Q. You're still tied for second. How would you characterize today's round?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, it was definitely boring making a lot of pars. It was definitely a frustrating round, but again, I feel like I played good enough yesterday, and a round like today is okay, and the wind was pretty tricky out there. I wasn't super sharp with everything, but I had a couple nice up-and-downs, and I'm just looking forward to getting some rest and going at it again tomorrow.
Q. How critical was it for you to birdie the par-3 fourth after your lone bogey on the third?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, it was nice. It was kind of a bonus. I made probably a 25-, 30-footer there. It was a nice bounce back and I think that was an important step for momentum.
The next hole after that I got up-and-down from a pretty tricky spot. Again, momentum is a huge thing in this game, and that birdie certainly helped.
Q. You lead the field this week in strokes gained off the tee. How much of a factor is that for you to get a good start to every hole?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, it's nice. You can't play out of the rough too much on this golf course, especially how firm the greens are. With some of the jumper lies that we can get and some of the really bad lies you can get in this rough, it just makes guesswork way harder. There's a couple holes you can hit it in the rough, and 10 was a good example, the pin is all the way back so you have a bigger margin for error, but once you get these pins where they start tucking it over bunkers and over corners, it makes a big difference.
Q. Playing in the afternoon, how big of a factor is the wind and the heat?
AKSHAY BHATIA: Yeah, like I said, it didn't blow too much, so it was very tricky to understand where the direction was at. It makes that a lot harder.
As far as the heat, I'm not too bothered about it. I don't sweat too much. I've kind of grown up in warm weather. I'd rather play in this than put on three jackets.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports