Q. And you won't believe it, he just told me he wants two shots back. Spectacular round of golf. I know you're very pleased.
TROY MERRITT: Yeah, absolutely, especially with the run I've been on for the last forever it feels like. It's been a while since I shot 62 in tournament play, and to be able to post one this morning feels quite nice.
I am going to have some lunch now, watch the other guys play golf, and think about the weekend.
Q. Season-low by a couple. What did you like most about this start or this round that you take into the weekend confidence-wise?
TROY MERRITT: Rolled it tremendously the last two days. Minus the first hole yesterday. I had about a 10-footer and I flinched on it. I so went back to the claw grip and just not thinking about the first putt, and I've rolled it beautifully the last 35 holes.
Had a chip-in today, but, yeah, the hole was nice and big. Made a ton of left to righters which isn't usually the case. We added them all up to 62.
Q. It's only the second time this year on the entire PGA TOUR schedule playing true bentgrass greens. You've played on bent most of your life being from a colder climate. Do you like it when you get out here on these types of surfaces, or at this point in your career does the grass really matter to be comfortable putting?
TROY MERRITT: To be honest, I love any surface that I'm making putts on, and this week just happens to be bent. Like you said, I grew up up north. I've seen a lot the bent and poa. It's what I'm most comfortable on, and we haven't seen it in a while. Haven't putted great. This week everything feels really good on the greens, and as a result the putts are going in.
Q. Went to battle last year and were able to get it done at the beginning the FedExCup fall. You know what patience can mean out here. Even as a veteran with 300+ starts on the PGA TOUR, when you're having a season, what is your practice to being patient knowing that a round like this or perhaps a week like this is still in your future?
TROY MERRITT: Just that. You hit the nail right on the head. It's just having been through it before. The experience of knowing that one round, one putt, one shot can change everything.
Hopefully yesterday and today were kind of those changes that we needed and we can post some good finishes and continue posting good scores the rest of the season.
Q. Troy, you just said at the start of that that you haven't been low for a while. You got a bit of a reputation for shooting low scores and haven't done it for a while. I actually looked it up, and the last time you did it was five years ago at Liberty National. What do you recall about that round and how different or similar was it to today?
TROY MERRITT: I think it's very similar. Most of them are very similar in the fact you're making a lot of ten 10- to 20-foot putts. You're going to give yourself a good eight to ten of those a round, and if you can make six or seven of them like we did today, like we did at Liberty, like we did at Barbasol and Quicken Loans and those other rounds where we went low, those mid-range putts go in and you give yourself a lot of them, the scores usually go lower.
Q. Do you feel like you're a similar mindset though when you have done that five years ago and it's happening again now?
TROY MERRITT: You know, like I said, I wasn't thinking about those previous rounds. I was just trying to put out of my head that flinch on the first putt on yesterday's round. I found a nice rhythm with the claw and just went with. It saw the lines, felt the lines, felt the speed, and that's key it really good putting; watched them go in.
Q. You hit a shot into your final hole, No. 9, about 16 feet; made eagle. Was that the shot of the round or was there another highlight?
TROY MERRITT: I think after I three-putted 12 for bogey, I hit a 6-iron in 206 and went over the green on 13 and then I chipped in. I would say getting that bogey back right away on a tough hole like 13 was probably the momentum -- or kept the momentum going.
And then, yeah, that was just a great way to finish. I don't play a hybrid most weeks out here and I have one in this week. It's not one of my more comfortable clubs. I was aiming plenty left. I was not bringing that creek into play, and just came off beautifully and was able to convert the eagle putt.
Q. How nice is it to be back in contention again?
TROY MERRITT: It's fantastic, especially when you hit the ball solid and making a lot putts. You're not accidentally there. You've actually played well to get there. I haven't done that. I've accidently back-doored a couple Top 10s last fall. So far this week it's just felt like really good golf all around.
Q. Now that you got yourself into the spot with a couple rounds to go, do you have any thoughts about like next week, perhaps even qualifying for that event?
TROY MERRITT: No. My wife kind of jokingly said that I would probably screw everything up by winning one here. We have a couple family trips planned in June. I would love to bring some more headaches with the win. You think winning solves everything but usually brings about or headaches.
So if I could add some headaches by winning, that would be fantastic.
Q. You have to tell us where those family vacations are, because that happened earlier in the year with Charley Hoffman?
TROY MERRITT: Yeah, no, I would probably still stick with them. I would love to take my son on his basketball tournament. It's an out-of-state one, so I would love to do that.
We did a charity auction event five or six years ago where which purchased a place up in McCall for four nights and still haven't used it, and finally booked it for June.
Yeah, I tend to screw things up at home. My wife would definitely agree with that. I'll do my best to continue that streak.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports