Q. Off early in the morning, bogey-free, what did you like about your opening round?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, no, it was a good way to start the tournament, for sure. We had really good conditions to start the day, limited wind, greens were pretty soft, so there were birdies to be made out there. I felt like I played solid and kept giving myself chances and a few of 'em went in, so that was nice.
Q. I haven't -- I don't think I've ever seen a person walk off after shooting 63 looking kind of bummed out, but you certainly did. Was that the first time that that's ever happened to you?
ERIC COLE: I don't know, I just thought I read that putt really well, I kind of took my time with it, and it didn't break like I thought. I definitely wasn't bummed out with the round, I was just bummed that that one didn't break like I thought it would. But it's a long tournament and stuff like that happens, so it's all good.
Q. Is there a particular stretch on this golf course where you feel that obviously you know coming in there are going to be low scores shot, but is there one section of holes where you feel like this is where I need to kind of make something happen?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, I would say back nine starting on the par-5. 13. 13's a relatively simple hole. 14, if you hit a good tee shot it's a wedge. 15's drivable. 16's not overly long. And then the last two with the wind direction are shorter irons or wedges. So I would say from 13 in is really where you can kind of score.
Q. We had a lot of rain Monday night into Tuesday, today seemed beautiful. How soft was the golf course and specifically the greens?
ERIC COLE: It was a little soft, for sure, receptive, but nothing crazy. All the wet areas are in the rough off the hole, so there's some wet areas around there, but the greens are good. They're probably a little softer than maybe the TOUR or tournament would like, but I think other than maybe a little rain tonight I think we're going to be good. So they will probably continue to get a little firmer.
Q. We hear a lot of times that PGA TOUR venues that are open and different types or styles of players can win, that it maybe favors one type or another, does this type of golf course, at just over 6,800 yards, I think people would assume bigger hitters can just over power everything, but is there a little bit more to it than that?
ERIC COLE: Yeah, I'm not sure if it really favors any particular -- someone who is putting well, because the greens are very good and the scores are generally low, so whoever is holing the most putts. But I don't think it just intrinsically favors a certain style of player.
Q. What part of your process has been the key to your recent stretch, some good top-15 finishes over the last few weeks?
ERIC COLE: I get that question a lot, I wish I knew the answer and I had some secret to give out. But, no, I think it was just a lot of the hard work that I put in earlier in the year and while it didn't necessarily yield any results, like I just kind of had faith that I was working on the right stuff and that eventually some results would come from it. So, yeah, I'm going to go with just it's a longer process than maybe I would have hoped for.
Q. Feeling any urgency to win out here?
ERIC COLE: No, not really urgency. I mean, obviously it's everybody's goal, I think. I've now played a decent amount on TOUR and winning is something I want to do. But, yeah, I just am trying to get myself in that spot where have I more opportunities and then hopefully just the more I do that, the more likely it is that I'll win.
Q. Last year you had unfortunately to withdraw before the final round. Could you take us through if you don't mind what the reason for that, how that is and is there any sort of redemption you want to get?
ERIC COLE: No, it was very unfortunate and I was not happy about the whole thing. But pretty much I just got a stomach bug and I have a disease called Addison's Disease, which, when your body kind of is under stress, I don't produce the same hormones that a healthy person would. So I went into this thing called adrenal crisis, which needs like medical attention. So spent the night in the hospital and was not in shape to come out and play, which was disappointing, because I was playing pretty well and I love this tournament and I wanted to be a part of Sunday. So, yeah, I'm not sure if it's redemption, but I'm happy to be here and feeling good and hopefully none that have this year.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports