Q. With a name like you have, you're not really afraid of the golf gods, are you?
ADAM SCHENK: No, I've got all the shots. Yeah, last name, everybody just calls me shank. It's actually been a while since I've had any, I don't know if that means I'm due or whatever. Courtney, my wife, she wants to name our dog Bunker. We've talked about it for a while, so that's good. She wants to name our next one Bogey.
Q. Bogey, that's what she told me. You grew up on a John Deere farm, I understand?
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, it was basically all green.
Q. You've got an affinity for this place, obviously.
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, it would be nice to do something special here. I could definitely use it with the season I've had so far. It would be kind of -- if I could somehow have a chance to win on Sunday, that would be great, and to pull it off at the John Deere would be kind of ironic, I guess, growing up on a farm, a green farm, and growing up driving John Deere tractors, so it would be funny.
Q. You had a good Friday here two years ago, too. Is that a little mojo?
ADAM SCHENK: I guess so. I'm not especially happy with how I was hitting it when I was finishing up my round. But I had some good up-and-downs, and birdieing the last makes lunch taste a little better. Just building off that for the weekend, I guess.
Q. Would you talk about the driver working particularly well this week? Repeat what you told Golf Channel about the way your launch angles are working for you.
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, seems like it's just ending up a little further for me this week. I don't think I hit it more solid, but I do launch it a little lower, so with it landing in the fairway and it rolling in the fairway, it's tumbling out. I'm sure it's tumbling out for everyone, but it seems like mine is u tumbling out a little more than it has in the past.
Q. Is that a change from recent weeks?
ADAM SCHENK: Not really. Some weeks I feel like the body moves differently, you can hit it a little further and some weeks it comes off really nice, and hopefully it's one of those weeks that it continues a couple more days.
Q. Were there any holes you felt like you pulled the round together?
ADAM SCHENK: Yes, saving it on -- the front nine, my back nine, hole 3, the par-3, left is the only place you can't hit it. Of course I hit it there, got it up on the fringe, made a 15-footer for par. Birdied the next hole. Then I had three holes in a row where I had good up-and-downs. So those were not the easiest up-and-downs, so I was fortunate I hit it a couple feet.
I thought that really held the round together. I shot 8-under, I guess, and if I don't do that, 5-under is still a good round. It's just the three shots were a big deal.
Q. Especially important to feel good going home with a birdie on 9 after the bogey on 8?
ADAM SCHENK: Exactly. They said 9 is playing the hardest of any hole out here. To birdie that is picking up a shot and a half it feels like.
Q. Talk about that putt.
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, the greens are so good here. I love downhill putts. You've just barely got to hit them and then gravity does the rest. I hit it just left of this little bar, pulled it through right there and caught the left edge and fell in.
Q. Was the putter going pretty well for you today?
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, the putter has been nice this whole week. I don't know what I did for the short game, but it's the best I've putted in a while, which is nice.
Q. And the rest of the weekend, what do you feel like you need to do?
ADAM SCHENK: You've just got to keep the pedal down. I think trying to hit the fairway will be the first big step for me. The rest of the weekend, if we keep the putter rolling, obviously hitting drivers close to make birdies at the par-5s with wedges in your hand you're going to do that. But I think the driver and putter will go a long way for me this weekend.
Q. How many fairways did you hit today?
ADAM SCHENK: I have no idea. Maybe half of them. Maybe not quite.
Q. I know you're looking for that first PGA TOUR win. Do you feel like you're playing your best golf right now?
ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, sometimes you don't even feel like you're doing much different. I feel like I played really good last week and didn't get a lot out of it. Just didn't make a lot of putts. I was always three paces, four paces too long or four paces too short, a couple balls last week I didn't get up-and-down and I'm getting up-and-down this week, so a little bit of play, a lot of it luck. Hopefully it's coming together this week.
Q. What do you think it's going to take for you this weekend?
ADAM SCHENK: Probably a lot more birdies, so just keep it in the fairway and keep the putter hot.
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