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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 15, 2016

Brandt Snedeker

Honolulu, Hawaii

THE MODERATOR: Brandt, you hold the clubhouse lead at 12-under. As it stands, only one bogey through two rounds. Talk about your play today which was bogey free.

BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah. Played -- I actually think I played a little bit cleaner today than I did yesterday. Played a little bit better tee to green, I felt like, and hit a lot of quality shots.

I didn't quite make the putts like I did yesterday, but all in all two great rounds, two solid leads, two solid rounds to start and excited about what this holds for the weekend, kind of a continuation of last week and feel like I'm playing great, so it should be fun.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for some questions.

Q. Are you surprised that you're playing this well, not so much including last week. I don't want to bring up your last round in Australia.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No. I mean I was definitely surprised because of the change Butch and I made was pretty drastic, and it felt really awkward and uncomfortable, and I thought there would be some growing pains with it, some kind of foul balls here and there that just kind of come when you make a swing change.

And Maui, I played a bunch of practice rounds at Maui and that kind of helped me get more comfortable with it. I think Maui being wide open off the tee a little bit helped me get comfortable with it and then realized that this week I know what kind of to do now. I know how it feels, what should happen, and when I do hit a bad shot now, I kind of know where it comes from.

So feel way more comfortable with it this week and excited about it because the bad shots haven't been there near as bad as they had been.

Q. Do you mind talking a little bit about the relationship with Butch? It's relatively new, compared to everything else. And then also the fact that the swing change and what you're doing, but also, has Butch helped you more, do you think, from the functional swinging part of the equation or from the mental part of the equation?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: You know, Butch is a great mentor, great guy to kind of bounce stuff off of and learn stuff from, and every time I'm with him I learn something new.

He's great because he's a calming influence on your golf game. He never really gets too high; he never gets too low with you. He's always really positive. I don't think a lot of guys see that, but when we're working, Butch is always extremely positive and extremely complimentary of your game, and I think that helps a lot.

Other guys can really get down out here, and he has 100 percent confidence, not only in what he's telling you, but in you as a player, so that's always great to feel like you've got somebody there behind you 100 percent. And he's helped a lot from that standpoint, and he kind of makes you feel sometimes to be playing better than you are and sometimes that you are as good as you think you are and you should be playing better than you are.

And he kind of gives you that kick in the tail every once in a while and say, this isn't good enough, this is not okay, and that's helped a lot.

And just his knowledge of the game, if you ever question anything, he tells you. You realize he's telling you something for a reason. Might tell me one thing and one thing only and that's it. He's not going to bounce around and tell you a bunch of different stuff.

So it's nice to have that confidence in your teacher and that guy there telling you, this is all you have to worry about. Don't worry about all the other stuff. Just do this and that'll take care of it. So it's good to hear that.

Q. (Inaudible).
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I did. I went straight -- I flew straight from Australia to Las Vegas to see Butch, and we spent two days together, and after Shark Shootout, I went and saw him again for two more days. So I spent some quality time with him, got to see him. He was out last week, just kind of reinforcing what we were working on and he really didn't tell me much last week at all, other than to just get used to it and go play.

Q. (Inaudible)?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Probably not, no. Australia, you shoot 84 and finish third to last. And that was it. Not a great ride obviously coming home. But that's the thing about golf, you're never as bad as you think you are. You're never as great as you think you are. You're always somewhere in the middle. So I kept that mindset and go figure it out and get it going in the right direction.

Q. Having not played this course in a long time, how much more comfortable did you feel today?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, definitely. I was definitely a lot more comfortable today, just because even in the pro am, the pro am had different wind conditions than we did in the first round.

So today was kind of the second day in a row seeing the same wind conditions, and I knew where lines on tees were and felt way more comfortable with how to play the golf course. So hopefully I can kind of build on that over the weekend.

Q. Do you feel you were more aggressive today?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I was driving it so well I had a lot of short irons in my hand, was able to be aggressive and had one of those days where I was kind of in between numbers all day. Yesterday my wedges ended up two or three feet. Seemed like I had a lot of kick-ins. Today I didn't really have a lot of those. I did the smart thing, kind of give myself 15, 20 feet and kind of go along and wait until I found something perfect.

Q. When you make a swing change and then you get under the gun in regards to like where you are right now, since it's not been that long, do you, I don't know, fret about it, but are you concerned about it a little more?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: If I hadn't played last week, I'd be a lot more concerned about it. If I hadn't hit the shots I did on Sunday coming down the stretch where I hit some quality shots coming down the stretch at Kapalua, shots that would have given me concern in years past was not concerning at all. I was confident. I knew where I was going.

So I'm excited about what the weekend holds. I know I'm hitting it good, so it's just a matter of kind of thinking properly and doing the small stuff right.

Q. From the eyes of a touring professional, the difference in how you putt this week compared with last week. What's the difference in the greens in terms --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I've had a really tough time with the speed this week for some reason, because they look extremely fast and they're not rolling out quite yet. They don't have that quite get-away-from-you kind of speed. Last week was great, because you could be aggressive on every putt. There was really hardly any putts you had to really, really worry about last week. They were pretty slow in terms of Kapalua.

Q. (Inaudible)?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Exactly. And even the ones that give you pause in years past I still wasn't too bad last week. This week I feel like you gotta be aggressive on all putts. But you still have some that can get away from you. I had a three-putt yesterday, I ran one 10 feet by yesterday. But hadn't really felt comfortable with the speed of them yet. So hopefully I can kind of get better over the weekend.

Q. Secondly, something Jimmy Walker said about a month ago or so that everybody out here has something that somebody else wants. What do you think someone wants from you?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Probably my putting stroke. Probably the way I putt. I think more so than anything else, my mentality about putting. Kind of like I putt more balls that have a chance to go in. I hit less quality putts that have a chance to go in and I never get too concerned if they don't go in for a day or two. I know they're going to eventually go in.

Q. Along that lines, while most people would agree with you, do you ever compliment yourself with your putting?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I kind of take it for granted. It just is what it is. People give me a hard time about putting all the time, like, do you practice it a lot at home? I say, no, I really don't. Why would I practice something I'm great at? I practice what I'm terrible at, which is hitting it off the tee and my iron play. I really don't spend that much on practicing at home. It's just kind of been there, and I know kind of how to refine it and keeping it within certain parameters so it doesn't get too far off.

Q. I didn't see 9 yesterday and I thought it was interesting on a slight wind shift the number of balls in the ninth fairway. Is it always like that, or was it like that yesterday?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: When you hit it downwind there, it plays a lot lighter because bunkers really aren't a concern and guys are more aggressive. When you get into the wind there, if you kind of hit a little bit of a block or a little bit of a pull, it's going to end up in a bad spot. Downwind, it feels like it plays a lot wider.

Q. (Inaudible).
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Oh. Oh. I haven't -- no, not really. I was a lot more worried in the pro am than I was yesterday.

Q. Playing with Davis, obviously he gets the opportunity to see you and he knows you pretty well. But he gets the opportunity to see you for two days and how you're playing and what you're doing. How big is that, obviously in regards to this tournament, but in regards to something that might happen in September?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I don't think it plays that much of a role. I'd be more worried about -- more concerned about it if it was in early September, playing right before matches. But right now it's so far away, there's so many tournaments to go that I don't think it's that much of a concern.

Q. (Inaudible)?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, just fell in a funny part of the schedule for me. It's a golf course I always liked and a golf course that I enjoyed playing. But I just always felt like I always kind of started in Palm Springs is kind of where I wanted to start. So I always wanted to get there early and get practice. I felt like I was always kind of behind the eight ball if I played here because you don't get in there until Monday night late. And you get so many different golf courses you play that you're always kind of scrambling, so that's kind of why I never played in years past.

Then getting back here, I realized I should have come back, I should have been back here sooner because this is a golf course that sets up really well for me.

Q. The reason you didn't come back initially --
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just didn't fall right. Unfortunately there's so many tournaments now, you gotta kind of pick some that you like.

Q. When did you decide to come back this year?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Kind of at the end of last year. I said, you've changed golf courses at Palm Springs this year. I knew I was going to play Maui, so I decided to go ahead and add this one and not play Palm Springs this year.

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