THE MODERATOR: Adam Thielen and Taylor Twellman. Adam is currently in fourth with 40 points, 21 today. Taylor is currently, as the leaderboard just updates real time, you're currently tied for the lead with Joe Pavelski at 44 points.
Adam, walk us through your round today.
ADAM THIELEN: Well, I played golf. So it was up and down a roller coaster like it usually is. But just tried to hang in there. I'm usually not very good with that. When things aren't going well, I start getting frustrated and start trying to do too much.
But just tried to hang in there and just keep putting good shots up there and giving myself chances to make putts. They started dropping and that kind of changed everything for the round.
Q. Taylor, you started off --
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Ugly, thank you.
Q. Let me rephrase, you finished your back nine with birdie streaks. Talk about your consistent front nine and birdies on the back and how you got into gear.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: I think the energy in our group was good. Alex, Adam and I were kind of like feeding off each other. We were talkative. It felt like a normal round of golf on a weekend for us.
I think all three of us enjoyed that part. We didn't make any putts in the first six, seven holes. We probably had more putts that we should have made. I 3-putted on 2 and 8, which was ridiculous.
But then 9, Adam stuck one really close from the right rough, and then I knew he was going to make birdie. So then I can make birdie to squash his skin. That's the only reason why I made that one. All of a sudden, it just got going.
There was good camaraderie within the group. The perseverance Adam showed was really good. He had a double in the back nine and it was birdie, birdie, we were kind of egging each other on. It was fun. It was good.
I would say this, the back nine played at a better pace. We weren't waiting as much. It feels you get into a rhythm where you're like, this is normal golf. The front nine felt a little slow at times.
Q. How about the crowds? We were asking Jake and Annika about the crowds. Just the crowd support, today is probably one of the bigger crowds we've had here. Just talk about the crowd support for you.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Today? We were talking about Wednesday and Thursday pro-ams, it felt like today. I thought yesterday was phenomenal and today trumped it.
It's rare that the pro-am feels like a tournament, wouldn't you agree with me?
ADAM THIELEN: Yeah, I've never seen a Wednesday that you felt like, oh, there's people out here cheering your name and things like that.
Today you could feel the energy. Normally, you only feel it on a few holes. But you felt the energy all day. Every hole had a nice crowd. Every hole had energy.
Sometimes you're out here, you hit a good shot, there's no claps. I felt like today there were some golf fans out there. That was nice.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: They were not following me, they were following Adam and Alex. I was kind of tagging along, which was fun.
Q. You guys play in front of fans all the time in arenas and stadiums and such. Is playing in front of fans here at a sport that's your passion and not your profession all together different or is it a little the same?
ADAM THIELEN: I honestly don't feel it's the fans; it's more like the pressure from the peers, because you're trying to put a good score up so people can see that you can play. But the fans, it's very similar to when I'm playing a NFL game. When I'm locked in, I don't even know there's fans there until I hear someone yelling, we're in a golf tournament, this is awesome.
So I don't really get nervous because of the fans. It's more so because I want to play really well and I want to compete.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: My profession was my passion. I was very blessed to do that. This is, I feel like I died and went to heaven. My uncle, Jay Delsing, was on tour for 20-plus years.
I remember waking up every morning Thursday, Friday, looking at the newspaper to see the scores. There was no Internet back then.
I lived golf. But golf for me, it saved my life when concussion took away my profession, and I've met great people like Adam and Mardy and Mark Mulder and all these guys that have just opened their lives with open arms to me. I feel like I died and went to heaven.
If I feel pressure with the fans, then it's nothing. I feel like I died and went to heaven.
Q. Since you are from a golf family, with your uncle Jay Delsing, when you made your debut here and started to play here, did you get any tips as far as performing on tournaments like this, or it is just channelled?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Jay is a better putter than me. I'll make that abundantly clear. No tips. It's just fun. But there are texts in my phone right now, I guarantee, of my family ribbing me for 3-putting 17 and 2. That's kind of how the family works. I'd rather have that than sugarcoating it.
Q. You mentioned at the top that with your group today that it's not necessarily a grinding out there, it's a fun round out there. Tomorrow is championship Sunday. Does the mentality shift a little bit, or do you continue to, the fun round, let the putts fall?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Are you in my group tomorrow?
ADAM THIELEN: I hope so.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: That would be fun. That would be amazing.
I don't even know what the groups are. What are they? I played with Joe the last three or four tournaments. So that will be a lot of fun. Joe's a great guy. He's a grinder. That energy will be there. Jake, obviously, was a really good golfer back in the day. He put up a real number today, if I'm not mistaken, 25 points.
Knowing Adam, I'll hit into Adam's group just to keep him awake, if he's not in my group.
Q. Adam, how about you, looking ahead to tomorrow?
ADAM THIELEN: Just Sunday's my favorite because I feel like you can just go and play golf. Friday is the hardest because you're like just trying to put points on the board. It's tough because you want to be in the thing.
Then today, you feel a little bit better, but Sunday's my favorite because you get to really just go play your own game, start to get a little bit of feel kind of where your misses are, what you're doing well, and you just get to go see what happens.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: And you know Monday it's over. So let's throw caution to the wind and let's roll.
Q. You guys were right there one behind each other last year. I think Adam you were seventh and Taylor you were eighth.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Good. My dog died too, do you want to bring that up, too?
Q. Just giving you a pep talk like Steph, not give you a pep talk but bring up your past miseries. So any feel for better competition if you're playing together, who's going to come in first, any side bets, anything going on?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: I'll play with Adam every day of the week. There's positive energy even when he hits a bad shot. He's competitive. He plays fast, which I love because I play fast. I would play with Adam every single round if I could.
Q. Adam, one of your best scores, not one of your best scores, but your second year here you scored 44, and you've almost got that already. What are you looking forward to tomorrow? I know there's a couple different ways to ask that question. I'm not sure it's that much different than Jeremy's.
ADAM THIELEN: I thought they limited your questions today. How many questions do you get today?
Q. I think about 64 -- I'm four short, so I'm glad you're not in the last group.
ADAM THIELEN: No, you realize in this game very quickly you can't just: I'm going to go score 25 points. You literally have to -- that's why I love it. That's why I feel like it helps me in what I do, you have to just take it one hole at a time. One shot, really. You have to hit a good shot, and then hit another good shot. You can't just be like, hit one good shot, now I'll make a birdie. No. That's not how it works.
It really helps me in my game, I have to focus on every play, every little detail, focus, try my best and move on.
Q. With the quarterback, like Vinny Del Negro coaching, my whole premise with them was managing the game. Do you think two or three holes ahead, seriously?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: I can't.
ADAM THIELEN: I can barely focus on the one shot that I'm hitting. But that is part of the game, which I've always struggled at.
Q. Mardy Fish, who has to manage game --
ADAM THIELEN: I brought a nice caddie but he doesn't know how to manage the game.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: That's why we want to play with each other, let Mardy do what he wants.
Q. I know you talked about the crowds and the atmosphere, but was there anything specific that you heard or saw that was memorable from the crowd and the atmosphere?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Here's a good one. Adam figured out what a Number 9 is in soccer today.
Q. What is a Number 9?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: It's your goal score. Your goal score. Adam will back me up on this: A lot of World Cup questions, a lot of U.S. questions.
ADAM THIELEN: Who is the Number 9. 9, what does that mean?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: He looks at me.
ADAM THIELEN: Like the nine hitter?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Exactly. That was positive. Obviously with the World Cup coming here less than a year, it's going to be a real buzz. If I'm not mistaken, this tournament next year is going to be right in the middle of the quarterfinals, semifinals, finals. There's going to be a real buzz. That stood out to me today. A lot of World Cup questions.
ADAM THIELEN: I think what stood out for me, I kind of already said it, but you could feel like some golf fans out there. I feel like sometimes it's just like people enjoying the scenery, enjoying the tournament.
Obviously American Century does a great job putting this on and putting this special event on, but I felt like today that you hit good shots, people were cheering and that's not always the case. Sometimes you hit a good shot, man, did I go over the green, what happened there? You get up there, it's a good shot.
But you felt the energy from the fans when you're hitting good shots.
Q. Adam, your teammate Austin Corbett, last time he was in Reno for his football camp, the youth talked about Xavier Legette bringing in raccoon to eat. Did you partake? Austin said he did not.
ADAM THIELEN: This is great because I told Austin every time his name gets brought up while I'm here, he owes me $100. I'm up to $300 now. So thank you.
I love the Corb questions. He's one of the greatest human beings, greatest teammates of all time. I love to talk about him.
I did try the raccoon because I have a great relationship with Xavier and he was talking about it, talking it up for months. I was like, you know what, I will try it. So I tried cold raccoon from his locker in a Tupperware.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: There's no way.
ADAM THIELEN: It was what you would expect.
Q. Was it unlike anything you've ever had, or similar profile?
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Yeah, it's a raccoon, dude.
ADAM THIELEN: Once I got over the fact that I was eating raccoon, it kind of tasted like jerky to me. Just salty meat.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Similar but different.
ADAM THIELEN: I'm still alive, so that's good.
TAYLOR TWELLMAN: Except he can't hear out of his right ear because he's got a twitch.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports