THE MODERATOR: Starting off second round, 63. How would you assess your round?
BEN GRIFFIN: It was pretty bad. Didn't really get -- no, I'm just kidding. It was great. Got off to a good start. Made a couple of birdies. Felt like this morning the course was a little bit softer, so I was able to attack a few of the pins as opposed to yesterday afternoon and kind of into the evening. I felt like it was really firming up.
Yeah, it was a great round. Gave myself a lot of birdie looks. Made a good chunk of those and finished strong as well.
THE MODERATOR: You mentioned with the course playing different from playing from last night to this morning, the course firming up. What was it like going birdie chances out there, just knowing those scorable chances were out there?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I mean, it's a golf course that's not that long for us on tour, but it's very much so a positional golf course, a few dog legs. You have to try to keep it in the short grass to attack some of the pins.
So I felt like that was kind of the goal going into the round was making sure I left myself in positions to be able to attack and take advantage of the conditions. I hit my driver great most of the day. Had a couple little hiccup holes coming in, but then bounced back with birdies on eight and nine.
Yeah, the greens were rolling great too. It's always nice playing a morning round where you have less spike marks and the greens were rolling great.
Q. It's shaping up as a pretty nice year for you. How do you feel like the results are sort of matching the way you're playing?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think they're matching up pretty well. It was good to get a win a few weeks ago. It was nice to be in the top 10 the PGA Championship last week. Yeah, I feel like I've put in a lot of work, especially in the gym this year training really hard, trying to gain some speed, stay healthy and feel good out there and feel strong. So, yeah, I feel like I've done a lot.
I've done a lot of the right things this season to kind of get myself from where I was kind of the last couple of years being a really good PGA TOUR player but finishing in the 50s, not as well known of a name. I feel like this year I'm trying to do everything I can to kind of help myself be more of an elite player out here and get in contention more.
Q. How much does it feel like it is kind of a breakthrough year, or is it too early for that, or is it already kind of a breakthrough year because you won?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I feel like I've kind of made good steps the last couple of years just kind of building to get to that first win. Now that I've got that first win, I feel like it's really freeing me up to come out and be not necessarily more aggressive, but just feel more aggressive, feel like I'm trying to win more. Not that I wasn't trying to win in the past, but just the monkey off the back where I've got nothing to lose mentality. Like we're trying to attack pins and get up there with the boys at the top of the leaderboard.
Yeah, it's definitely been a breakthrough year, but I think there's more to come.
Q. And you mentioned the hiccups coming in. You had the par save after the bogey. How important is that when you are trying to win a tournament to do something like that?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's huge. Momentum is key in this game. It's a very cyclical game. You kind of get on birdie runs. At least for me personally, I feel like I get on a lot of runs in tournaments. Some weeks I never get on that run, and other weeks I kind of get on a run or two. I felt like I got on a nice run leading up to that those couple of holes, and making that putt from the fringe on six was huge just to kind of keep myself -- you know, just seeing a putt go in really from 10 to 12 feet to remind myself, alright, we're still going, we're still keeping the pedal down.
Sorry, I think I said I birdied eight and nine. I birdied seven and nine coming in. Yeah, it's just staying aggressive, picking my targets, swinging hard, and seeing where the scores line up.
Q. You mentioned momentum. What do you think will be key for you to maintain your strong performance throughout the weekend?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's continuing to leave myself in positions to attack. That's the key on this golf course. It's very much a tree-lined golf course. There's a lot of trouble in spots. Even on the holes that don't even seem that challenging you can get yourself in a tough position quick.
So being confident to some of those targets on my tee shots is important, and yeah, just trying to give myself a lot of birdie looks because the scores are never crazy low here, but if you can give yourself a lot of looks for birdie and knock down a few of them, you're doing a good job here.
THE MODERATOR: The golf course changed yesterday to the afternoon. How important it was to get off to that start?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I feel like my game is really good right now. I feel very comfortable on this golf course, and I knew going into this round -- you know, sometimes you have those Friday rounds where you are, like, All right, I want to get to the weekend and give myself a chance.
I felt like for me this morning I woke up and was, like, I'm going to get it rolling because I felt like I played really well yesterday. Yesterday, too, I just didn't quite make as many birdies. Otherwise, I think I was probably the lowest score in the afternoon wave or close to it. There might have been one lower.
Yeah, just playing really well. Trying to stay in my zone and keep plugging along.
Q. You've been on such a run. (Indiscernible). Can you talk about the atmosphere?
BEN GRIFFIN: It was a very, very cool experience for me growing up in Chapel Hill. North Carolina was only two hours away, so I had a lot of family and friends there. Of course, a course I was very familiar with. Yeah, it was a tough test, and yeah, my game felt good. I think it was -- I remember feeling a little shaky early the first round, and after that I felt like I was free-flowing the rest of the way. Kind of had a good chance to at least finish second coming down the back nine.
Last week on Sunday I was 4-under through eight holes. It was a great experience playing against the best players. That's what we want to do as golfers out here on tour is compete against the best and see how our games rack up.
It was good to get a monkey off the back there and play well in a major. That's just going to continue to build my confidence by going into the future majors, U.S. Open coming up as well as PGA TOUR events.
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