it again. It was a fun week. We fought hard. Proud of our effort.
Q. Give me one highlight of your -- give me one shot for the whole week.
PAUL STANKOWSKI: I told Josh that the shot we hit into -- I hit so many really good shots, but probably the best swing was a very average finishing shot, but it was on 16. It was a 9-iron. I was aiming at the logo. I made two bogeys in a row at 13 and 14, and it was on 15 -- I forgot the holes out here. It was just a good solid right at my target, confident, patient swing, and then I did it again on 17, hit exactly where I was aiming, and 18, same thing.
Yeah, the worst shot was hitting a chunk out of the rough into the water on 8 the first day. I hit it three feet the next day for birdie.
Q. Do you still live in the Dallas area?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Still there. Still there.
Q. Tell me something about Padraig Harrington. Have you played with him much at all? Why is he so tough?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: He hits it 80 yards farther than I do. Those guys, Stewart and Padraig, when they're on, George crushes it, too.
Q. Got a beautiful swing.
PAUL STANKOWSKI: He's got a beautiful golf swing. His swing looks normal. They're jumping all over the place. But they crush it. The long hitters out here have an advantage because they're wedging it in, which is great. Golf is -- Zach Johnson made a living out of wedging it and being a great player hitting it not very far.
So the guy is special. All these guys back there. Stewart is special. This golf course because it was a little more live I didn't have to hit driver everywhere. Yeah, Padraig said earlier, it's going to be the (indiscernible.)
Q. Yeah, he had a couple.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports