Q. I think you gained almost five shots on approach today.
KARL VILIPS: Nice. I think I missed one green.
Q. You hit the green on 18?
KARL VILIPS: Yeah.
Q. You were 16 to 17 before then. How did the day go for you? Clearly well.
KARL VILIPS: The day was good. Got off to a bit of a shaky start off the tee honestly. Wasn't quite timing up, hit transition, and was pulling a little bit.
Irons were in sync, which is nice. Putter felt good. Nice to see a few go in early. Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day seeing it burn the hole all around.
Speed's been really good. I just gave myself plenty of looks. It was really nice to see a few in early, and to get 4- or 5-under through the first 11 was nice.
Q. Has the game felt really solid? Has the game felt like you could put up an approach play or a ball striking day like today?
KARL VILIPS: Yeah, I would consider my irons my strength, and today it kind of showed out, especially on the par-3s out here, which I think are the teeth of the course.
As long as I can get it in play, I feel like I can score because I'm putting well, and I've got that mini driver in play, which has been awesome for me this week.
Q. Just off the tee, no driver there?
KARL VILIPS: Just that one.
Q. Have you liked it so far through two or three rounds just having that?
KARL VILIPS: Yeah, I've loved it. I think it's perfect for a lot of these holes getting to the edge of the dogleg, leaving on the wide side of it. It carries about 290 for me, which I'm not losing anything really out here. It's pretty reliable with a little draw off the tee.
Yeah, it suits this course perfectly, honestly.
Q. You lived here for a couple of years. Can you kind of take us through your background with the area.
KARL VILIPS: I moved to Bluffton, which is just down the road, in 2013 and spent a year down there, and went to Hilton Head Prep, which is actually in Sea Pines here, for two years and went through a couple different academies. It was awesome. I loved it.
Got a few friends out here this week that I went to middle school with, so that was pretty cool.
Q. Did you play here a lot?
KARL VILIPS: I only played this course once. I played at Heron Point, which was also in Sea Pines. This was kind of tough for me to get on here as a 12-year-old. Just did most of my practice over there, and also Berkeley Hall in Bluffton.
Q. Take me through that 5th hole where you got the eagle there. Tell me how the approach was to getting towards that eagle there on the 5th.
KARL VILIPS: I pulled my drive a little bit. It kind of was nestled in the rough between the bunkers, so I got a good break there. Lie was into the grain, I had 250. So I just kind of chop skirted a 7-wood short of the green and rolled up perfectly. I thought it was over the back, but it stayed on.
Loved the look of the putt, downhill left-to-right slider. Put a good, committed stroke on it, and it went in dead center. It felt nice.
Q. Talk about the technical aspect of this course. It is one of the more technical courses on the PGA TOUR. Tell me how your approach through this course would differ from other courses around the PGA.
KARL VILIPS: I think the mini driver is a big one for me. I don't need to bomb it out here. I just need to be in play.
There's a couple things that I'm making sure I'm trying to do, which is leave it on the wide side of the dogleg. You can easily get blocked out leaving it on the left side of the fairway.
I also think -- after yesterday, I'm just trying to avoid the bunkers. They're pretty flat. It's tough to get elevated out of there with spin, and the greens are obviously super firm. I'd rather a chip from long than something short in the bunker.
Then it's all about the speed out here. I think the greens are starting to get a little more baked out, and that just becomes a big key to success on the greens.
Q. I was just going to ask, you went like as a rookie, you're just trying to keep your card for the next year, kind of get your sea legs under you. You get a win. Does that change expectations or how you view the rest of the year when you have some security now and you can kind of -- I don't know, how have you kind of viewed that?
KARL VILIPS: There's definitely that security of knowing I'll be out here for a couple years at least. But first time around all these courses for the most part, just looking to kind of gather as much information as I can, learn a bunch playing with these guys out here.
That's really all I can do, and I can try to play good golf as well. So I like to put up some good results. I know I can compete out here, but it's just about the next few years just gaining the experience and feeling ready when the time comes.
Q. Does it free you up at all, do you feel like?
KARL VILIPS: It definitely freed me up a little bit. There was definitely some pressure early on in the season of got to make cuts and consistently get points. Obviously that big jump of 300 in Puerto Rico was nice. Obviously I'd like to stay in the top 50 and maybe make a TOUR Championship push.
Q. Next week, I think playing with Thor, just what's the -- I imagine that was an easy convo to have?
KARL VILIPS: Yeah, it was easy. We were watching it on TV last year at this time, and we were like, yeah, man, I'd play in that with you. Otherwise, I'd probably take it off.
I'm really looking forward to that. It's going to be a fun week. We've been chatting about it back in Jacksonville for the last couple of months. He called me the other night, what ball are you going to use? What holes do you want?
I'm like, look, dude, I'm playing in a signature event right now. I've got other things to worry about. We'll get there when we get there. But he's super excited. We settled on TP5x. I also told him to focus on his week because he's got a tournament this week as well.
It's going to be a lot of fun. We play this kind of stuff back at home in Sawgrass all the time. It's going to be like just another day.
Q. Matching outfits maybe?
KARL VILIPS: I don't know about that. We'll definitely have some red in there for the Cardinal.
Q. We just recreated that photo with Rickie that you posted on your story. You said you were 10 in that photo? Have you guys ever played together, or was this your first time this week?
KARL VILIPS: This was our first time playing together.
Q. Was he your favorite player growing up? What's the back story with that photo?
KARL VILIPS: He was definitely one of my favorites. How could you not? It was in his prime era of just the long hair, the bright outfits, the Red Bull stuff. I think he was playing in a tournament in Queensland at Royal Pines, and I was just walking around watching. I saw him near a coffee shop and said, hey, Rickie, as a fan would, can we take a picture? We took one, and I was probably half his height.
I think posting it last night on my story gave us good juju. I said we were going to go low, and we went pretty low today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports