Q. We have with us The 2026 American Century Championship winner and three-time winner Mardy Fish and the inaugural recipient of the lab coat. 72 points today. Just talk about a 20-points total today. Playing with you and Joe and Annika. Just first off, talk about the round today. And was it more of you were playing -- you talked about this yesterday -- you were playing more as an individual? Were you cheering each other on, or were you kind of in your own zones and own world today?
MARDY FISH: I'm always rooting for them because I feel like if they play well, I have to play well, which is a good thing.
It was kind of a weird round today, a weird start. I played the first two holes fine and then hit two good shots on No. 3 and I four-parted to make a six. I've never done that before, certainly in a tournament. So that was a little jarring.
Took me a couple holes to kind of get it back. Kind of drew a line on the scorecard after number 5 just to reset. I think I played it 2-under from there.
It was just a nice -- I missed, like, a 2-1/2 foot put or maybe a 3-foot put on 11 as well to make that one bogey after that line draw.
It was tough, kind of different conditions with no sun. It's usually -- I haven't played very many, if any, rounds here not in full sun. It's such a beautiful place. And then you sort of can't escape it either. So you're searching for shade and stuff like that. It's just a different setup.
But again the golf course is perfect. I did enough to win. I didn't play my best today, but I did enough.
Q. Probably the most part of your game that you work on, you talked about this over the years, is your putting. Assess your putting game today and your putter this week in getting the championship.
MARDY FISH: The putter this week, certainly it was the best I've putted here. But it's the most I've worked on it. So I've never really, in my sporting life, I've never worked on something as hard as I can and not gotten better at it.
I can sort of rely on my work ethic from my tennis days and understand what -- kind of pick a lot of friends' brains, a lot of pro guys' brains of what to work on. I'm going to go home and work on some wedges. But it's tough.
The altitude is really difficult here, too. I'm kind of a feel player, and a lot of the shots are -- I can tell they're further than I can sort of hit or I want to swing or whatever.
There's an example of 180 yards or something, or 170 yards, and we bring it down to 150, let's say. But I can see it and I'm, like, I can't hit this 9-iron this far. So inevitably you swing harder. Or you swing -- it's a difficult thing getting used to the altitude in kind of a four-day period to get ready for the three rounds.
But everyone has to do it, right, for the most part. Again, it worked.
Q. The crowds today, the crowds this week, they just seemed to grow each and every year. What was the crowd support for you guys today?
MARDY FISH: Nobody yelled in my backswing, so that was good. That was helpful. (Laughter) But the crowds are always awesome here. It's always such a fun vibe. Yesterday was different than today, playing with Steph, and having that many people around. And then, you know, less people. There's a lot of people out there. But far less people than there were yesterday.
Just trying to sort of manage your round and manage kind of keep them close enough to you. And after the fifth hole there, we teed off on the sixth hole, and I was either down one or may have been down one.
It was a mental test, a big mental test, for sure, to start the round.
Q. More importantly, you've entered a group of elite, five other players who have won this tournament at least three times. You had Dan Quinn five times, Rick Rhoden eight times, Billy Joe Tolliver three times, Mark Mulder three times, Tony Romo three times, and you're number six. Congratulations. How does that make you feel?
MARDY FISH: Thank you. It feels awesome. Those are awesome players. It's always challenging to come with the greens this difficult and the altitude. But again, we figured it out and we managed it, and I can't wait to go back and work on my game again and I can't wait to come back here next year.
Q. During your victory speech, you mentioned that this week is more than just the golf itself. I wanted to ask, besides obviously being the champion, what was your biggest win this week?
MARDY FISH: I mean, my biggest win was getting my sister to bring her kids out. That was a huge win. That was tough to do from Bloomington, Indiana, but they made it. So they're going to have to come back every year now, or at least next year, if I win.
There's a lot of people that you see just once a year that you see here. And again the vibe is so fun. It's a family-friendly atmosphere, on the golf course and off the golf course, and at night.
Every single year, they just do such an awesome job of -- every corner of it. Mike Milthorpe, putting on such a professional event in terms of the scoring and sort of the golf part. And American Century and NBC Sports. NBC Sports makes you feel like -- they've got TV cameras out there. This is not for me -- it shouldn't be for me. And they make us feel like we're pros for a week.
American Century does such an awesome job of creating such a fun family-friendly atmosphere. And over the years, I've become such good friends with those guys, Jonathan Thomas and Jon Miller and Gary Quinn and these guys.
I don't just see them here. We text all the time and chat all the time throughout the year. They're just awesome people, and they're good friends. You just see a lot of people that you sort of never see. And that goes inside the ropes, too.
Steph is a good example. We've struck up an awesome friendship over the years. And we met here. I've made some awesome relationships inside the ropes here that have manifested outside. It's such a family and awesome place.
Q. At what point today did you kind of know you were going to win? Or was it not until the ball was in the cup on 18?
MARDY FISH: When Joe hit it in the water on his second shot was kind of when I thought, okay, he can't make six, and I started doing the math. And I'm not very good at math. Minus two, three. If I make minus two, carry the two.
So just kind of there. And I played that hole pretty smart. I don't recall having a lead -- I may have had a lead in 2020 bigger than that going into 18, but I don't think it mattered, like, if I made a double bogey or not. If I made double bogey and he made eagle, I lost. I wasn't going to let that happen. Hit an iron off the tee, and that's probably the last time I do that. But it worked out.
Q. How does this one feel compared to your last two wins?
MARDY FISH: I mean, this is satisfying, too, because I have worked really hard on my game. I've tried to play quite a lot of golf and work on my game and practice and not just go out and play with friends. I used to just do that and just be that golfer, and every once in a while run into a round or two.
But now I feel I can be a little more consistent when I practice a lot more. So I'll continue to try and practice and get better and better. Hopefully better and better.
But this week, they're all special and they're all different. 2020 was super weird. Nobody here and just out in the boats and we're driving around golf carts. Two years ago felt, I guess, fairly similar. I mean, I was fighting off Joe and Steph -- I guess not Steph that year. That was the previous year, '23.
So I've played a few tournaments in a row now where, except for last year, where I've played pretty well. So I'll take it.
Q. Curious with your putt on 7, just what you saw and how big that felt giving you were coming off the three bogeys or 3, 4, 5.
MARDY FISH: That was a huge putt because Joe made it right on top of me as well. So that was big. That one was big and 16's putt was big. 16's putt was huge. And I mean, obviously, making 7 there and making the one on 7 and making a two. Anytime you write a 2 on your scorecard is a pretty good thing. So try and write as many of those as you can.
Just kind of felt like I was disappointed in the start, and obviously you want -- every time you step out on the course, you want to play well. It doesn't work like that. And we're not that good. So you just have to keep in it mentally.
And understand -- my son said, on the sixth hole, you would love to be in this position, whether it was down a point or tied or whatever, you'd love to be in this position anyway. So you sort of forget about the first couple of holes and go from there.
Q. You mentioned you drew a line. Did you actually physically draw a line after the three straight bogeys? What did that mean to you in terms of a mental reset?
MARDY FISH: I mean it does exactly that. I mean, I just sort of start over the years, I've done that. I've drawn tons of lines multiple lines in rounds and stuff like that. And I didn't need to draw a second one on this round.
But it's so tricky. Golf is so tricky mentally. You have so much time to think about it. And tennis is mentally draining as well. But it's the opposite. You have so little time to sort of understand what's going on and things can snowball pretty quickly on the tennis court. On the golf course, it's like, man, I have a lot of time thinking about that short putt that I missed or that drive that I hit crooked.
And I'm still working on it. Hopefully get better at it. I'm not very good at it sometimes. I'm pretty hard on myself sometimes. But I was trying to just understand that it's an awesome week and it's an awesome thing to be doing and a lot of people want to be in that situation, in that position, so go from there.
Q. You talked about how serious you take your golf game, and obviously there's the celebrity tour. Are there higher ambitions for you in golf just being on that?
MARDY FISH: I was lucky enough to get a sponsor exemption in 2022. That was an awesome experience. I don't want 10 more chances, I want one more chance just because I learned so much that entire week. I was so dang nervous, didn't know what to expect or anything like that. I would love one more chance, but I don't want two or 10, anything like that. We'll try and grind our way through qualifying if we have to.
Q. You being at three wins now and Rick Rhoden setting that bar at eight, do you feel like that's achievable at some point, or is that bar --
MARDY FISH: That's pretty high. I don't know when he started and when he -- I don't know how many years he played. I'm going to have to look back on some of those years from the competition, some of the numbers that they were putting up, too. Be interesting to see what they were shooting. But I haven't played much golf with him at all. But obviously he was a phenomenal player when he played.
Q. Now that you're a three-time winner. This tournament has been a staple pretty much in all of your summers. Talk about what Edgewood and Lake Tahoe mean to you.
MARDY FISH: Again, this week is so much more than golf. My parents come, and I never get to see them. My sister came this year, with her three kids. My nieces and nephews and got to play with my kids and they never see their cousins.
It's so much more than just that, just playing inside the ropes. We did lots of lake jumps. Lots of pool. Edgewood did a phenomenal job again this year. And hopefully I can be invited back next year.
Q. I saw you're a plus-3.5 on GHIN. Are these scores going in?
MARDY FISH: I guess. I mean, I'm going to put this one in. This is 73, throw that in. Maybe not the 68.
Q. You mentioned the lake jumps. Is that next on the --
MARDY FISH: I'm ready. This thing is pretty warm, so I'm ready to jump in the cool lake.
Q. Who will be jumping in the lake with you?
MARDY FISH: My pop's going to come. My son is going to come. He didn't come in 2024. I don't know why. And then my caddie will come too, and maybe Stella, my nine-year-old. We'll see.
Q. As tennis is your first profession, and today was Wimbledon Championship Sunday --
MARDY FISH: Who won, Sinner? What a shocker.
Q. Yeah. With that, is there any kind of unique specialness that you won on Wimbledon Sunday as tennis is your first sport?
MARDY FISH: I've never played tennis on Wimbledon Sunday at Wimbledon, final Sunday. But I have played golf in Tahoe many times. And I hope to be playing golf in Tahoe next year on Wimbledon Sunday.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports