Q. Pierceson, great round today. You looked really comfortable out there, as we've said. What did you like most about your round and how did you take?
PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, I really like way the ball is coming off the putter right now. Lag putting feels nice. I'm not stressing a ton when I have kind of those 30-, 40-footers.
I've been fortunate enough to roll in some of those 12- and 15-footers that can really push the needle for you when the leaderboard gets really tight like this.
I would love to just be a little better tee-to-green, and I think I could be in a really good spot come Sunday.
Q. You're off to a really hot 2026. You've made all four of your cuts now. How do you think that's setting the tone for the rest of your year?
PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, it's felt like this for a while. I played well during the fall events; 2025 I had some nice finishes. I thought I got better this offseason, and I just like -- I like the things I'm doing. I like the people I have around me. It's showing, just kind of getting comfortable with knowing that my game is good enough.
Q. When it comes to the environment at TPC Scottsdale, especially at the 16th hole and knowing the environment you're about to walk into, how do you process and make sure that maybe being booed by the fans, you don't internalize that and move on?
PIERCESON COODY: Well, they only boo you if you hit a really bad shot. I think they're fair. I hit a really bad shot yesterday in the bunker and I got booed, but then I hit my bunker shot to gimme, and got a big applause.
There is a lot of give and take with it, but maybe for some of the bigger named guys it's a little intense, the things people say. For me I hit a real nice shot today and got applaud and made the putt, so it's really cool and a fun experience.
Q. When you do get booed, what's the walk to 17 like?
PIERCESON COODY: It doesn't really matter.
Q. It doesn't?
PIERCESON COODY: It's kind of hard not to smile. If you make a bogey on 16 you're going to be really mad. The emotion of people saying stuff to you kind of fades away pretty fast. You know you have a good birdie chance coming up 17, 28 and you're really just trying to focus on the next few things.
Q. When it comes down to it, how do you block out all that noise surrounding the environment here?
PIERCESON COODY: It just comes from being a professional golfer, professional athlete. There is never not people saying stuff to you, texting you, whatever it is online.
There is always people trying to say something to you to grab your attention. That's the way things go. It's just one notch up, but it's not that different from a lot of tournaments.
Q. What ways do you think you got better this offseason?
PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, my putting started to improve. Statistically was really nice putting in '24, and kind of, I don't want to say overworked my ball striking, but my tee ball got in a really good spot.
My short irons, I wasn't hitting those -- you know, one offs or 120s, I would miss the green. That was just detrimental. I started to like stack looks and played better because golf felt a little simpler. It was simple off the tee. Long irons, short irons kind of just got better as a whole.
Right now my putting is improving. I hit it really nice last week at Torrey Pines. I haven't quite hit it the way I wanted to this week, but I think that my game is really trending in a nice spot.
Q. How did you get your putting improved?
PIERCESON COODY: I've been working at home with the putting coach named Blair Philip, and then a guy here in Scottsdale named Paxton O'Connor. Kind of been tag teaming that process of some machine work and start lines, and then blending that all between speed and start lines when the putt is breaking two feet from however far, ten feet and the greens are rolling 12 or 13 out here.
So it's been a mix of a couple things. It's been a good process so far.
Q. Technique change?
PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, I mean, from the data that we got from one of the putting machines I was just kind of hitting down on the ball. I was launching it low. Ball was skidding on me. Almost giving it like -- you know, almost a gear effect. It was kind of squirting off the face because it was launching so low.
So hit up on it, hit some high draws with the putter.
Q. Ball striking-wise you made an enormous jump from 2024 to 2025. What you do attribute that to?
PIERCESON COODY: I give a lot of credit to my long time coach, Chris Como. I had some really tough injuries right at the end the college and first year as a pro that I just couldn't practice. I was playing golf trying to get to the PGA TOUR. Not being able to practice, just all my reps were focused on being on the golf course during tournaments.
I started to get healthy and I had some really bad habits that came from that. I played well enough to get my TOUR card, but my ball striking wasn't what it needed to be to be PGA TOUR player for 20 years.
But Chris kept telling me that we're going to get this right. It's a long process. Injuries are really hard. So he instilled a lot of self-belief in me. I kept seeing it gradually get better.
Yeah, just a lot of credit to him for helping me when the lows are low and I'm calling him upset and letting me know when I'm doing things well and kind of going from there.
Q. What was the injury you were dealing with?
PIERCESON COODY: I fractured my right radial head my senior year of college in November. That's pretty intense.
Q. Where is that?
PIERCESON COODY: It's your right elbow. You have two bones, one here and one here, that kind of meet. One of these controls your palm rotating. That's the one I broke. I couldn't rotate my hand for about four months.
So then I started playing once I could, but I was hitting it really bad. If you you can't rotate your palm you can't square your face, so I was playing really open and laid off for a long time just because I was physically limited there.
And then my first summer or would've been Korn Ferry finals, last edition, I fractured my hand bone and my left hand right here, small bone in my hand. Had to have surgery. That all happened about a year and a half period.
As soon as I was starting to feel good from the elbow stuff I had to have another surgery. I was out another two or three months, and started playing the Korn Ferry.
The soreness from hand surgery is really intense and it lasts a long time. My hand is weak. If your hand is weak you can turn out and bow down and get the face square early.
So I hurt myself twice, and both times I couldn't get the club face square enough early. So just a long process to get healthy and rebuild those same feels.
Q. Is there a story to how you got hurt?
PIERCESON COODY: Yeah, no, it's fairly publicized. My twin brother and I ran into a wall racing at Texas. You know, it's a padded wall, but behind the pads are concrete. Hit it pretty hard unfortunately.
Q. How much is your good play this season a credit to actually knowing when and where you're going to play as opposed to sort of bouncing between the two tours like you did last year?
PIERCESON COODY: There is definitely a level of comfort knowing that I -- that I believe my game is good enough so I'm going to have 26, 27 events that I get to show up to and play my golf. And now that I've earned myself some more events, yeah, it's even a little more of a weight off my shoulders.
It is a big difference for the guys coming out of Korn Ferry status, especially two years ago. Half the field didn't get into Sony; none of us got in here at Waste Management. You started to miss a lot of events and you're looking at guys getting points and it's tough emotionally.
So, yeah, knowing I'm in a little better standing because Korn Ferry status has been elevated and I've played my way into some more events is definitely mentally freeing.
Q. Going back to the environment here, how would you say it helped bring on the your personality?
PIERCESON COODY: I'm really monotone out there. I'm not waving to the crowd. I don't do anything different. I'm sure my wife would love for me to have some more personality. That's just not the way things go for me. Still super monotone for me.
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