Q. Overall comments on today and what you feel like you did well?
RICKIE FOWLER: Kept it in front of us pretty well. Drove it, I think -- trying to go through quickly, but a lot of fairways, which is key out here. Had some more chances at birdies. Didn't quite -- ball didn't roll how I thought they would in a couple spots.
Yeah, all in all a solid day. Going around here, and a good par save at the last after a Spanish fade from the edge of the water. Solid day. If we can go put together another good one tomorrow and see where that puts us, see if we can get ourselves a tee time next week.
Q. The ball-striking numbers have been good. Has that been what's been behind the good finishes at Memorial and the Open and the ball striking is getting better as the season has gone on?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, kind of a combo. The ball-striking helps out. Then when you start making some putts, you can take advantage of that versus being a little shaky tee to green and then trying to rely on making some putts to keep rounds going.
Although I'd like to make some more putts, I don't mind some of the boring rounds where maybe you don't make a whole lot. But shoot a few under, and fairly simple day for the most part. If you can go around this place and keep it simple, that's a job well done.
Q. The position you're in as far as FedExCup, will it make tomorrow feel any differently than a usual round?
RICKIE FOWLER: No, we're in the mix. We'll kind of see where guys finish up. We'll be within hopefully decent distance where go put together another solid front nine and see if we can get ourselves in the mix for the back nine and final few holes and give ourselves a chance.
But it's going to take a good round of golf. We'll focus on trying to chase our way up the board. I need to play well tomorrow to get myself into next week. We'll focus on one thing and just playing some good golf.
Q. You had a similar score first round, better than your second round yesterday. How do you feel going into your final round? Like you said, this course is about keeping it simple. Do you feel comfortable going into this final round to make that push up the leaderboard?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, anything can happen. Obviously you can go struggle off the tee tomorrow and can not play so well, but the plan is to keep doing what we're doing, keep it simple, hopefully wear out the fairways and keep it fairly stress-free and see if we can put together a good front nine to get ourselves in the mix and see if we can go run the guys down. Ultimately just trying to finish as high as we can. That way maybe give myself enough cushion to where I don't have to worry about the number coming down the last few holes.
Q. We had the flyover for the dedication of Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. You don't see that every time at a golf event. You see it sometimes in football or any other sporting event like that. What did it feel like seeing that and what did you think about the flyover and the memory?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's special. We wouldn't be here this week and playing here and with the FedExCup and everything that FedEx is a part of the PGA TOUR. That's all because of Fred initially. It's pretty special, come full circle.
Obviously it's a bummer that he's not around, but yeah, we wouldn't be here and playing today without him.
Q. Bud is playing well; what does it say about him that he's been able to put together the season he has after all he's been through?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's been awesome to see Bud have some solid golf, some good finishes. Seeing what he's gone through from the accident a handful of years ago, all the surgeries, rehab, all of that, playing with him at home when things were starting to get close, playing with him last year -- we played a bit in the fall. He was swinging really well. It was obviously just getting it out and doing it in tournaments.
It's nice to see him finally back out playing some golf after those handful of years where he was kind of back and forth dealing with it seemed like one problem after another. It's been really fun to watch. Obviously Bud is a good buddy of mine, Walker Cup teammates back in '09, so yeah, really happy for him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports