Q. Sam, bogey-free is always good. 65 today, if we can get some comments.
SAM RYDER: Just a good solid day, drove it really well, pretty stress free. Obviously we like to find things that are negative more than anything, but it was just a good solid day.
I was able to convert a few of the birdies. I was able to hit it pretty close. Wish I could have got a couple of par-5s on the back, but all in all, satisfied with the day.
Q. Nice little battle with you and Maverick there too. How nice is it when you've got other guys playing so well?
SAM RYDER: Yeah, Mav and I, we were talking about it, 2017, my rookie year, we teed it up here together. We both missed the cut. It feels like it was yesterday.
But, yeah, we both got off to a pretty good start. It was just pretty smooth golf. Pace of play was good. It seemed like we were in a good rhythm all day.
He made a few. I made a couple. It was nice to feed off of each other. Always nice when guys are playing well, you can kind of feed off of it. He was able to clip me on the last there, but a lot of golf left.
Q. Talk a little bit about this tournament. You had a couple of really good years here, but not so much the last couple years. Just talk a little bit about this golf course and how it suits you.
SAM RYDER: Yeah, I really feel very comfortable out here. Being from Florida, the elevation and the ball flying is something that's a little different for me, but it's never really been -- we have a pretty simple system to go about it.
I think this course just rewards good shots. It depends on the conditions. We have pretty good conditions right now, so it's going to be probably a pretty low cut, and guys are going to make some birdies.
Course is in good shape. Greens are in good shape. You can be pretty aggressive. When the wind turns and it comes out of nowhere sometimes, the scores can become a lot more difficult.
So, yeah, it's always nice to come back to a place where I've played well in the past, and I think it just really comes down to my form and my game. It's somewhere I'm comfortable. So if my game feels like it's in pretty good shape, which it is right now, then I'm happy to be here.
Q. We were just talking about you before you came up. Obviously, Scottsdale. How sick are you of talking about that? Is it something you're just going to carry with you the rest of your life?
SAM RYDER: I mean, I'm going to carry it hopefully. I'm not sick of it in the least. I figure when February rolls around, it will be oldish news after we go through a couple fun things reminiscing on what happened.
Yeah, it was special, so it's something that people like to talk about and ask me about. Frankly, I'm not sick of it. It's just really good memories and nothing negative surrounding it. It's always fun to relive it.
Q. So a win would take the place of that, right?
SAM RYDER: Absolutely. We were talking about it, in terms of excitement and rush, adrenaline rush, I think a win -- I don't know. I haven't won out here. I've won on the Korn Ferry Tour and lower Tours, but not out here.
Yeah, I'd much rather win than make more hole-in-ones, but if there's a place to do it, that's as good as any.
Q. If you're not sick of talking about it, how many times have you watched the video, and do you still watch it?
SAM RYDER: I haven't watched it that much. I probably should. It kind of is something that would be good for my psyche or my mental to kind of gain confidence and stuff like that.
I wasn't even watching it really during the tournament because I was focused on trying to have a good Sunday, but it's fun to watch. It's cool when you see some of the highlights, even when the Espys were on this year, they showed the blip real quick.
It was just a fun event, and I think it was good because it made people that maybe are not regular golf fans or the average golf fan, made it fun. Oh, that looks like a good time. I can get behind that.
So, yeah, maybe I'll go back and watch it a couple times and see if I can get a little confidence or something from it.
Q. Then back to this event. A good start is obviously important on a course where the winning scores are going to be in the 20s probably, 20-under. How important was that to have a bogey-free card today?
SAM RYDER: Definitely. It's one of those things, the cliches of you want to stay patient. You want to stay patient, but when you know guys are going to be going low, you start to feel that anxiousness to make birdies or make it happen.
Fortunately, I was able to get one on the 2nd, and then kind of turned in 4-under and was able to just plug along. You're not going to win the golf tournament on Thursday, but certainly in a place like this where the scores are going to be low, you can lose it.
So I put myself in a good position to keep doing the same thing I'm doing and hopefully carry it into the weekend.
Q. Is it green light on every tee box? Do you think birdie on every tee box?
SAM RYDER: There's a couple that maybe not. Once you put it in the fairway, they become like -- a hole like No. 3 is one of the tougher holes out here, but if you hit a great drive, you can make birdie. So that kind of changes after you get off the tee.
I think right now it's erring on the aggressive side for sure to try to make things happen and try and make birdies.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports