golf Central on YouTube is brought to you by the new Apex Irons from Callaway I think it was a mission accomplished at least for the first day to get yourself up the board right for sure no it's um it's a it's a weird spot to be in you kind of I was joking with uh with Scotty and saying I I forget who we were talking with yesterday but just being the position I'm in I was like I feel like I kind of had a decent idea aide of what the rest of the week would hold through 12 or 13 holes you know what I mean it's like obviously you have a lot of golf left but if you're one or two over through 12 you know when you're starting where I am it's uh bit of a buzz kill but um I played really solid today and uh you know just felt like I kind of took advantage of the chances I had you were talking yesterday about you didn't know how many birdies were out there but you made Seven um were you surprised the green seemed a little more receptive I mean how did that go it def they definitely seemed more receptive than I thought that they have been or um yeah I don't know uh if they just put a lot of water on them or what but they definitely were holding better than I thought uh it's you know they I think they did a great job with with some of the pins I mean the the par 3es if they uh they had the pins tucked up front that they move the t's up I mean number two that pin would have been impossible you know with the six or seven or even eight iron from the from the back today so uh hard nine right exactly um yeah it it's you know it is what it is and I feel like it they'll kind of I'm sure go in waves of how they'll set the course up but it it was thought fairly Gable today it's not getting any cooler Roy wor it's not it's not um yeah look August in the South this is I mean it's geez we've been I've been coming back here for 12 years so it's to be expected but yeah it was it was hot and humid and um yeah it's just you know this week's all about just trying to conserve as much energy as possible and um I think it's going to get a little cooler at the weekend which is nice but you I'm happy with how I hung in there and had a good finish and um yeah I saw Scotty had gotten to 14 I was like ah got to try to just hang on to the coils a little bit so still feel like I've got a chance and um you know it was nice to finish the way I did what are your thoughts on the restoration uh I I so I I love the restoration I love the golf course um it's probably six months away from being perfect just because of the firmness of the greens um but I've I've I've always lik Andrew Green work I like what he did at Congressional I like what he did at oill I like um you know some of the other things I I haven't been there physically but I've but I've seen I I like that the ball repels um you know off the greens I like that it gives you options I think a lot of these aprons it really gives guys a chance to to to sort of shine and show how good their short games are um because you can play all sorts of different chips and um you you can putt it you can bump it you can fly it and try to spin it so I I love that I love that side of it um and yeah I mean I think he's probably made it a little less penal off the tea just by clearing some of the trees but then I think he's made it a little more penal around the green so I think overall I don't think the course plays that much differently apart from the par 54th um but I I really I I like what he's done and I like golf courses that sort of stretch out the playing areas and expand the playing areas a little bit and um you know I thought he's I think he's done a great job Xander solid day how would you kind of assess it uh it was it was all right I mean kind of hit it in the rough a lot and with brand new greens it's just you know I think I scored okay actually for how bad I hit it um but yeah overall it was kind of kind of a meh day wasn't really something to be proud of or disgusted by you've talked about this course kind of playing in in a practice round first competitive round did it kind of fit that similar very firm way you expected it to play yeah I mean it was pretty straightforward you know I think if I mean like Scotty was almost in every Fairway it felt like it looked like he was kind of going through wedge practice while he's out there um so if you're in the Fairway you can you can attack this golf course and I think they've been pretty fair with how they put the pins and the t's uh kn knowing how firm the greens are so I think the tour did a good job there um not really putting too many par 3es at you know over 200 yards kind of hugging that 190 to sort of you know 170ish range did a particular thing feel off about your swing started off hitting it okay yeah probably just reverted back a little bit I'm going to go unfortunately hit some balls now uh with the Setting Sun here but uh I'll figure it out I think you said this time you're fighting maybe a little bit fatigue and getting into Old patterns is that just kind of the case after a long season I was getting into Old patterns when I was Juiced up so um um it's just something you do when you're trying to get out of a pattern you you kind of fight to get in a good spot and then you kind of slip out of it and you fight to get back in it so I got three more days what uh how do you what do you attribute what do you attribute that to especially on on the new course and the layout uh yeah I just uh through the after nine I just told myself to start only thinking about my shot and not worrying about you know if the ball's going to be perfect or not and we executed some shots made some putts um look the game's good enough to to come out here and win I I just got to get out of my own head and uh I've talked a lot about that you know it's it's hard because you try and perfect this game and you know it's it is what it is you know sometimes it doesn't go your way but you make doable scores and today it just got in a nice Rhythm kind of around that turn was this one of those runs you've talked about seeking uh yeah I mean I wish it started on whole one um but it's going to be a good reminder kind of going in the next three days that you know I just got to see my shot and execute you know I was just thinking a little bit too much and um not that I'm trying to do too much but just there's this nice flow and Rhythm you know in your routine sometimes when you when you're playing well and it's how do you find that and sometimes it's just barely off but it causes some bad shots was any of that from knowing that greens were that firm and you were trying to be too perfect or no it's honestly it's just me I I get in my own head it's what I end up trying to do a lot of the times and um you know kind of goes against me um a lot of the times when you try and do that when you try and play golf in your head why just CU I I I want to see the perfect shot you know I want to see this kind of high peely cut that I've I've always hit and you know you work so hard on the Range and the weeks before to to hit this shot and sometimes it doesn't produce that and but it doesn't mean that's you know you have to play golf like that at the end of the day it's like I'm trying to hit it 150 yards I just want to land 150 yards and let it figure out from there so um you know it's knowing what to accept and what not to accept out there you don't seem like you're thrilled though no I am I I mean it's the first day like I mean I I got three more days you played well here the course fundamentally differ yeah uh I mean yeah you hit some different shots the looks into the greens the approach shots are very different um but before before you know the greens were pretty standard they were just kind of circular all back to front not a lot of slope you got a lot more slope now so I think it it penalizes you a little bit more if you're in the rough I mean you're going to get jumpers so you can't necessarily just like run it up and just end up in the middle of the green as easy as you did before um but with those slopes and with wedges in your hand you're able to kind of knock it a little closer to some holes because of those slopes and use the slope so uh there's a balance you know you hit it you hit it well just like any other course you know you're going to give yourself opportunities but definitely played a little bit shorter than I thought it was uh maybe just because of the wind direction that we had today versus kind of what we had in the practice rounds yeah I'm trying not to think much about the starting stroke stuff I think it's still a bit weird with it not being a traditional event but um yeah it was nice to get off to a good start um in the first round and uh yeah I felt like it did a lot of things well today just did the course kind of play how you expected it to play after a couple days practice I I was more interested to see how they wanted to set up the golf course cuz if they they wanted to set up as hard as they possibly could I think youd get into an area where with new greens and the way the run-ups are still a little softer because they're new as well you could end up in some spots where you're not really rewarding good shots and I felt like today the golf course was set up in a way in which the good shots were rewarded and if you're coming out of the rough to these pins you still it's still very difficult to hold the green so anytime you're in the rough you're you're really struggling to to try and make bar and um I thought it was an appropriate setup today [Music]