Q. 3-under through two rounds, within striking distance going into the weekend. How do you feel about your game and where you stack up?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, I feel really good. I've left a lot of shots out there. I feel like I easily left four, five, I think I missed four putts inside of five feet today which was kind of a bummer. But my game's in a really good spot and I don't know how many far back I'll be starting tomorrow afternoon but I'm looking forward to it.
Q. Do you feel comfortable here from being in contention a couple years ago?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, for sure. I like this golf course a lot. I feel like it suits my game. Obviously having a previous success and a level of comfort with the course also helps. Yeah, I love this place and I'm looking forward to tomorrow afternoon.
Q. What would you, in terms of liking this place, how would you describe why you like it and what you like about it?
DAVIS RILEY: You got to ball strike it really well, greens are pretty small, so I feel like if you hit the green, hitting a lot of greens you get some good birdie looks, so, yeah, just good ball striking golf course and I feel like you have a lot of that 10 to 20 foot range which is usually I feel like a good range for me because the greens are so small. But, yeah, just overall you just got to, this is a golf course where you have to have pretty much every piece of your game working to have success. Obviously like you've seen when you throw conditions in there the scores don't go very low. So, yeah, it's been a tough test the first two days and I'm looking forward to the next two.
Q. Your results have up ticked in the last month or so, when did you start to feel things kind of coming back together?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, I would say I guess in -- I actually missed the cut in Mexico, but I felt like I played a lot of really good golf. I had two really bad holes that kept me from the weekend. When I got back from the West Coast I started to feel really good about my game. I don't know why historically I never really played good golf over there, but I love the golf courses starting this swing, Florida Swing, after the West Coast. So I feel like it just suits my game, and I definitely feel like around Mexico time it started trending.
Q. Was there anything you tweaked or changed or got better?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, the ball striking has got a little better, but I haven't, it hasn't been just like a magic pill or a swing thought that kind of changed everything for me, honestly. Just a little simplicity and try to play golf. I feel like it's easy to come out of the off-season and trying to really double down on what you've been doing, because you work, everybody works on certain things to try to get better and I feel like maybe I was focused hyper focused on making sure I was doing those things instead of playing golf a little bit. So, yeah, feel like I've kind of gotten into a little bit more of my DNA the last couple weeks to and I think that's why the scores have been a little bit better.
Q. Can it be confusing at times trying to figure out why it's not going well?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, for me it was just with pretty much all ball striking I just had a two-way miss. When you have that that creates a lot of anxiety on the golf course because you don't know where to miss, you don't know what side of the golf course you're missing on, all of a sudden you start steering golf shots, so to be honest I just had a two-way miss, especially off the tee, with the ball striking and I created a lot of anxiety for me when I was playing and I just didn't know how to play for it. So it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Once I feel like I started to establishing a little bit more of a predictable shot pattern and kind of got back to playing a little draw like I like to with my irons and things like that, I feel like that opened up more come for the on the golf course and hence a lot more freedom and better scores.
Q. What are you looking forward to this weekend?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, you know, I'm looking forward, I really like this place, I feel like my game's in a good spot and I'm just itching to get in contention. It was a bummer today, I just let so many shots go. I mean, I missed, I don't think I've ever missed that many short putts outside of five feet like I did today. Some head scratchers out there, which hopefully I won't have to be thinking about those on Sunday. But any ways, I feel like the game's in a good spot, I feel like everything is right in front of me, so I'm just going to try to continue what I'm doing.
Q. Completely unrelated, off topic, nothing whatsoever to do with this golf tournament, but I'm writing a story about Zurich. Do you know where you have your title belt and what's unique about that kind of piece of memorabilia?
DAVIS RILEY: Yeah, I've got it actually hung up. I've got it like in a little glass frame on my wall with the belt, scorecards and pictures of me and Nick upstairs, right next to my bedroom. So it's really cool, I know exactly where it is. And me and Nick are playing again this year and we're stoked to go back to New Orleans and try to get another belt.
Q. What's unique about that specific piece of memorabilia?
DAVIS RILEY: Like you said, it's just unique being close to home and, yeah, you get the gator-skin belt, obviously it kind of fits the bayou swamp vibes. So you got the big belt buckle, alligator skin, massive belt, so it's definitely one of the more unique pieces you win throughout the year.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports