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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 28, 2016

Grayson Murray

Jackson, Mississippi

Q. Second start of his rookie year and Grayson Murray leads by two after two rounds here at the Sanderson Farms Championship. For you the statistics say that you're hitting it great. You proved it on the ninth hole, your closing one, to get a birdie. How do you feel about the way you're striking the ball compared to your first week out at Safeway Open?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I was striking it a lot better than my first tournament. I don't know if I can just -- I think I see these holes very well. They set up to my eye, unlike Safeway I had to go over a lot of trees off the tees. This one just kind of lets me unleash my driver, and that's really my best club in the bag right now. So as much time as I can put that in my hand, that's what I'm going to do.

Q. You have an experienced caddy on the bag in Mike Hicks, who was the caddy for Payne Stewart. You won last year on the Web.com Tour. With all of that what is your feeling about going into the lead on the weekend of a PGA TOUR?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I'm very comfortable with the lead. I was trying to just extend it, honestly, with those last few holes. I saw my name, and I think I saw Greg at 10-under, and I was at 11 at one point, and I was just trying to keep pushing it. We have 36 holes left. There's a lot of good players chasing me, and every little birdie counts.

Q. So they say you always save the best for last, and you seem to be doing that. They almost turned the lights out on you there, but you still had a couple birdies in you.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah. I was still trying to make birdies, even though I'm at the top, I want to keep making them because over the weekend try to get as many as I can now. It's only going to play tougher the next two days, and I feel a lot of good players chasing me.

Q. And you say make a lot of birdies I think there's like 16 players within like three or four shots. This is definitely a wide-open weekend.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Exactly. There's a lot of good players, there's a lot of birdies to be made on this course, but there's also some bogeys if you're not in the fairways. So just keep it in the short grass, give myself as many chances as I have done on the first two days.

Q. I wanted to follow up about you saying you thrive in this position. Can you expand on that a little bit?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I mean, you know, we practice to get in this position. We don't practice to make cuts. We practice to win golf tournaments, and I know I have the game to win a golf tournament. Like a month ago I won a pretty big one, and my game is good enough; I know that, and I've just got to keep believing that I am good enough. And if I get in this situation enough times, I'm going to crack through.

Q. Obviously there was a big difference between how you played at Safeway and here these first two rounds. I heard you saying that the course kind of suited your eye and everything. What makes this course comfortable for you?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I don't have to take drivers over trees. I felt like I was having to cut a lot of corners out at Safeway, and that's not my game. My game is just to keep on hitting driver. That's usually my best club in the bag when I'm swinging it well. And we actually switched heads and shafts on Wednesday, so this is a completely new driver. I feel comfortable over it. And I had a conversation on the ninth tee with my caddy that he wanted me to hit hybrid to keep it short of that right bunker, and I asked him how far it was to carry it, and I just felt like 3-wood would put me in it and hybrid would leave me too far. So driver, man, I'm like let's just try to make birdies and that's what we can.

Q. I assume it's a great Big Bertha, the new driver?
GRAYSON MURRAY: It is.

Q. So what's different? Looks like you switched?
GRAYSON MURRAY: The head is 8-5 instead of 9-5 and then the shaft is just a different shaft. It's a matrix shaft. And you know, I got dialed in on Wednesday and really felt confident with it and put it in play right away.

Q. Why did you change?
GRAYSON MURRAY: You know, just heads get bad. Like I've had the same head for almost the start of the year. Heads get bad if you hit too many golf balls with it. And the Callaway guys got me all dialed in. So it's good.

Q. Obviously there's been a lot of birdies out here, probably going to have to score low these next two days. Is it hard not to press sometimes, try to get a birdie, you know what I mean, because you know you have to go low these next two days?
GRAYSON MURRAY: No. I mean every golf tournament is a marathon. There's always going to be someone that comes up high, shoots an 8, 9, 10-under on the first day. And you can't do it four days in a row and I know if I just play my game 4 or 5-under a day, it might not win every golf tournament, but it's going to win a lot, and that's kind of my mentality is try to be as steady as I can all four rounds and I've learned to keep my bad rounds to even par, because that's crucial. That's what gets you Top 10s or even wins. When you start playing and you shoot the 3, 4-over, that's when it's tough to win golf tournaments.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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