Q. David, tied for the lead heading into the weekend. Talk a little bit about what's working for you so far through two rounds.
DAVID FORD: Yeah, feel like I'm rolling it really nice on the greens, reading them well. I don't think I've missed inside eight feet. If I have, doesn't feel like I have.
Putter has been great for me. I'm seeing the green really well from a short range. I'm not driving it in the first two rounds as well as I have throughout the year, but I'm keeping it in play. I've only had to take one lava ball.
And then the iron play has been good all week, so I feel like I'm able to attack the par-3s. I'm spinning it a lot, which is good out here. The greens are firm.
So everything is working decently well, but the putter has been especially the bright spot for me.
Q. Talk a little about this course. First time seeing it. What are the challenges? I'm sure it's not like many other courses we get to play out here.
DAVID FORD: Yeah, it's penalizing off the tee if you miss it big. I would say the landing areas are extremely wide. We played a lot of courses like this in college where you look up and all you see is mountains and desert and lava.
But you have to remind yourself that the landing areas are really wide out there and just commit to targets.
The most penalizing thing is off the tee, and obviously with the greens being firm makes it challenging even if you're in the fairway.
Q. First year out here playing on the TOUR. Seems like your first best 36 hole start to a tournament. Is there anything different that you tried recently that you feel is helping you this week?
DAVID FORD: No, not really. Been doing the same thing for about a year and a half now. I think the biggest thing is just getting comfortable. I had a group that I was really comfortable with this week, me and Antoine played together and I met Gavin earlier in the week.
I felt really comfortable with the group today. I think this afternoon it will be with Michael Brennan if the scores stay the same, and I'm very comfortable playing with him.
So I think the biggest thing is just getting clay comfortable. This whole summer I think my results don't show how good I was playing, and especially how good I was driving it. So it's just getting comfortable and getting my feet under me. It's a new environment, but reminding myself that the game is still the same.
Q. You mentioned playing with Michael Brennan. Talk about the relationship, how long you've known him, how familiar you are with each other.
DAVID FORD: Yeah, I think we met in 2019 at the Scott Robertson if I'm not mistaken. I think we had dinner that week and played a bunch of junior golf together and a bunch of college golf being only a few hours away, Chapel Hill and Wake Forest.
Yeah, known him for a while. We played a practice rounds this week. I was pumped to see him in the field. Obviously after seeing what he did it summer it should be really fun. I know it's striping it and his game looks great.
Yeah, I'm really excited. It's good to be out there with a friend, too.
Q. Is there any validation you get from the start just after turning pro this summer and maybe the expectations that came with just how hot you were kind of coming into turning pro?
DAVID FORD: I think it all came kind of fast turning pro. I think there is a lot of things that you prepare for in pro golf, but there is just a lot of differences between amateur and pro golf. I had to get comfortable with the courses this summer, and the landing areas were pretty tight around the greens compared to what we saw in college golf; the ball was spinning of the front of the greens nine out of ten weeks in the summer.
So it was very different than what I had expected. I think my game was good all summer so I didn't really need any validation for where my game was at. I think I've been playing well at home for a while and even on the road there has been at least one good round or a great stretch of holes every single tournament.
So I feel great about my game. I think being in the final group on a Saturday only helps for confidence. Yeah, I'm thankful to have experience in pro events playing late on the weekend. But, yeah, I'm really excited for today.
Q. David, bogey, double start today. Can you talk about what was going through your head after that start and how were able to rebound?
DAVID FORD: Yeah, I was pretty upset. We started on 13 and I bogeyed 12 last night. I felt okay about that one. I hit not a great tee shot; made a fine bogey; slept on it fine.
But I was thankful to hit the fairway on 13. I was probably thinking about that one -- I slept great, but I was thinking about that when I woke up, just a tee shot with water and lava.
So, yeah, starting on 13 wasn't easy. I had 220 in after bunting a driver out there. I really hit six perfect shots on that hole. The ball just skipped a little bit on my chip. My putt was rolling about a 22 on the stimpmeter so I three-putted from like 20 feet maybe.
Yeah, hit six perfect shots. I was pretty upset for about two, three minutes after that. Thankfully we had a wait on 14 tee so I reminded myself I just hit some great shots on that hole, I've been playing great for a while now, and this course sets up well for me.
So just commit to targets is what I told myself coming in. I was thankful to get some putts to fall. I think getting putts to fall on 14 and 15 was huge for me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports