Q. Alex, seems like the theme of the day are bogey-free 65s. You had another one. Just comment a little bit about what you saw out there on the golf course and the scoring conditions.
ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, this is some of the more scorable conditions I've seen in my five years here in the tournament. Typically the golf course plays pretty fast and firm. I know they have had a decent amount of rain the last couple of weeks or so, so it's definitely softened it up. Typically there's some breeze here. We were really hoping for wind, honestly, because it was really humid. We would throw grass up and it was kind of coming right back down to our feet. So definitely more of the scorable conditions I've seen around here, but still not an easy golf course, there's some demanding shots for sure. But yeah to have, you know, no bogeys on the scorecard anywhere is nice, especially here.
Q. What was working so well for you today?
ALEX SMALLEY: I felt like this was a, one of the few golf courses that we play where being in the fairway off the tee is key or paramount. Rough can be spotty in spots, but it's also it can be pretty nasty as well. I felt like I drove it pretty well today, the fairways that I did miss I didn't miss by a whole lot, from what I can remember. I was able to draw good lies on the instances where I did happen to miss the fairway in the rough. I was able to still get it on or around the green. So I think my ball striking was definitely there today. I had a few kind of kick-in birdies, I guess you can call, which are nice to have. But, yeah, felt like my ball striking was there for most of the round.
Q. I know some recent changes to the golf course, but you're now in your fifth year and you do know your way fairly well around the golf course, how much is that a key to you now that you're getting further into your career?
ALEX SMALLEY: It's definitely big. I mean, I played in the college tournament here, the Nike invitational a couple times. Obviously that was pre-renovation. But just going back to a course that you're familiar with, you're basically, once you get on-site you're basically just determining what the conditions are like each week. If it's firm, if it's soft, you know, that kind of thing. It's nice to be able to know in the back of your head what you're going to get going to a tournament. My rookie year, my caddie would have to tell me a couple things to work on to get ready for a certain tournament. Like he might say, The greenside bunkers here are a lot deeper here than at a typical tournament, so practice trying to get your greenside bunker shots higher in the air. But coming back to tournaments I played at before I can kind of already know what to expect before I get here, which is nice.
Q. After a week off after a memorable PGA Championship for you, how nice is it to get off to a good start and get right back at it?
ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, for sure. Everybody wishes to get off to a good start. I realize that that's probably not going to happen every single first round that I'm going to play for the rest of my career -- hopefully it does. But, yeah, just I felt like the first few holes I had some chances, just made some pars. I knew it was playing relatively easy so I just tried to stay patient and was able to get a couple the last few holes on the back nine. I mean, always getting off to a good start is good, but you still have to keep pushing forward, you can't let off the gas once you do get off to a good start.
Q. Pretty interesting comments you just made about the Scrambler that is available to the winner this week. I know there's some North Carolinians that love that color, what do you think about it?
ALEX SMALLEY: They have had that color I think every year that I've been here. Might have to -- I told my caddie, it might have been on Tuesday or Wednesday, that it might need a little touch-up on paint if we happened to walk away with it after the round on Sunday.
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