Q. Great playing. Just some opening thoughts on the round, obviously bogey-free out there.
ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, it's my first bogey-free round in a long time. I've been close the last couple of events. Craig Ranch I had a couple rounds where I only had one bogey. A few weeks back it was kind of the same deal. It was nice to make that putt on the last, a little four-foot slider to keep the card clean.
It was kind of a weird day. It was pretty windy the first three or four holes, and then it died down, and then it kind of picked up our last five or six. It wasn't coming out of the direction it was forecasted to, so we were having to kind of adjust on the fly and really just try and trust which way it was coming from and just hit our shot from there.
Q. New course on TOUR. What's been your assessment so far, how it fits with your game?
ALEX SMALLEY: It's funny, I played the Southern Amateur here when it was here seven or eight years ago, so I actually have seen the course before. My memory served me relatively well. I knew there were only a couple holes that were kind of on the marsh; most of it was tree-lined. But yeah, it's great. I think it's meant for the wind. When the wind picks up, it becomes a good test. The green complexes are really good. There's a lot of tricky slopes and undulations. I know they changed No. 8 from a par-5 to a par-4. That green probably isn't really meant to be a par-4. But yeah, it's a challenge. I like it, though. It's a good course.
Q. You've turned in some good finishes two of the last three weeks. What's been trending in the right direction for your game?
ALEX SMALLEY: I kind of went back to a swing thought that I had last summer when I felt like I was doing well out here. It's been working the last few weeks. I've seen some putts go in, which has been nice. The first kind of three, four months of the year I didn't really see that much at all. Being able to see some go in, it's crazy what it does to your confidence when you see a putt go in the hole. It just frees you up a little bit. Was able to see some go in a few weeks ago when I had a good finish in the Dominican and made some good putts last week and had some more good ones today. Feel like it's trending in a good direction.
Q. What's your confidence level knowing that you do have this swing thought going into the weekend in contention essentially?
ALEX SMALLEY: Yeah, it's great. I haven't been in this position in a while, so it's great to be up near the top. Who knows where we'll finish today, but we have two more days out here. Just got to keep doing what I'm doing.
If I keep with the thought that I have and stay mentally in it on every shot and just kind of trust my reads and my speed, I feel like I will do pretty well the next couple of days.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports