THE MODERATOR: Ben Crane is with us now at the 2026 Senior PGA Championship. Ben, 3-under 69 for you today. 8-under overall. How are you feeling going into the weekend?
BEN CRANE: Super thankful. Just played really well. Had, you know, some great spots and some difficult spots, but was able to come back late in my 18, late on the front nine.
Yeah, played great, and thankful my game is in pretty good shape. Obviously a great spot going into the weekend.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Bogey on three, birdie on four, bogey on six, birdie on seven. I wonder what helps you get over things that quickly? Is it the attitude, the mindset? Is it the support of your family? What is it?
BEN CRANE: I say this verse to myself a lot, Philippians 4:4-7. It's sweet command and promise. I'll just say it for you: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." You guys know it? "Do not worry about anything, but in everything with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus."
The command, so you say, how do you overcome, and I'm, like, Well, God has already overcome for me through his son Jesus Christ, so I'm, like, kind of playing on house money out here. So after a bogey, I'm, like, well, I'm still to rejoice in the Lord. I was able to do that to the best of my ability today. Then it's kind of fun when you follow up a bogey with a birdie.
Q. Along those lines, you keep your mindset. There are going to be ups and down on a course like this. How do you kind of deal with that? Do you have to have kind of a preparation going into the round that you just know you're going to have to deal with that?
BEN CRANE: 100%. You know in every round there's going to be challenges, especially on this golf course. This golf course sorts out bad shots and good shots pretty quickly.
So that's one of the things I've really concentrated the most on coming into this week is when I make a mistake, running a correction, which just means, like, okay, if I had done that perfectly, what would I have done? So I'm kind of solution-oriented as opposed to problem-oriented because it's so easy to get problem-oriented out here.
But I was able to stay solution-oriented, make corrections, and then those corrections are more likely to pop up later in the day as ewe making those corrections.
Q. When we look at the top of the leaderboard, we see legends like Langer or Jimenez, and we see the new guys, like you, Stewart Cink. How do you feel in the middle of this mix?
BEN CRANE: Well, I looked up at the leaderboard one time today, and I saw Cink, one of my closest friends, Langer, one of the guys I respect the most in the whole world. I'm, like, I'd love to be playing with those guys this weekend.
Those guys are obviously elite players. They've had Hall of Fame careers. Yeah, just to potentially have an opportunity to play with some of them this weekend would be sweet.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports