Q. You're a rookie on TOUR. What keeps you going? Would it be easy to like, you know, you reach a certain point that maybe it's not meant to be? What kept you going when you're successful?
ERIC COLE: To get to this point?
Q. To get to this point.
ERIC COLE: Yeah, I would say I had a lot of friends and family that were behind me and kind of told me that I was good enough to make it out here and play well out here.
So that's a big thing.
I also saw a lot of friends of mine that I play golf with have success out here, so that kind of inspired me to keep trying and grinding through some of the harder times.
I would say it's a combination of those two things.
Q. Golf is the one sport that I guess that your parents like can't get a job or anything. You have to rely on yourself.
ERIC COLE: That's true.
Q. But what did you learn about the game, the perseverance and the determination you would need to succeed from your parents?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, I mean, golf is a funny sport where there is such a thin line between having success and not, so I think from them I probably learned that whenever -- you're never as far away as you feel like you are.
Even though I wasn't out here playing on the PGA TOUR, they kept me in a good mindset to where once things start to go the right direction, sometimes it can happen pretty quick.
Q. Did your dad ever play here?
ERIC COLE: I think he did. I don't know the answer to that. I talked to him earlier in the week and I think he said he did. I'm not sure what years that would be or if he had any success.
Q. But you wouldn't have followed him here. You wouldn't have been on course here with him?
ERIC COLE: No. He probably would've played in this before I was born. Probably played in it a few years, but probably would've been in the '70s and early '80s and I was born in '88, so it would've been before me.
Q. Do you talk to both your mom and dad before every tournament?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, yeah. I mean, not like a routine or anything like that, but they're my parents so I talk to them on a regular basis. Try to be a good son.
Yeah, they give me little bits and pieces of advice and I try and listen as much as I can.
Q. What's the most important piece of advice you got from each one of them about golf?
ERIC COLE: That's a good question. I would say most of it is like off-the-course stuff. My mom is big on resting. Not necessarily taking tournaments off, but more just like when you're at the course, work hard. When you're at the hotel or wherever you're staying, relax and make sure you're ready to go for the next day.
And then my dad is kind of just keep doing what you're doing. Don't change much. As you guys that maybe hit it further than you or do things that you can't, just keep doing what got to you this point. If you're good enough, then you'll have success.
Q. Is this starting to feel like routine being out here? You've been playing well the past couple months. What we're seeing right now is not an aberration. Is it still feeling new to you?
ERIC COLE: I don't know. That's a good question. I would say any time you're up near the lead, I've played a few rounds up there and had some good tournaments, but it's still a little bit after new thing for me.
But the traveling and going week to week is probably not as new as the top half of the leaderboards and stuff.
Q. What's it like coming here from LACC?
ERIC COLE: Course-wise? It's very enjoyable for me. You know, LACC is a great course and it was a great tournament, but it's very demanding on you physically, mentally.
Here, although you can push it a little too far and be too aggressive, it's nice to be able to recover if you do hit a bad shot.
It's kind of how the last like five weeks on TOUR have been even before LACC. There were some really hard courses: Memorial; Canada wasn't very easy.
So you know, it's nice. It's a little bit more enjoyable to go out there and play as far as my mental state.
Q. That being said, now that you're very much in the hunt, does it become more intense over the weekend than maybe the last two days?
ERIC COLE: I mean, it might. I'm more talking about the course. Like it's just nice to stand on the tee and be able to afford to hit a bad shot and still make a par.
When you're playing as U.S. Open, it was just so demanding that there wasn't a whole lot of room to recover.
So this is a little more relaxing in that sense.
Q. How do you think you raised your game maybe in the last couple years physically or mentally that's helped you get here?
ERIC COLE: I would say physically not a big difference. Maybe a little more consistency on a week-to-week basis.
And then it's more like just being comfortable out here and being confident that if I play well, you know, I can have success against some of the other guys out here, instead of not really knowing that for sure and seeing what's going to happen.
Q. Started the season with four missed cuts I believe.
ERIC COLE: Uh-huh. Thanks for bringing it up by the way.
Q. Did something click in? You're in top 40 in the FedExCup and so many nice finishes. Something change in your mindset or game?
ERIC COLE: I kind of had a weird first few weeks. I had COVID in this Napa, had my clubs stolen in Vegas, so I kind of had -- not that I was playing well, but I kind of had a little bit of a weird start to the year.
But, yeah, I mean, as you start to play better, for me especially, I think like that kind of snowballs and you get more comfortable. The line between good golf and bad golf is so thin that once you get on the other side of it, sometimes it seems a little easier.
Q. Pebble Beach kind of calm you down and get you back in -- was that the key point for you?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, that was about the time I started playing a little better, so maybe it was. Maybe I should have done that at the beginning of the year instead of waiting until Pebble.
Q. When did your folks first put a golf club in your hands and get you on a course? Do you remember that?
ERIC COLE: No. That would've been when I was really, really young. You know, I started playing more seriously when I was maybe like nine or ten, but I probably had a golf club in my hand when I was two or three maybe. I don't know.
Q. Do you ever watch old videos or YouTubes of your parents' playing?
ERIC COLE: I've seen some of them. Been a while, but I've seen some highlights and they're pretty cool to look at.
Fastscripts by ASAP Sports...
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports