Q. Another solid day. Kind of compare and contrast the two.
RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I think the golf course is playing more difficult today, so I'm excited to be done early. It's not going to continue playing as easy as maybe I got it on the front nine, so I kind of took advantage.
But I didn't hit it very good off the tee. I have some things to work on there from a driving standpoint. I missed a ton of fairways and that's just something you can't do at this golf course and get away with for the next 36. So I'm going to go work on that.
But overall proud of how I kind of grinded from the spots that I put myself in off the tee. Made a lot of grimey kind of up-and-downs and really cool kind of like hack-outs, and I just felt like I did a good job of keeping myself in the hole. No matter where I was or what the position might be, I kind of did a good job of just staying in the hole and kind of grinding until the end.
Q. What's a grimey up-and-down look like?
RYAN GERARD: Yeah, like, I thought 12 was into the wind and it was off the left, but I couldn't hit the club that I wanted to hit because if it was into the wind at all, it would go in the water. So I hit it in the back bunker and it was on a down slope and I landed in the foot of, like, rough grass and kind of rolled out to 6 feet. So I would say that was pretty grimey.
But, yeah, I hit it in two hazards off the tee on par-5s on the back nine and hit both greens in regulation from 240-plus. So I think those were solid too. But it's just kind of keeping yourself in the hole, it's not easy, and allowing yourself to be positive. Even though you might not be making great swings, just trying to stay positive out there and keep it underneath the hole.
Q. It feels like everyone we talk to after the last couple days looks tired. Is it a tiring golf course?
RYAN GERARD: Yeah, it's a grind. Mentally and physically this place is a monster not only because it's a big walk and I'm dealing with nine million allergies or whatever they're putting out there, the rough is thick, and I feel like every time you hit a golf ball that's 50/50 it wants to kind of bounce into the rough and just, like, plop down into the nastiest stuff.
So it's a test of patience, but how motivated, how positive can you stay out there, and how can you really just try and put good swings together even though, like, things might not be going your way for a four- or five-hole stretch at a time. So we've done a really good job of taking advantage of one or two good breaks and then just being really, really, I would say confident in kind of the lines and making good swings when you had the opportunity to.
But when the ball gets out of position, playing to the right spots, keeping ourselves in the hole and have made a couple bonus 20-, 25-footers at times to kind of salvage something.
Q. Knowing the elements are what they are today and knowing your success on the back nine, can you talk about your approach overall to that string of holes that you birdied?
RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I finally hit a fairway on 14. It's kind of -- I mean we hit 6-iron off the tee and I think last year it was, like, a 5-wood or 7-wood or something. So it's firm, the fairways are firm. Just felt like I had a good number to kind of hit, like, a low scooter back there and kind of left it under the hole right where you wanted to be.
On 16, I wasn't even trying to hit that green. I was trying to leave it right where I did. That pin is the easiest on this golf course for that hole, but the caveat is, like, everyone kind of cheats and tries to hit it, like, right to it because you can and it goes in the bunker and then you're just dead. So I was trying to leave it 15 feet short, just on the green, and landed it right where I wanted to, and it kind of skipped up and I had 18 feet from the fringe, and it was nice to roll it in.
Q. Where were you when you felt the first gust or felt the wind pick up, what hole?
RYAN GERARD: 7 fairway. I was spraying sunscreen and all of a sudden it started going all over the place. And my caddie was like, Oh, I guess it's windy now. So, yeah, that was our nod to Fluff holding a cigarette up in the air and watching the smoke blow all over the place was just spraying some sunscreen and watching it blow. But it's going to get windy -- I got a good tee time this week, it looks like, and sometimes that's what it takes to be in the right spot. But you take what you can get and over the course of a career it balances out.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports