Q. Neal, 1-under par today. If we can get some comments on your round.
NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, hit the ball great today. Need to putt a little bit better to get it into contention. I got to go figure that out. Probably lost a lot of strokes out there on the greens. Most of my bogeys were self-inflicted. Got to try and clean that up.
Q. Looking at 16, the data shows that a player is twice as likely to ace. Do you feel like with the environment and the crowd that that feels -- that helps your chances or hurts them?
NEAL SHIPLEY: I think depends who you are, if you like that environment or not. I certainly do. I think when you get some nerves you kind of start looking at the pin a little bit more.
So I certainly got maybe a little too greedy today and missed the green a little bit to the left. But certainly it's a fun environment, super unique. It's really cool to be in there. It's pretty special.
Q. Would you go in there and watch golf or would you go somewhere else on the golf course? If you just wanted to watch golf.
NEAL SHIPLEY: That's a great question. If I wanted to watch golf, I think if you're around there you probably got to go watch on 16 at least once. I mean, it's special and there is nothing else like it. I'd definitely watch there if it's your first time. It would be pretty cool.
Q. When it comes to 16 and the very notable rowdy crowd and the possibility of being booed, how do you prepare going into that?
NEAL SHIPLEY: I mean, it's just kind of like good fun. Like you hit it -- like yesterday's pin, Thursday, if you miss it on the right fringe you got a great look at birdie, but they're going to boo you even if you're an inch off the green.
It's just one of those things. Most of the folks out here don't really know what good or bad golf shot looks like in our eyes, so it's very -- I think you just got to stay in your lane, not take it personally.
Q. Obviously when you're on 15 you can see 16. It's so huge.
NEAL SHIPLEY: Uh-huh.
Q. What is going through your mind as you're on those tees before, like, oh, the big one's coming up? Do you stay calm?
NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, it's kind of fun. You start walking down 15 I think is a big crescendo to you walking into the coliseum there. It's really cool. Like there is a little bit of anticipation after you get off 15 green. You're juiced up to get inside there and hit a golf shot.
Q. What was your best shot today?
NEAL SHIPLEY: That's great question. We hit a couple really good ones. I hot it to like three, four feet couple times today. I think my shot on either 6 or 7, both of them, back to back, like four or three feet. I mean, that was nice to kind of give myself a little bit of cushion going into 8 and 9.
So pretty happy about that.
Q. What do you hope to do a little better tomorrow?
NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, putting. I'm just like, I mean, I'm putting like a blind man right now. Need to work on that, you know, figure something out.
It's been a little bit of a struggle the last four weeks with the flat stick, but happy that my long game has kind of turned around. Earlier in the year wasn't hitting it great, and kind of have my long game right where I want it to be.
Got bring the putting up where it should be and we'll be good to go.
Q. When you're not happy with your putting game on a certain day, what kind of tools are you using to break out of that?
NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, just trying to focus on the fundamentals really. Like for me, I put a line on my ball and line it up to the hole. You just try to focus on stroking that ball right down the line; try to get back to fundamentals.
Q. Do you feel like it creates a mental block or something you're like, my shots just aren't hitting today?
NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, it just tests your patience. I think you got to be patient out there. Not every week is going to be your week on the greens. You just got to trust over the course of a long season you're going to putt well more than enough to really launch yourself up the FedExCup points list.
Q. Three straight missed cuts to start the season; how important is it this weekend to get back on track?
NEAL SHIPLEY: Oh, it's nice. I feel like I've been trending. I'll be honest, coming into Hawai'i I didn't feel very well-prepared. Came off Christmas holiday and got back to Florida and my game was not where it should have been.
Just every week since then just been getting a little bit better. Really happy last week with some of my strides tee to green, and drove it great last week. This week I think it's carried over. Hitting some really nice iron shots, a lot of hitting a lot of fairways, and making it so that even if I don't putt great, I can still make cuts and compete.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports