Q. How do you feel after getting in today and finishing at 17-under? What was the day like for you?
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, good. It was a grind on the front nine. Then the holes started opening up a little bit on the back and made some really nice putts. Hit some clutch-ish iron shots on the Bear Trap. Just kind of gave myself a chance on 18, went for it, got a little lucky there, but capitalized making birdie, so pretty happy with today.
Q. Are you a leaderboard watcher? On that back nine there was a lot of things happening.
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, my caddie Mark didn't want me to, and I usually don't because I don't want to get in my own way, but I kind of felt really comfortable today. Didn't really matter if I looked or not.
But I looked on 14 because once you see Woody coming out and the cameras, and you're like, I've got to be pretty close. I didn't look really after the 3rd hole until that point on 14. I was like, I'm still in fifth place. But knowing that you have the Bear Trap coming up, anything can happen.
Yeah, that was kind of the last time I looked at it.
Q. Were the conditions that much different? Were you surprised how different it played?
J.J. SPAUN: The greens were a lot different. There was almost no friction on the greens because they're so dry. I wouldn't say firm, but they're just glidey. So putting is really difficult. Speed control is really difficult. The fairways were a lot drier so you can run out pretty easily on every fairway.
But yeah, it was still a tough day. There's still a lot of good scores, but I'm sure all those guys played really well.
Q. You were an alternate next week when the field came out. Knowing that and the situation, did you sort of have an idea of what you needed to do today to sneak into that event through the Aon Next 10?
J.J. SPAUN: Yeah, I was looking at it last night, and if the tournament finished, I would still maybe be first alternate if it finished last night.
It just would be a bonus to get in, and I didn't really feel any added pressure, and my caddie and I were just kind of thinking -- our mantra was, you've got nothing to lose today, and just try to give ourselves opportunities and capitalize on them, and today we did a pretty good job.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports