Q. Kind of an up-and-down day out there for you. How would you characterize it?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, fortunately finished up on top. A few hiccups there in the middle of the round, just one really bad tee shot and one unfortunate sort of short par miss and was happy to bounce back quickly and pick up a couple other birdies coming in.
Q. When you went to the 13th tee, is there anything you told yourself?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, 14 is a hard hole. Hit a good drive on 15, the par-5. You can get yourself into position. Yeah, the greens are so small, you figure if you just stick to your plan and hit greens, you're going to have decent looks at birdies, even if guys -- it's pretty funny, if you watch coverage, guys will drop a club or something and hit it on the green and they're like 25 feet away. Just try to stay extra patient and clean up the round.
Q. How frustrated were you walking off 4 and how happy were you walking off 5?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, I hit a really bad putt on 4. I don't know if my ball was sitting in a hole or something, but it was pretty weird, felt uncharacteristic to start a five-footer that far off line. It happens. Yeah, 5 you're just trying to put it in position because the green is like an old postage stamp, and I got pretty aggressive and it paid off, and luckily I made the putt.
Q. You used to chat about Webb Simpson and strokes-gained attitude. Do you think that's paying dividends like a year or two later? Like you're walking off having made bogey and you make eagle on the next hole. Are you always reminding yourself that eagle is around the corner?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Not eagle, but you always remind yourself that you can pick up shots. If you're aggressive and smart around the property, you will pick up shots. It's one of those places, I've been on the other side of the fence on this course where you get aggressive and you get frustrated and you start missing all these putts, and all of a sudden you're like 3-over on the day and you don't feel like you're playing that bad.
Just yeah, I think strokes gained attitude is something you have to work on for quite some time. It just doesn't kick in one week and then not the other.
Q. Do you feel like your game travels to a lot of different types of golf courses?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: That's every TOUR pro's dream and every TOUR pro's plan. There's certain courses that suit your eye better, but for the most part if you can shape the ball both ways and you're pretty good throughout the bag, you should be able to play anywhere, as long as you're not making too many mistakes.
Q. What happened on 15? Can you walk us through that hole, the par-5?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, we were kind of between hybrid and 4-wood. Had about 255, 250 to get over the water, 267 front edge. We had hybrid for a second, and my caddie just said, we just have to hit it over the water. Smoked a 4-wood, I actually hit the gap where you walk to the 16th tee, which is probably a good break, to be honest, because it went so far. Andrew, the official, came out and paced it off and just paced it off 35 or whatever yards from the hole and then paced it 35 yards off to where I could take a free drop.
That chip was a lot easier than being just over the green, kind of closer towards that walkway.
Q. Obviously you weren't trying to play for that break, but do you feel like the grandstands were too close on that green?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I think you'd see less guys go for it if the grandstands weren't there because number one is to hit it really high and really far and get over the water. Once you do that, the landing area between the water and the middle of the green is only 20 yards, maybe 15, 20 yards, so realistically we're not that good, we can't hit a low or a high cut with a 3-wood and land it perfectly 275. We're just trying to get over the water first things first. I think the bleacher isn't in a good spot.
Q. What's the biggest thing you're focusing on this weekend to hopefully continue that success?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, just recovery. Just recovering. I think it's pretty simple. Most of the guys who played last week with just working on getting enough sleep, doing the right stuff in the gym and kind of if you're playing well, just keep doing the same thing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports