Q. You must be feeling good. That's not a question but I imagine how you're feeling and this is right where you wanted to be.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, after my first few holes, yeah, I feel better than then for sure. It was a sticky start. Slow and kind of weird breaks. It was a bit of a mental battle there. Happy to bounce back pretty strong on the back nine. I was hoping to try and birdie -- when you mess up easy holes, you just have to try and birdie the hard ones. Happy with the back nine.
Q. Is there a place on the golf course, a section of the course, where it's like a place to go to accelerate?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It really depends. That front stretch there, you're hitting sort of iron or hybrid, anything too long off the tee, you're going to hit a wedge or short iron in. Those are spots where you can have a lot of birdie looks. And to be scrambling for par, making bogeys, is never a good thing.
Fought back into the round and was able to sort of clean it up coming in.
Q. How about 14, the par 5?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: 14 was nice. Just a driver, 4-iron. I hit as good of a 4-iron I could, 228 front. Literally pitched on the fringe there and to paint it off with a putt from 27 feet, I think, is always a good thing.
I was really just trying to keep in touch with the leaders. I saw Jon was up at 14, I expected someone like him to birdie that hole. Tommy stuffed it, an incredible bunker shot there. It was cool to pick up a shot on what is a birdie hole.
Q. Does that sort of reset you? You said you're kind of holding on and holding on.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It helps. I mean, I'm telling myself, like I'm slow out of the gates here. Fumbled my first hurdle and had to try and steady the ship coming in.
Like the little Olympics reference there?
Q. Yeah, nice.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: If it's an 800, we just finished one of the laps and we still have one full lap to go. -- or it would be a 1600 -- it's all right. You know what I meant.
Q. Do you have an idea the score, what it will take tomorrow, given what this course is allowing when they get hot?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: 62, that was something up there on the leaderboard. Didn't really see that completely honest. I don't care what the course was doing when he played. Just going to try and keep touch. You need to be in position to win on that back nine and try and fall on some previous experience and get it done.
Q. Does leaderboard watching feel different? I know you're not playing for three places, but there are three places to get something from.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's a good point, everyone is shooting for the top position. Unlike every tournament we play, there is a reward for the top three, which money aside, I would say, normal events, even when you finish second or third, you don't feel great about it.
But if you're able to podium, it's always special.
Q. How about the last two holes seem to be the toughest two.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: They are really good finishing holes. It's going to make for an exciting finish to this Olympics, no doubt.
Q. Do you know where your Gold Medal is?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: My parents have it. I know it's safe. I can tell you that.
Q. Do you allow yourself to think about where the second one would go?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I mean, I haven't gotten too far, thinking that far. But if I was to take a wild guess, I'm sure it would go right next to where the first one is.
Q. Relying on previous experience; this similar to Louisville in that the field could throw a curveball at you when you are not expecting it?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: It's got a big-stage feel to it. Depending how the wind is; Højgaard, sort of monkey see, monkey do out here. You have really good players in this field and everyone just saw a 62.
Obviously the leaders, shooting a 62, would probably get the job done, I imagine. But if you're in that mid, '6, '7, '8 (66, 67, 68) range, feel like you're going to shoot something low, you're going to have a really good chance of getting up there and getting on that podium. See what happens out here with the world's best. You just have to try and do what I do and leaderboard watch when I can.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports