Q. Great day today, 7-under. Talk us through your round and what was working for you today.
RICKY CASTILLO: Everything has been just kind of really close for me. My swing has been getting really close to being really good. Putting has been really close to being there. Just finally felt like a lot of it clicked today. Hit a lot of good shots and just put myself in a lot of good opportunities to make birdie and easy pars out there.
When you can do that on a course like this, it's super, super helpful. All in all, a really good day.
Q. Was there anything between yesterday's round and today's that you tried to tweak?
RICKY CASTILLO: No, honestly, I felt like I just had some better numbers today. The wind just being down a little bit just made it a little bit more gettable on some of those holes that can be difficult. All in all, this is a very tricky golf course, and you just have to definitely have a lot of control over your golf ball and really just stay patient because if you just try and get a little greedy out here, it can bite you really bad.
Q. Your three starts this year, three made cuts, not necessarily in the top 5, but do you feel like the game is there, you're just kind of waiting for the result?
RICKY CASTILLO: Yeah, I feel like I'm definitely a better player than I was last year, which is always nice. I'm getting better and better in my mental game, and emotional game has gotten significantly better from last year.
The physical part is slowly coming around. Whatever happens happens. I'm just trying to put myself in the best possible chance to be successful and get a chance to win tournaments.
Q. Second year on the TOUR; when you think back to last year, what are some of the biggest learning lessons that you had, whether good ones or bad ones?
RICKY CASTILLO: Probably the biggest thing is just staying patient. It's so much golf. We play 25 plus events a year. There's so much golf. Sometimes people get very stressed out and just get really down on themselves, and I think that's the most difficult part about pro golf is that you play so many weeks in a row and you can get really in a bad spot being down on yourself. I've really done a good job this year of really staying focused and just controlling what I can control, and that's mostly just my preparation and emotional and mental game.
Q. Being a Gator yourself, do you enjoy the Florida Swing, getting back down here?
RICKY CASTILLO: Oh, yeah, I love it. It's always nice to be in Florida and have Florida fans out here and stuff. It's always a fun time. I love in Jacksonville now, so still in Florida. It's always nice to play golf out here.
Q. You talk about staying focused and bearing down on the things you need to do on the golf course. What did you learn about yourself and managing yourself away from tournaments during that busy stretch of a year?
RICKY CASTILLO: Yeah, definitely that's a big part of it. I used to be someone that would just play all the time and never put the clubs down, and when you're playing so much golf and you're on the road so much, sometimes you just have to take a step back and get your body right and focus on other stuff like the gym and your health and stuff like that. It can be difficult.
I feel like I've got a really great team around me that helps me a lot, and I have a great fiance that travels with me all the time that really has been my rock in everything.
I feel like I have a really good idea of what I'm doing right now.
Q. What are some of the fun things you like to do or did last year during the season when you weren't at the golf course?
RICKY CASTILLO: Fishing. I probably will go fishing later this afternoon, honestly, because we're in South Florida. It's really the best place in the world to catch fish. It's probably what I'm going to do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports