Q. Wyndham, great playing, 7-under to start, low score so far. How do you feel about the day went out there and what you were able to do well?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I haven't played my best golf the last few weeks, so it's nice to kind of have a clean round where we did a lot of good things. I was really patient and kind of eased my way into the round. I didn't start off slow, but I just wasn't necessarily making birdies, and Akshay came out with kind of a hot start. Then we had that little stretch where we made four in a row, which was really nice.
Then I just kind of handled either some errant shots or whatever it was coming down the stretch, and I feel really pleased with the round.
Q. Currently you're leading the field in proximity. Is there anything with your iron play that you dialed in earlier this week or that made you feel more comfortable?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I made a couple of adjustments in my equipment. I moved my irons back half a degree more upright, which always helps for me. Then really it was just more of good start lines and kind of where we were trying to finish it was pretty conservative, so we hit a lot of greens, and when we got a wedge it was kind of a green light and we took advantage.
Q. Were you discouraged at all leaving Pebble or were you able to wipe that mentally pretty quickly?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I was very discouraged. It's been a pretty crappy few, three weeks. But also maybe what I needed to kind of get me back into a better mental spot to reset and kind of go back to maybe some original things that helped me a few years ago. That's kind of what I did this week. Listening to some of the books that I read a long time ago, looking back in my notes when I was playing well, doing some stuff in my process that helped me.
Yes, it sucks that I played poorly last week and missed the cut at Amex, but you never know when good golf is around the corner, and I feel like my game has been good, I just haven't been scoring, so it was nice to have some putts go in and shoot a good number.
Q. Is there any note or quote or message from what you were alluding to that stuck out with you?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I mean, the biggest thing is I can control my thoughts and I was getting negative. Yes, I wasn't scoring well and I wasn't getting the results I wanted, but I was allowing those negative thoughts to get into my mind, and I was allowing them to fester, and you can control that. You can't necessarily control the score and what happens to your golf ball, but you can control your thoughts.
So it was a good reminder for me to get back to, hey, when I'm playing my best, I look at the glass more half full than I do half empty.
Q. You did some of that in the last three days?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I'm doing it all the time. I'm always working on mental stuff and trying to get better. Obviously when you're not doing well, you're really looking at things. Yeah, these last few days I've worked a lot on myself both physically and mentally.
It was nice -- honestly, it's such a huge relief to have a round where you're like, okay, all the work I did put in these last few weeks and last couple days have kind of all come to fruition, and you have a great round.
Q. Was that recovery off the tee shot at 17 an example of staying positive?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yes, 100 percent. I was a little bummed because I've always -- I've hit it in the water there a lot in the past, and the last couple years we've been trying to hit draws off that tee shot. A little caddie-player mishap there. He thought if I drew it, it would go too far, so then we wanted more of a straight shot, so I was kind of in between shots and made a poor swing.
Needless to say that's a birdie hole, and to come away, hit it in the water and not really have a birdie look is kind of unfortunate, but to come away with a par was awesome, and that was huge.
Q. How much do you play here when you're home?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I wish I played more. I live only less than 10 minutes away, and I enjoy this golf course. But it is so busy, and my days are pretty packed with things. I don't necessarily want to come out and play five-, six-hour rounds. I play it less than five times a year.
Q. I noticed the starter on 1 introduced you as being from Scottsdale and then he made a comment to you there. Was that cool with you, Scottsdale instead of Colorado?
WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, I always put Denver just because I'm really proud of my home city and state, and there's not many Denver golfers out on the PGA TOUR, so I really rep it. But for this one, living here, I've been here for almost six years. He even looked at me, and he goes, I'm putting Scottsdale, and I said, oh, perfect. That's fine. It was kinda nice.
Q. Back to 17, that's a pretty strategic hole down the stretch. Would you play it differently Sunday than you did today?
WYNDHAM CLARK: I would just hit a draw. Instead of being in between shots and trying to hit a straight ball, which is sometimes hard to control, I would have just hit my draw, and even if it was too long and I hit it long and right, at least I had a chance to try to get it up-and-down.
But yeah, that hole is very pivotal in that tournament. Glad I didn't lose a shot there.
The tough thing for me is as it's getting so firm, if there's any help I really don't have a club for the shot and I'd have to hit a fade, which then is a little sometimes tough because then you're challenging that water.
We'll see. We'll see. The biggest thing there is just to try to have a chip to get up-and-down for birdie.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports