Q. Brandt, 6-under 65, flawless round. No bogeys. What was the key to that round?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just a really good game plan coming into today. A golf course I know really well. Playing perfect the way we want to see it play, firms and fast. Got some rough out there. Had a really good game plan, just relied on my putter. I putted great today, made a bunch of footage of putts, and put myself in position off the tee hit a lot of fairways and greens and made it stress-free which was nice. So really excited about how it started, but a long way to go from here.
THE MODERATOR: When you say stress-free, was there any moment where you felt like there was a really good save to keep that momentum going?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I had the 12th hole had about one of my only bad tee shots. Pulled a 3-iron in the rough. Hit a great wedge shot to get on the green from there and made a 50-footer for birdie. So that's a hole I was just trying to make par on, and kind of got a gift there. And that kind of got my momentum going a little bit on the back nine. Kept it going, I birdied the first two holes, and those kind of things are nice. When you have a kind of a poor swing and be able to come back and turn it into a net positive, those are what turn good rounds into mediocre rounds (sic) and mediocre rounds into great rounds. And a lot of fun to be able to do that.
THE MODERATOR: You mentioned earlier a putter change, working with a mallet putter of some sort. And it's been the trend this year, a lot of winners with mallets. What led to that?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, you know, I'm a big stats guy, you start seeing all of the guys out here using mallets, they're putting really, really well. If you're not paying attention to that you're doing yourself a disservice. So I thought I would make a change and see if there's something to it. And I changed in Puerto Rico a couple weeks ago and putted really well, just nothing wanted to go in. So I decided to stick with it. Today was a great putting round. I feel like inside six, eight feet I'm way better with it, it is way more consistent for me. And then the one thing that's been lacking is making some long putts, and today a few of those went in, which was nice.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Can you put a finger on what the struggles were earlier this year, hadn't made a cut --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, just wasn't putting up to my standard. So when I don't do that -- I've got obviously shorter out here as I got older, if I'm not putting good, it's going to be really hard for me to compete against these guys. So really refocused on what I do well. My short game's better this year. My swing's actually the best it's probably been in three, four years. Just kind of piecing everything together. Not trying to beat myself up too much and realize that things are trending the right direction. And just kind of, for whatever reason, didn't finish -- start the year right, and so nice to see a round like that today come together.
Q. The surgery you had a few years ago, which was pretty serious, obviously. Are there any lingering effects from that to this day?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I don't have any pain or anything like that. I've lost some mobility just because of that. My chest is not able to do the things it used to be able to do, so my rotation's a little limited. But when it comes to practice or pain-wise or anything like that, I'm actually relatively well. I'm way better now than I was before the surgery, I just have lost a little bit of mobility. But that's going to happen when you get 45 years old out here.
Q. If I'm not mistaken, there was some question as to whether or not you wanted to do it or should do it. In the aftermath, it looks like that was a good call, right?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Should have done it a long time ago. It's hard to chalk up, you know, you never want to have to talk a doctor into doing a surgery, but I had to do that. It was a really experimental one, but my quality of life was not good, and if I wanted to play out here, I needed to have finality one way or the other. Needed to have the surgery and have it work or not work and I could move on. So obviously looking back on it, it was a great decision, I just wish I had done it a little earlier.
Q. I'm sure you follow along with what's going on with the tour and where we're headed next year and the year after. Do you have any sense of how it's going to go, and what you would like to see happen? Are you good with, for example, them increasing some of these tournaments to 120 players?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Oh, I think we have to have that, yeah. Totally good with that. I think one of the things that makes the PGA TOUR great is iron sharpening iron. You need guys out here playing, you need full field events because it pushes everybody to get better. If you have a really select few of only 60, 70 guys, I feel like that those guys from 70 to 120 can still win tournaments out here can still push those guys to get better. I think having cuts is super important. I think there's something to be said for that. I think it's really hard to make -- obviously, when you're not playing great out here, making a cut on Friday means something. It's really hard for guys to stay engaged if you don't have a cut necessarily after Friday. I think it makes the product better. I think it makes the play better. I think it will make those guys push even harder and make everybody a better product for us on tour and will actually make those guys play harder, which is great.
Q. You understand though, or I'm guessing, why it went that way. At the time it seemed like a pretty good idea to have those --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, it's been no different. We had World Golf Championships back in the day. We've always tried something like that. I think when you listen to a guy like Tiger talk about how important his cut record is, I think that means something. I think that's something that and at the end of the day, I don't care what anybody says, nobody wants to watch the best players in the world play bad golf. If they're going to miss a cut on Friday, nobody's going to go out and want to watch them shoot 75 or 76 on the weekend. So sometimes missing a cut is not the worst thing to happen.
Q. What keeps you motivated and optimistic at this stage of your career?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, still love what I do. I still love being out here and competing. I think I'm probably just dumb enough to realize that I think I can still compete. I feel like I can still play with these guys obviously has to be the right conditions the right golf course for me anymore, but I still think I can. And on days like today, it gives me hope to go back out there and keep grinding. I still love practicing, and I know I've done it before, so I know can I probably do it again. It's just, it just takes me believing a little more in myself than I probably did the last few years.
Q. Talking about the right golf courses. I'm sure there's a small number of courses that suit you. Where does this one fall?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's up there, it's top 5. This course I have great history on it. I love it. Doesn't really favor anybody, which is great. It's not a bomber's paradise which seems like typical golf courses that we play this year on tour. So it's nice to play a golf course like this where it's placement, put the ball in the right spots, really tricky, greens are super difficult, so you really have to think your way around it. It's not a get up there and hit it as hard as you want to. It's, where do I need to put this to have a chance of moving on from here. So that being said, you still have to put the ball where you're looking so I've got a lot of golf ahead of me.
THE MODERATOR: Don't want to get way ahead of ourselves here, but Presidents Cup captain, Keegan was Ryder Cup captain --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: There's no chance. Let's not even talk crazy here. There's no chance, no chance.
Q. Have you had much going on with that so far?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, it's starting to ramp up a little bit. I had a bunch of calls. And you also want to make sure you're checking every box when you're doing this kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm going up there in probably less than a month, spend a few days to check everything out. Lots of logistical stuff now, lots of behind the scenes stuff, making sure we're ready to go. As the summer ramps up we'll obviously team takes shape we'll do more and more.
Q. Have you had any kind of like a serious discussion with Keegan about --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, several.
Q. -- about what to learn from last year. I know you were part of it.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I had several discussions with lots of past captains and guys who have played on several teams and what works, what doesn't work, what they wish they could do differently. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can. It's obviously my first time being a captain, but I've been a vice captain a couple times, and seen the inside of those rooms and seen what good looks like and what we need to replicate going forward.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports