THE MODERATOR: Good morning. We'd like to welcome Zac Blair to the 2026 Bank of Utah Championship.
Zac, can we get opening comments about what it's like to be playing at home in front of a home crowd this week?
ZAC BLAIR: It's obviously always fun being at home. It's a place I played the last two years since they started this event. It's really cool just to be able to play in it and excited for the week.
Q. Living here in St. George, do you come out to this course often and get to play it?
ZAC BLAIR: I live in Provo, but my dad lives down here. I don't get down too often, just basically for this event. It's been cool being able to see it grow and turn into what it is today. Yeah, excited for the week.
Q. You're No. 124 in the FedExCup fall standings right now, important stretch for the season. Can you comment a little bit about your season overall and what you're hoping to accomplish over the next couple months?
ZAC BLAIR: It was kind of an interesting year. Had conditional status finishing 144th or something last year, so I was kind of playing both Tours a little bit.
I think it's been a really good year to be in this position, and a few more events to go to hopefully have a good finish to the fall and have full status or hopefully conditional status would also be pretty good.
Then I got one Korn Ferry event next year in Virginia, the last one if I play really good, maybe get my card that way. I thought it was a pretty solid year to this point.
Q. How did the rain play into your practice round yesterday? Is it any sort of help, hindrance? How will that help change things around for you on Thursday, when we start on Thursday?
ZAC BLAIR: We actually played the Pro-Am, so we were kind of on and off the golf course through the delays. Didn't play after the rain, so I haven't really seen the course since it rained. I know it's supposed to rain a little bit today.
I'm sure it will soften up a little bit, but I think the weather the rest of the week from Wednesday on looks pretty solid. So yeah, I guess we'll see.
Q. Scoring conditions, will they be similar to the first two years we've had?
ZAC BLAIR: Yeah, I would assume so. It seems maybe a little softer right now than it was last year, but I only played yesterday kind of early. So a few days to go before things kind of get into tournament conditions. I think a lot of it will kind of depend on the wind and everything like that.
Q. Were you top 20 a year ago here? I can't remember where you finished.
ZAC BLAIR: I don't know either.
Q. Talk about the grind, man. You lost your card. You went back, you were hurt, you had to take some time off. At this point in your career, do you feel any pressure with this week and next week with where you're at in the standings?
ZAC BLAIR: Yeah, always. I feel like I've kind of lived my whole life in this position of kind of being on the line, close to that number. I finished 126 twice and like you said, lost my card another time.
Yeah, I think you always want to do well and perform well, especially at home. I know that if I play well and do the right things, I'll put myself in a good position. That's all I can really focus on.
Q. What's been the strength of the game so far? Talk about how you're going to attack this golf course. Some of the guys like Michael Brennan might be driving some of those par-4s you're playing and it's a two-shot par-4.
ZAC BLAIR: For me, I think a lot of it this year has been kind of minimizing the mistakes and having a lot of rounds where I'm not making a ton of bogeys. I feel like for a couple years I was playing pretty solid. It just felt like every event there was just that hour stretch where I was just completely lost and basically ruining the golf tournament in two or three holes or a nine-hole stretch, something like that.
I actually had one of those stretches a couple weeks ago in Asheville, which wasn't great. Just kind of need to stay away from falling asleep at the wheel for a little bit.
THE MODERATOR: You finished tied for 20th last year.
Q. I asked the same question of Patrick, but there's quite a few guys from Utah in the field, quite a few young guys with sponsor exemptions. Can you tell us what you know about some of those guys and also what it means about the state of Utah golf that we have so many talented young guys that are in the PGA Tour field this week?
ZAC BLAIR: Yeah, a lot of good players. I know two BYU players also Monday qualified yesterday, Rasmussen and Carson Lundell. I played a lot of golf with those guys, and Carson's been having a really good year.
On the other side, Kihei, one of the sponsor exemptions, obviously super, super talented. Played a little bit with him over the last couple of years. He's just one of those guys that's obviously going to be a star, you would think. Just a really good player, kind of does everything well. So he's fun to watch, and he's also had a really, really good last couple of years. So that's really cool that BYU was able to snag him.
Then obviously let a couple of those guys get down to Arizona State with Boston and Bowen, and those guys are obviously really good too. I think there's a ton of good players -- and then Tyson Shelley also, another BYU guy which is in the field, which is really cool.
I think there's a ton of super talented people and a ton of people representing BYU, which is great.
Q. In July you had three really solid finishes in a row. Was there anything that you found in your game at that point?
ZAC BLAIR: Kind of just what I was mentioning earlier, that whole stretch just felt like I was playing really solid and not making a bunch of mistakes. I know I had a bunch of rounds where I didn't make any bogeys. So playing well is usually a little easier when you're not screwing up a lot. So just got to get back to a little more of that.
I feel like you're always going to have kind of stretches where everything is kind of clicking, and that was definitely a stretch where it felt a bit easier and you were like, man, if I could just do this every week, I'd be in a pretty good spot. Hopefully get back to that this week.
Q. When guys on Tour ask you about this golf course, what do you tell them?
ZAC BLAIR: Make sure you hit it in the fairway (laughter). It's not overly tight, but once you do miss off the grass, anything can kind of happen.
Really cool looking place. You get a lot of people commenting on just how spectacular it looks on TV, or even being here in person, you're just kind of -- you know, the 360 views are just pretty remarkable. I think it showcases southern Utah really well. Yeah, I think just mainly keep it in play.
Q. The challenge, though, speaking of keeping it in the fairway, what about the rocks? Have you had any favorite misadventures in the rocks the first two years?
ZAC BLAIR: I had a little bit of an issue on 9. I can't remember if it was last year. I think it might have been the first year, but kind of hit it right, got lucky, found it, hit it right again, hit it right again, in the rocks right of the green, and ended up having to take an unplayable like further out in the rocks.
I want to stay away from that for sure, but you see a lot of crazy stuff. You've seen some good bounces off the rocks and some bad bounces. Just really, really try and stay away from hitting it in there.
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