Q. Looked like the putter was going well today. Tell us about your round.
JOE HIGHSMITH: Yeah, absolutely. I putted as good as I ever have before and then some for sure. It was crazy to see all those putts drop.
I actually hit it decent on the back nine, as well, but the front nine my putter carried me for sure. Great to play like that. I had a really bad warmup this morning, so I was just glad to shoot a decent number and then it kept going and I kept making putts and birdies, so it was great to shoot a number.
Q. How often do bad warmups translate to bad rounds?
JOE HIGHSMITH: Honestly, there's been a lot of really bad warmups turn into great rounds. I think it just kind of proves that the game is pretty mental, and even if you don't feel good about your swing or about your stroke, if you get out there on the course and focus, you can still play well.
Today was that for sure. I hit it horribly on the range and putted okay on the practice tee, but I felt like I kind of focused up when -- it kind of forced me to focus once the round started because I felt like I was going to hit it out-of-bounds on every hole, and it turned into one of my best rounds.
Q. Top 20 in Mexico last week, playing well again this week. Anything in particular you've found over the last two weeks here?
JOE HIGHSMITH: Definitely, yeah. I've kind of gone back to an approach that I feel like I played with in college. It's like a little more mental or kind of process and commitment focused. I've been doing a lot of swing work over the last few months, but it hasn't really translated into anything good. I felt like I had to go a different direction.
I played pretty nice in Mexico and played great on Thursday, and Friday was a little bit suspect, but today was great again.
It's kind of nice to feel like the stuff I'm doing is working.
Q. Conditions out there today feel pretty calm, kind of similar to Thursday's weather?
JOE HIGHSMITH: Yeah, a little harder today. Thursday was insane how easy it was. But towards the end -- I was one of the first groups out, and they were starting to get a little firm, so these guys in the afternoon are going to be playing a way harder golf course than we got to play this morning. Especially if the wind keeps up, it'll be tough. Yesterday afternoon the greens were really chewed up and kind of crusty by the end of the day.
Great to play early and kind of work up that way. But I think it'll be fairly tough this afternoon.
Q. You look at the natural progression of the leaderboard and say, leaders still have to tee off, low scores already. T2 right now, but who knows later. But you feel like maybe it could be a more difficult test for the people coming in?
JOE HIGHSMITH: I would think so, yeah. The greens, even as today went on, kind of got a little bit firmer. They get more shiny and baked out a little bit. It's not even 12:30, so the leaders teeing off at 2:00, I'd imagine by the end of the day the course will be playing pretty tough, especially if the wind keeps up.
I have no idea where I'll stack by the end of the day, but at a minimum it's nice to play well and not have an early tee time hopefully tomorrow.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports