Q. Sam, just talk about your round. Three birdies on the front, four on the back, no bogeys. Really consistent play by you.
SAM STEVENS: Yeah, it was good all day. I was able to get the ball in the fairway a lot. Plenty of wedge holes out here and birdie opportunities, especially if you're playing from the fairway.
So I was able to put it in the fairway, get some looks, and made a few putts on the back nine, which was nice.
Q. You're one of the many players atop the leaderboard who hasn't won a tournament yet. Talk about being a part of that group, a lot of young guys looking for the first win.
SAM STEVENS: Yeah, I haven't looked exactly who is up there. It's hard to win out here. There are a lot of guys that haven't won out here.
Yeah, I'm excited to have the opportunity. I was in this position a couple times last year with a chance to win. Sometimes I played good and gave myself a chance; other times, not so much.
Hopefully tomorrow I can keep putting the ball in the fairway.
Q. Talk about your mindset going into tomorrow. You're tied for the lead now. Talk about how you feel about your game going into the final round.
SAM STEVENS: Yeah, my game feels pretty good. Been putting in a lot of work the last couple months trying to get a little better, and tweaked some things with my chipping, putting. This week has been great with those things.
Normally I hit the ball decent. Or at least I think I hit the ball decent. If I can do that and just keep getting those putts to drop -- when I get out of position I got up and down a couple times for par today. If I can do that tomorrow good things will happen.
Q. No bogeys. Which holes did you have to go up and down, play a great shot to save par?
SAM STEVENS: 16 I hit it left and kind of pitched it over the back of the green. Had kind of a tricky little shot and hit a great chip, tap-in. I was hoping to get it inside five, six feet. Didn't have to -- it was just six inches from the hole, so that was nice.
And then nice up and down on 18. That was for birdie, but with the wind the way it is, that hole playing downwind feel like you got to make a 4 there, or you're losing ground if you don't make a 4.
Q. Did you have a particular mindset heading into today's round?
SAM STEVENS: No. You can't try to go shoot low. I can't. Maybe people that are better than me can think that. You got to put the ball like I've said 100 times, in the fairway.
I know I've been making a bunch birdies the first couple days. I don't know exactly how many. Few too many bogeys and silly mistakes. Today I was able to avoid those.
Like I said, there are birdie opportunities out here. If you can keep a clean card, no reason you can't make them.
Q. Anything you'll be able to use from those couple times you've been in contention deep into Sunday tomorrow that might be able to help you?
SAM STEVENS: Yeah, I've only been in contention maybe two or three times out here. Any time you're in contention, doesn't matter if it's mini tour, Web.com, you feel the same. You can only be as nervous as possible.
We'll see tomorrow. Like I said earlier, there has been times when I played good when I'm in contention and times I played bad. It's a long round. You can make mistakes, and I made seven birdies today. There is plenty of opportunities out there, so you just can't get too flustered if you make a couple mistakes early.
Couple times last year when I was in contention I let that bother me a little bit too much and things can spiral quickly, so hopefully I can just be kind of calm, and if I hit a bad shot, move on to the next one and try and keep moving forward out there.
Q. Did you just call it the Web.Com Tour by accident?
SAM STEVENS: I might have, yeah.
Q. Was it around when you turned pro?
SAM STEVENS: No. It was the Korn Ferry. I played in my first-ever Korn Ferry event was the last event that they were the Web.com Tour, so maybe it's just engrained in my mind. Yeah, my bad to Korn Ferry. My apologies.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports