THE MODERATOR: Decent play and heading into the weekend, how are you feeling about it?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, I came here with a very different mindset that I haven't had this year. Today has felt very similar to a lot of rounds I've had where I get off to nice starts and then it feels like such a grind to try and have a good score. Today I flipped it a little bit.
I didn't hit many fairways, which has been a common issue for me, but overall the course is going to get harder and harder. Hopefully the wind blows more and more, and I'm excited to keep playing the next couple of days.
THE MODERATOR: What was the mindset you came in entering this week that was different?
AKSHAY BHATIA: I would rather not say until Sunday, but yeah, I'm not...
THE MODERATOR: Seems to be working.
Q. I'm going to push a little bit on this. Is it an attitude? Is it an outlook, this new mindset? Can you just broadly tell us anything about it?
AKSHAY BHATIA: I really typically don't ever lose confidence in myself. I think the way I've approached each tournament this year has been quite different than some of the stretches I had last year of feeling I guess like I guess extra confident. I don't know. I'm trying not to sound, like, cocky here or whatever. Just a little more determination, I guess, is more the mental change.
Q. Let's talk about the physical aspects. We haven't really seen you play like this since THE PLAYERS. Anything working right now that hasn't been working since then?
AKSHAY BHATIA: I mean, this golf course doesn't require a lot of drivers, so I've been just struggling pretty deeply with the driver. My golf swing is not where I want it to be, and it's been an adjustment for my coach and I. I used to live right down the street from him, and now we're in different states.
I used to see him so frequently. Any time we get a chance to actually work on my golf swing is the week of either majors or signatures, which is very tough.
But, you know, I've been putting good, and I'm starting to gain confidence. I think I have putted good all year, but I always felt like it wasn't as go ahead as last year. Statistically it has been, but I just haven't felt that. Now I'm starting to feel that.
Ball striking has been pretty good for the last I would say four or five weeks as far as strokes gained and distance control and everything, but the biggest thing right now is my driver. I've been just really, really struggling. I have one or two really bad golf swings that, I mean, cost me a lot of shots.
I had it the week of PLAYERS. Then my driver cracked a week of Augusta, and so it's been a little bit of a search. Like I said, it's just hard to do it when we have big, big events like either majors or signatures.
Q. Is it a two-way miss with the driver right now?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Predominantly it's been left, but I can make a great golf swing and it can go right. I'm just trying to figure that out.
Like I said, my golf swing is nowhere close where I want it to be. I can get away with it with my irons just because I hit so many off-speed shots. I have pretty good face control there. When it comes do driver, I step up and don't really know where it's going to go sometimes.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports