THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Neil Shipley to the interview room at the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge. You're a recipient of the Champions' Choice selection. Can you just open with some thoughts about your excitement to be here at Colonial this week?
NEIL SHIPLEY: Yeah, I'm really honored that some of my peers chose to give me that exemption and really excited to have a great week.
The golf course is in phenomenal shape, and the membership here at Colonial has just done an awesome job welcoming us to their course.
THE MODERATOR: There is your second start on a PGA TOUR this year. You played Valspar. Can you talk a little bit about your goals for playing on a PGA TOUR more often?
NEIL SHIPLEY: Yeah, a lot of our focus this year is on the Korn Ferry TOUR, getting into one of those top 20 spots. We have status out here next year, but there's been great opportunities come, and I'm able it play tour events. I want to be out here. This is where I want to play.
I feel like the golf courses suit me a lot better than out on the Korn Ferry TOUR.
THE MODERATOR: You're a winner on the Korn Ferry TOUR this year. You said you just had a chance to play the golf course. Can you talk about where your game is at?
NEIL SHIPLEY: It's in a good spot. Had a tough week last week, but I always feel like when I start off on a stretch of golf after a week off, I start slow. So we're definitely going to keep building here. Probably going to be going three or four weeks in a row. Excited to keep building on some of the progress and things we're working on.
THE MODERATOR: Can you just touch on being here in Fort Worth? There's great culture, great food. Do you have any plans off the golf course this week?
NEIL SHIPLEY: Gosh, I came here early with some friends up in Celina north of Dallas and stayed with them. There's some really good spots out there that we went to.
I was here just a few weeks ago at Texas Rangers for the Korn Ferry TOUR event and got to explore a lot. It's a great town. I love being in Texas. If I didn't live in Florida, I would probably live here.
Yeah, super excited. Barbecue food here is just pretty elite, so can't beat it.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open to questions.
Q. Being one of the few to earn low amateur status at the Masters and U.S. Open, what kind of confidence does that bring to you and help your career so far?
NEIL SHIPLEY: I'm sorry. I missed the first part of the question.
Q. Being one of the few to earn low amateur status at Masters and the U.S. Open, how has it helped your career?
NEIL SHIPLEY: It's been massive knowing that I can compete at those biggest stages so when I come out here, I know that I can beat most of the guys out here. I think that's something that a lot of young pros don't get out of college, so really grateful for those two experiences.
I think too I learned a lot about how when we play really tough golf courses, my golf game is really suited for that. I'm excited for a really tough test this week where you really have to have all of your game clicking to play well.
Q. Neil, we heard from a high-level source here in the media center that you're a big fly fisherman. Talk a little bit about that in terms of the correlations between golf, fly fishing, and how you use that as an outlet when you are not on the golf course.
NEIL SHIPLEY: Yeah, it's definitely a got a outlet. I haven't been as often as I would like, but when I was in college at James Madison, I went all the time. It was a great way to get my mind off of golf and do something on a Saturday morning and get out in nature and just enjoy life.
I think with fly fishing you get skunked a lot of days even though you might be doing the right things and going to a lot of different spots on the water, but I think it's kind of like golf. Your work of putting in the research and finding good spots when you are fly fishing, it doesn't always pay off right away. It's the same thing in golf. You can put in a lot of work into what you're doing, but it doesn't always pay off. Patience is really key.
Q. Then back to this tournament, Colonial, one of the best tournaments and one of the best courses on tour. Just talk a little bit about this old-school golf course, how it suits your game, and what makes it so special.
NEIL SHIPLEY: Yeah. Well, I believe it was Gil Hanse that did the redesign, and I think he did a phenomenal job with the golf course. I didn't get to see it before, but the way it presents right now is amazing.
It definitely has a lot of that old-school characteristics with a lot of slopes in the greens even though they're small. I think it plays modern though where those slopes aren't so severe that you can't pin locations on the green. Hats off it him.
Tee to green it's phenomenal. Gives you a lot of options off the tee. You don't have to hit driver everywhere, but you certainly have the option to, which I think is great. If you hit great drives down the middle, it's going to reward you, but you can hit irons out there.
I think that's reflected by the list of champions we have out here. It's not always the longest players or the bombers. There's a lot of guys who dinked it around and were able to win here. So there's a big premium on iron play.
I think the golf course is -- you know, anyone could win. It's not suited to any one type of game, which is pretty rare to see even out here on the PGA TOUR.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports