Q. Does this feel a little eerily similar to 2021 when you were up --
STEWART HAGESTAD: No.
Q. Because you were up 7 then, and you're up 5 at the break.
STEWART HAGESTAD: It's totally different.
Q. Why do you say that?
STEWART HAGESTAD: It's just different. I don't know, Mark is really good, Evan is really good. On the card I guess it's the same, but I don't know, I just haven't really thought about it. Like he has nothing to lose.
Q. Obviously in the thick of it, it's a little different than a normal 36-hole final where you have lunch and go back out. Now you've got a whole night to kind of rest on it. You've been through it before; what do you do?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't know. What would you do?
Q. I don't know, I'm asking you. How do you get yourself reenergized, refocused after a night off instead of just an hour in between?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't know, I'm new at this, too. I did it once, but again, it's different. It was a couple years ago or whatever it was.
I mean, I played nice today. There's probably a couple things I could have done better. Another round in the morning, try and go beat a really good player.
Q. You shot 63 in this first 18 --
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't think I was that low.
Q. Eight birdies --
STEWART HAGESTAD: I had four on the front -- did I? I birdied 12, 13, 15 -- I think that's it.
Q. Seven birdies then.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, I played solid. But it's no different than anyone else in the field.
I feel like I'm giving you just the same thing, and I'm just -- I think that's the only way to really approach it is like everyone is really good, and he knows he's really good. He's got plenty of gas in the tank. Got to go just decompress and do it all over again.
Q. What did you do two years ago when you just --
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't remember. Went back, stretched, probably practiced briefly, and then just go relax.
My guess is I'll briefly practice and then go back and just stretch and decompress.
Q. I heard 12 and 13 -- 12 was quite the putt up the slope.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, yeah. I wasn't chipping that.
Q. How far did you have there?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't know.
Q. A long putt --
STEWART HAGESTAD: I don't know, but I wasn't chipping it.
Q. But you still made birdie out of it.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, yeah. That was nice.
Q. You drove 13. How far was it playing today?
STEWART HAGESTAD: We hit it earlier, but we missed it way right. 300, just a driver.
Q. It wasn't 384 like the driver --
STEWART HAGESTAD: No, no, they brought it up. They moved it up. It's playing like 300.
Q. You knocked it to like 30 feet --
STEWART HAGESTAD: Probably like 40, 45.
Q. Putted it up there to conceded range?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah.
Q. Then obviously he gives you one on 14, too --
STEWART HAGESTAD: He did, yeah, and he hit a great shot on 15, and then made nice putts on 16 and 17. Again, like he's really good. I'm very well aware -- I've played with him a handful of times --
Q. You look at the ranking, you guys are the two best American Mid-Ams out there. On paper when you're ranked high you've had success. You don't get ranked without success.
STEWART HAGESTAD: He's played really well. I've watched from afar. He's won a lot of stuff in the state of Virginia. He's been right there at the Coleman the two years we played together. He's really good.
Q. You guys played the same stuff basically, almost.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Similar. He's certainly played a lot of the bigger stuff this year chasing the Walker Cup, so we played a lot of the same stuff.
Q. You played much better in the afternoon than you did this morning it seemed like.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Well, yeah. There's a few reasons for that that I won't get into.
Q. Did you do anything in that short break to figure something out?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Didn't see anyone, went and decompressed. Golf is hard. Golf is really hard. I mean --
Q. Did you go to the range in between?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I asked for more time. I needed as much time as I could just to get ready and be mentally prepared. I think it was five or six minutes.
Q. You've got to be mentally strong to grind these things out. Mentally you've got to have some --
STEWART HAGESTAD: We're not done yet.
Q. To grind out even five matches takes mental strength. Where does it come from?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I'm going to keep telling you the same thing. Everyone is really good.
Q. But you obviously have something that's mentally strong within that brain, within that body.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Just, again, it really just comes down to everyone is really good. You've got to bring it. You've just got to bring it every time.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports