THE MODERATOR: Seven seems to be the number of the day. Seven birdies. Also made a 7 on whichever hole that was.
NICK TAYLOR: On the 7th hole, yeah.
Q. It's a little unfortunate, but talk about the day and what that round meant to you today.
NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, having a couple weeks off I felt like my game was rounding into a nice form the last few weeks and then you kind of never know coming out. It might be a little rusty after two weeks off. I felt like my game was strong and it was nice to start off hitting a lot of quality shots.
The 7th hole, I hit a great drive. I had a club in to try to go for the green. Hit it in a spot that -- it just kind of compounded from there. It wasn't necessarily a dumb decision. It's just very hard around that green -- all the greens if you're in the ruff in a tough spot with the greens running away from you.
So, yeah, 7 wasn't a good score, but to kind of settle down even after a bogey on the next hole and play the rest of the way 4-under was a really nice bounceback.
THE MODERATOR: Let's focus on the seven birdies because that's the good part. You're obviously doing a lot of things well. What was it specifically that you were doing well?
NICK TAYLOR: I hit a lot of fairways, but the wedges on the holes that you have wedges, I was able to hit them in pretty close proximity, and I feel like I've been putting it well for a good stretch now and have been seeing the lines.
Had some opportunities I missed, but also made a couple nice putts coming in.
THE MODERATOR: How would you assess your season so far this year?
NICK TAYLOR: A lot of good, a lot of frustration of not really getting results that I feel like my game is maybe producing. A little bit of that's been putting maybe earlier in the year, a little of that's been closing out tournaments the last handful of holes. So I know it's there in a good spot, so just got to keep hammering that nail and hopefully finish one off sooner than later.
But, no, it's easy to get trapped in that frustration if the results aren't there, but I do feel like I'm doing everything that I need to do to play well, and the scores reflect that. It's just the finish results isn't always reflecting that.
Q. You finished 4th here last year, some past success, what is it about this course that really strikes you?
NICK TAYLOR: I think my iron game's been a strong part of my game for a while now, and that definitely is a premium out here. Hitting the fairways here is important with how high the rough is. But once you're coming into the greens, you just got to be precise with how far you're hitting it. There's a lot of slopes you can use, but if you're a little bit off you can get penalized quite severely, so everything needs to be on. But, yeah, it's nice having good mojo coming off last year coming into this year.
Q. What were you working on most the last two weeks and how do you think you found success with that today?
NICK TAYLOR: I took about a week off after the PGA, probably just needed to put the clubs away and a little time away from it. But, yeah, doing a lot of same things, came here. And not reinventing the wheel at all, just kind of doing what I've been doing because I've had some good tournaments in the last couple months, so just doing that, doing the preparation that I need to do and it was nice to get off to a good start.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports