Q. Overall thoughts on today's round?
HARRY HALL: Yeah, I got off to a tricky start, 1-over through the first five, and managed to in the middle of my round make four birdies in a row, so that was really nice. I kind of did it without knowing I did it really. I just was in the moment out there and taking one shot at a time, and I did that really well.
Happy with the composure I had and the patience I had and the acceptance I had.
Q. Obviously the job is not done, but has it sunk in that you are the 36-hole leader? What does that mean to you?
HARRY HALL: It feels really nice, yeah, to be leading. My two wins I think I've been up there throughout the whole week, and I haven't done that this year.
I don't think I've played my best golf this year on the PGA TOUR yet, and I think it's arrived this week, and hopefully I can keep it going for the next two days.
Q. What do you think it is about this course that fits your game so well?
HARRY HALL: I probably only have to hit about four or five drivers out there. I've been hitting all hybrids off the tee and 4-irons and 3-woods. Yeah, I've only hit four or five drivers, and I think the whole field only hits four or five drivers. Yeah, just keeping it in play and getting it on the green as quick as possible.
I think there's a lot of wedges out here, and that's kind of 150 in, I'm pretty good.
Q. What is the mindset to keep this momentum going through the weekend?
HARRY HALL: Just go back and chill out and make sure I breathe tomorrow. I could tell when I started today my heart was pacing a lot more than it normally does. Yeah, just to breathe and maybe slow myself down a little bit at the start tomorrow.
Q. Go through the last three holes because they all had interesting dynamics. The ball was on the twig on 7. Did it affect the shot at all?
HARRY HALL: No. I mean, normally when I'm on the Korn Ferry TOUR I might get a little cheeky and might touch the twig in the past just to see if the ball would move, and normally you can like touch a twig and see if the ball like oscillates, and if the twig is going to move, then you can kind of just not move it at all, but with so many cameras around, you don't want to risk that. I thought it wouldn't affect it anyway because it wasn't like in the ground. It was just a loose twig. The shot came off nice, so it didn't affect it at all.
Q. What club did you swing?
HARRY HALL: 9-iron.
Q. 17, 8, I didn't see your lie in the bunker. Was it bad?
HARRY HALL: It was plugged in the face. I could only see two dimples.
Q. Then on the last hole, you blocked your tee shot, looked like it was sailing right, you go down there, and to your surprise it's in the middle of the fairway.
HARRY HALL: Well, I could see a ball from the fairway, and the volunteer that was in the tree pointed right. No matter where that ball went, though, I don't think it would have mattered. I think I would have been very happy with the day, and luckily it bounced out, and the hole before I was plugged in the face and the hole before that I had the twig, and on the 4th hole I was on the lip of the bunker with the ball above my head.
Q. It's not a Hogan hat, it's a Jim Barnes hat?
HARRY HALL: Yeah, Jim Barnes wore it, too, and that's kind of why I wear it. Yeah, more Jim Barnes than Ben Hogan, but it's nice to be in a familiar place where this hat was worn, and hopefully -- well, it probably is doing me some good luck this week.
Q. Did you wear it in college?
HARRY HALL: No, we had to wear team hats in college. I did wear it in the summer, 2018, so it would have been my junior year for a little bit. Just something I like.
Q. Going back to No. 8 on the bunker shot, after you left it in the bunker, how did you reset, and what type of shot were you thinking about with that short-sided pin?
HARRY HALL: Yeah, it was between the 8 and the 9-iron on the tee box, and I rated that bunker short 1 out of 3 so I knew it wasn't bad to that front pin, but being plugged in the face is obviously really bad.
So when it went back into the bunker, it wasn't too much of a bad -- a hard shot, and I just played it like a normal shot and tried to get it high and spin it as quick as possible, and I did just that, and it went in.
Q. You mentioned how your heart was racing a little bit and you were nerve-racked throughout the day. What was making you nervous?
HARRY HALL: Knowing the position I was in. That made me nervous.
Q. Not easy to turn off that part of the brain?
HARRY HALL: Well, I didn't think about it, but I can sense it, and I think I can sense that people around me know it. But it wasn't like I was uncomfortable. It was just something I have to get better at dealing with. I think I dealt with it good in the end.
Q. Given you're going to be in the final group tomorrow, how are you going to manage those nerves?
HARRY HALL: Well, you have to manage nerves for the rest of your life. They never go away. All the little tools that I've created in the last few years of professional golf, they'll probably be escalated and there will be new challenges tomorrow, and you've got to accept that.
I think no matter who you are, you're always going to have different challenges to face on a daily basis, and mine tomorrow will be being in the final group, a position I've never been in before, and I'm excited for it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports