Q. What did you feel like you did best today?
ALEX SMALLEY: Limiting mistakes. I really only had one hole where I had a decent amount of pressure to save par. That was number 7. Hit it left off the tee and was in the fairway bunker kind of close to the lip. Had 210 yards and there's water short right so I thought it would be best to lay up and try to get up-and-down. I hit a decent wedge shot and the putt scared the coal hole and just didn't quite go in. But that was really the only hole where I had a decent amount of stress today, which was kind of nice to have. I had some long putts, maybe a few that were 50 feet or maybe a little more, but I was able to get the speed down pretty good on those and only had maybe three or four feet at the most left. So, yeah, just tried to be as stress-free as possible out here.
Q. What did you feel like was the most difficult part of playing this golf course today?
ALEX SMALLEY: When the wind picked up as the heating of the day went on it got a little more challenging, especially number 18. I don't quite fly it 315 to carry that corner on the left into the wind, so that's a little bit of a different hole for me. I kind of have to hit it out to the right. Yeah, just trying to hit the fairways and if you don't hit the fairway and you're in the rough it's difficult to judge some of the lies coming out of the rough. You get a lot of jumpers and it's hard to stop the ball where you want it to. First and foremost hitting fairways is key and then I guess you can be somewhat aggressive on the second shot you still have to be cognizant of where you're trying to leave your second shot because there's still trouble up around the greens too.
Q. I know last week was a team event, but how much confidence can you carry from how you played last week into this week and obviously it did carry over shooting 7-under today?
ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, tons, obviously. Even though it was a team event it's still an individual sport. Sometimes it kind of feels like it because you're hitting a shot and then you're you don't want to leave your partner in a bad situation if it's alternate shot. But having a chance at the win last week was kind of a cool place to be. I've been there one or two times so far in my career, but if you continue to put yourself there more and more often you just start to be a little more comfortable each time. Out here I felt like it was a relatively easy day, I don't want to say easy because this golf course is not easy. Yeah, last week was great and hopefully I can carry it into the next few days as well.
Q. What do you feel like you're doing a little bit better in your game than maybe earlier on this year even like last year?
ALEX SMALLEY: Feel like my short game's pretty good. So if I miss a green then I feel like I still have the confidence to be able to put it inside a relatively close circle around the hole. Feel like my putting's pretty good. I still had a couple close ones today that kind of burned the edge or missed by an inch or two. I feel like my putting's getting closer around the hole at least. I just feel like I'm maybe a little more consistent this year. Swing tempo's a pretty big key for me and I felt like I've tried to drill that down on Tuesday and once so once Thursday roles around I don't really have to worry about it as much. I've just really tried to do that every tournament so far this year and it seems to be working for the most part.
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