Q. Very solid day, 11 points. You're right up there in a tie for third. Always a pleasure. What's been working well for you so far this week?
JOSHUA CREEL: I've been chipping and putting it pretty good. Today was weird, it was a lot of good and some not so good. I guess that's kind of how golf is.
We've at least given ourselves a chance tomorrow, so we're happy about that.
Q. What's it like just in general being up in the top few on the leaderboard on the PGA TOUR?
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, it's cool. That's what we're out here playing for. It's the first time all year, which sucks, but I'm glad it's here now.
Q. Kind of going into the week do you game plan with the Stableford and eagles being more beneficial than normal points?
JOSHUA CREEL: I think it allows you to get a little more aggressive trying to make pars. Sometimes you're kind of fighting not making bogey, but two birdies and two bogeys is better than four pars this week. You can get a little more aggressive in spots, and it's kind of fun.
Q. Had you played this type of format before at all?
JOSHUA CREEL: I want to say I played one Stableford event when I was playing the APT Tour years ago at Brownwood Country Club. But this is pretty cool. It's a lot of fun, especially at 6,000 feet.
Q. Do you feel sort of a comfort type of zone in this environment? Do you like this altitude and --
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, so I grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, which is 6,000 feet, also. Pretty similar looking to think in Wyoming, same grass types, green surfaces, so yeah, very comfortable.
Q. What do you think it is about this time of year? I know last year on KFT you had a good week in Maine and then Utah in this month area, and here you are again.
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, I try to explain it to people. They're like, "what's going on," all year. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I wish it wasn't that way, but for whatever reason this time of year kind of start to get it going.
Q. What is it about this season that you feel has been holding you back from getting into the mix?
JOSHUA CREEL: You know, it was a weird start to the year. Locked up my PGA TOUR card. My wife was supposed to come to Evansville, she got COVID, so I couldn't go home. I went to Mississippi with Chad Ramey for a week and then we were off to Napa, played however many events, got COVID first round of Hawai'i. That took me a while to recover from. Then just learning new golf courses. It's been a lot. But we're settling in and we're going to give it hell these last few weeks.
Q. How do you describe how you've been able to keep a good positive attitude and preparation, which after missing some cuts it could be easy to kind of spiral on some of the negatives?
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, I was essentially in this position last year, so I've been here before, and you've just got to bear down and dig deep and make it happen.
Q. Any tweaks into this week with your equipment or game or anything?
JOSHUA CREEL: Gary Christian, he's been awesome to me. Introduced me to Dr. Rob Bell at John Deere. He's a sports psychologist guy. I had a phone call with him Wednesday, and he's awesome. It was great. I kind of have a better mindset, and yeah, we're just letting it go and not making a big deal about anything.
Q. That's kind of the genesis of that conversation?
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much.
Q. Not to make light of it, but when is the last time you've kind of in a tournament scooped your ball on the last hole --
JOSHUA CREEL: Never ever. It was weird. I was like, Tim, if this putt misses, I can just scoop it, right? He's like, yeah, pick it up. So I did.
Q. Does that make it a little more aggressive on that bogey putt?
JOSHUA CREEL: Yeah, it wasn't going to be short, that's for sure.
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