Q. Awesome round today. 7-under. What was clicking for you today?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I think I probably made 200 feet of putts today. I had the putter working. When you have days like that, it's just get it on the green, give yourself a chance, and I did a great job of staying patient and giving myself opportunities. One hiccup on 12. It's a tough hole, kind of in between clubs and probably looking back on it, I should have hit the other one and made a double there. I did a great job of getting back in the round. You need to have some good fortune. I had a good chip-in on 14 that saved the round, got me going the other way again. Good, strong finish. Those last couple holes were tough.
Q. Did you adjust anything in your putting last night?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, I've been rolling it great all week. I've just been missing a few shorts ones here and there. I kept telling myself I'm historically one of the best putters out here, I got perfect greens. If you just trust yourself for a little bit and give yourself some opportunities, they'll go in, and sure enough today they all went in. So it was fun. It was those days you practice for, those days you have fun being out here.
Q. Do you feel that kind of sets you up for tomorrow, good frame of mind?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I would hope. If I can't go in there tomorrow feeling like I can qualify for the U.S. Open after today, then I got problems. I kind of found something in my swing and drove it really well and hit a lot of quality iron shots, so hopefully that bleeds into tomorrow and the rest of the year.
I've been close all year. I've been saying it, and nobody's been believing me, and I don't blame them. My scores have not looked like they have, but I felt way better about it this year and now today was a good affirmation of on this golf course to go out there and shoot that round, I know I'm on the right track.
Q. Was it easy to decide to do U.S. Open qualifying?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's our National Open. You want to be out there playing against the best in the world on the toughest golf courses and that's a great -- I can't thank Workday and Jack and everybody at Memorial for letting me come here this week and be a sponsor exemption. I think I held up my end of the bargain this week finally, which was nice, and I look forward to kind of going and building on this week for the rest of the year.
Q. Oakmont is obviously one of the hardest courses in the U.S. Open rota. You've played there a couple times. Nobody of ever really likes Oakmont --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, you have to like the fact that 30 percent of the guys are going to hate it, and they're going to be gone really quickly. That golf course is going to drive you crazy. So you need to accept that and realize that everybody's going to have to deal with the same stuff. I've played a U.S. Amateur there, I've played a couple Opens there. I kind of know what to expect when you get there. You're going to have some 3-putts, you're going to have some great putts that don't go in, you're going to look silly a few times around there, and you're going to pitch out a lot. So that's part of it.
So that's part of the reason why I love playing U.S. Opens, is it doesn't really favor anybody. You got to drive the ball pretty straight, and when you don't, everybody's pitching out. Nobody's hitting it up around those greens, especially at Oakmont. If you put it in the wrong spot there, you're going to make a big number.
Q. Not to put the cart before the horse, but if you do qualify, with the way you rolled it, especially today, do you feel good about your game?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely, yeah. Obviously the length's going to be a big issue there and if it gets firm and fast, that kind of negates the length and it kind of have makes guys like me have a chance. So we'll see. This week, I would have told you that I had no chance of shooting this number on this golf course, so you never know.
Q. Then you might have a chance to get into the Open Championship at Portrush, was that on your mind at all today?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Not really not until 18. I kind of knew that that was in there, and I was like, Well if I bogey here I probably don't have a chance, so I need to finish strong. I played the last one there when Shane won, and it's such a cool venue and such a great golf course, and I really want to make that one bad, so it would be fun to get back over there.
Q. You were here a year ago talking about in detail your circumstances. How has that been this year, does it feel like yesterday or feel like forever ago?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It feels like forever ago, but I feel it every day. So it's kind of one of those things. The surgery is way behind me, but it's one of those things I'm going to have the rest of my life. Just lost some ability, lost some ability to swing as hard as I want to and that kind of stuff. But that's the game of golf, nobody's perfect at 44 years old like I am. But I'm way fortunate to be playing because I thought there was a chance I probably wouldn't be. So I'll just look at the good of it, and to have a round like today kind of makes it all worthwhile.
Q. Does it make you appreciate or deal with the grind just --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, you need to have days like this to, because you put in a lot of hours out here, you work hard at it, when you don't see results it can be a really deep, dark place. So when you have these days it reaffirms that Hey man, I know what I'm doing, I've been out here -- there's a reason why I've been out here for a long time. Everybody says confidence is a fickle thing and you can only look back on -- I can look back on my career and say I should be confident, but until you see results come through on a day like today then it's hard to build on it. So hopefully I can build on this today knowing if okay if I can do this today I can do this anywhere.
Q. Is the driver, if not for the driver, there's no day like to the today, right?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I drove it great. I think I missed one fairway, that was the last fairway maybe. The fairways play wide a little bit, the wind blowing makes them play a little -- yeah, I drove the ball awesome today. I can't play out of the rough here. Only fairway I missed today I think was on 18. I right it in the right bunker and was able to hit a great shot to get it on the green. So you got to drive the ball in play here, otherwise it's going to be a long, long day.
Q. I don't know if it's something easily explained, but can you give us an understanding of what you did differently?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I kind of -- it's hard to explain but I'm always a guy that likes to draw the golf ball. So I've been kind of struggling with a more neutral path and kind of coming over it a little bit. So I kind of had a swing thought I had back in junior golf today, that I used to use all the time, of trying to keep my right side behind the ball a lot longer, let the club get in front of me so I can swing in to out. Something simple like that. I know I've been close. My swing looks good on video. It's just about finding something that can kind of click where I can play with it and have one thought that creates what I wanted to do. Today it clicked and felt great and hopefully it kind of stays that way to the rest of the year.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports