Q. Fantastic round today, 64, puts you at a share of the lead heading into Sunday. Your thoughts on the day.
LEE HODGES: Yeah, it was a great day. Hit the ball really well, I know it was really nice to see some putts fall on that back nine. I think I made three nice putts in a row there from like 10 to 12. And then just kind of really hit some quality shots coming in to give myself some easy birdies.
Q. The conditions didn't seem to affect you at all. Can you talk about that?
LEE HODGES: No, it was tough early and it kind of died on our back nine a little bit. It was off and on, but it was a good wind for, like the easy holes were playing a little easier but the hard holes were hard. So you just had to make a couple pars and then get to those downwind holes.
Q. Can you talk about your shot on 17 with your 2?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, it was cool. A lot of people around there. It was down wind a little bit so I hit a pitching wedge, just a nice stock pitching wedge for me and landed it right where I wanted to and then rolled in a nice putt.
Q. How about going into tomorrow what's your mindset what will you do tonight, will you have a hard time sleeping?
LEE HODGES: I'm going to watch Brad Paisley play in a minute, but that will be really cool. But no, same thing I've been doing. Last week, I talked about it the other day, kind of changed a little attitude. It's easy to say or hard to say you're not having fun being on the PGA TOUR, but it was a little stressful at times for me and I was not handling it very well. So I just tried to have more fun this week and it's been paying off so far.
Q. How well did you know Paul before this week?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, really well. Me and Paul are really good friends.
Q. From Mackenzie Tour?
LEE HODGES: All the way, yeah. So I played with Paul in the final group when I won my first Korn Ferry event and we played, I don't know, 15 times together in professional golf and we play practice rounds about every day.
Q. So what about Paul brings outs the best in you?
LEE HODGES: We're just best buddies and we have a great time out there. We keep it really light and it's easy to compete when your friends are playing well.
Q. Is there anything in common that you guys have that you share that's like helped the friendship grow or just enjoy playing together?
LEE HODGES: Just being in the same class. When you're around people that long on the Korn Ferry, Mackenzie Tour going back you just become really close, to be honest, like a little fraternity with those guys.
So, yeah, I know Paul as well as anybody out here and he's an unreal competitor and a great player and I'll have my hands full with him and everybody else tomorrow.
Q. You talked about the changed mindset, having more fun. Was that something you decided on, did you talk to someone about it?
LEE HODGES: My wife kind of told me like she noticed that I wasn't my cheery self out there. I'm a pretty upbeat, happy kind of guy and it's just stressful sometimes being a rookie and not knowing when you're going to get to play and when you're going to have to sit for a little while and that was kind of getting to me a little bit. But this week I told her I'm just going to go have a good time and see what happens.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports