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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

March 31, 2017

Rickie Fowler

Humble, Texas

Q. Rickie, yesterday a bogey-free 64. Today a very colorful scorecard. Give us your thoughts on that one.
RICKIE FOWLER: I'm a little mad. It was a nice front-9. Kind of steady. The one bogey, just a 3-putt. Felt good going to the back. Birdied 10 and 11. Made a couple swings that cost me. One swing with driver on 12 and then a wedge that kind of just took off high left out of the first cut and rode the wind, ended up making double there.

Other than that, give those 3, I'm in with 68 and in a lot different position. But I like where the game is at. Today was just kind of put it behind us and move on.

Q. Let's look at one or two of the high points. 11, wonderful putt here. Tricky down the hill.
RICKIE FOWLER: It is. A ridge you can't really tell just trying to let it go right, get over the ridge and it will just carry that speed from there and just drifts left at the end. Perfect.

Q. What about teeing off? You shot 8-under par yesterday. You're 8 behind. What was your mindset going in?
RICKIE FOWLER: There's nothing you can really do about it. That's kind of the beauty, if you play afternoon and then in the morning, you can kind of go out, get into a good rhythm, and that's what Sung was able to do, go out and feed off that afternoon round and go back out and score well this morning.

I'm not sure the conditions, what they were this morning. It may have been a little bit more down, the wind. Picked up in the afternoon. He obviously played great. A good round of golf. A little different. I was in a position where I was 4 back and was looking to -- two par-5s in front of me. I was thinking get to the 13, 14, great, be in a good position for the weekend. Still not in a bad position. It would have been nice to be a couple closer.

Q. Another highlight, you're No. 1 in scrambling on the PGA TOUR. The bunker shot didn't come off. Great recovery.
RICKIE FOWLER: I thought the bunker shot was going to be really good. I played it, played it perfect. Came out how I wanted to. Just a fraction short. A tough little pin there on the downslope from there. The bunker shot didn't need to carry a whole lot more. Good thing I could make up for it with that.

Q. Talking to Butch Harmon this morning. He said the first two weeks of this week you were over at Lochinvar trying to change your arm plane. You come to holes like 17, a couple of squirrely shots. Did you lose the feeling a little bit or one of those things?
RICKIE FOWLER: One of those things. The ball above my feet I didn't want the ball to end up starting left of my line and going further left. I was really trying to make sure that it started and went right, and I just happened to get a little in front of it. That's why it came outright. Good thing is I get out of the bunker. I got that one up-and-down.

Q. Battling 71. Look forward to seeing the charge over the weekend because I'm sure it's coming in the form you're in.
RICKIE FOWLER: Thanks.

Q. Not the day you wanted.
RICKIE FOWLER: No, it wasn't. Got off to a bad start other than the 3-putt on 7. Birdied 10, 11. Out there in the conditions this afternoon with the wind up, I felt 5, 6-under would have been nice, and I was in really, you know, kind of on pace for that with two par-5s in front of me and made birdie on one of those. Made double on the next.

Yeah, not the way I wanted to finish. Couple swings that cost me, but still like the way that -- I played the way yesterday and made a lot of good swings out there today early, so just how it is. It's golf. So, I'm looking forward to making a little bit of a run tomorrow. We'll get a low one.

Q. You played well. What worked for you?
RICKIE FOWLER: Everything. Everything has been pretty solid. Lot of fairways, lot of greens. Happened to roll in a couple putts here and there.

Yeah, like I said, a couple swings and golf on the PGA TOUR, if you're a little bit off, it's not exactly easy out here. If it was easy, there would be a lot more people to do it.

Normally the game has been very good. It was consistent and solid yesterday. It was that way the first part of the round and just couple swings, which is fine. I can deal with it, I can deal with making bad swings. Kind of learn from that, and we'll clean it up and we'll get a low one tomorrow.

Q. What do you look forward to on the weekend?
RICKIE FOWLER: Hopefully enjoy some good weather tomorrow and pray for a miracle on Sunday. No. Like I said, I love where my game is at. I know I can go out and play well and shoot low on this course. Yeah. Hopefully the weather treats us well.

Q. I know the fairways were a little bit soft. You had some issues with playing in the mud yesterday. What were the conditions and how do you expect them to be tomorrow?
RICKIE FOWLER: It should be good by tomorrow. We still had mud out there today on a few occasions. It doesn't make it fun, especially when you got some hazards in play and water and -- yeah, it's not fun trying to hit a golf ball with mud on it.

Q. Rickie, Jordan talked about getting extra incentive from playing in this event regarding the Masters when you're able to get into contention, get those juices flowing. Do you feel the same way? Do you feel there's some extra things you'll be able to get out of the weekend now that you're in the mix?
RICKIE FOWLER: It's definitely beneficial. Being able to get four competitive rounds the week prior to leading into Augusta, you leave here hopefully, hopefully we leave here Sunday. There's a chance it's Monday. You leave, and then there's just those couple days, you know exactly what may have been a little off or what needs to be worked on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and when you step up on the tee Thursday, you're a lot more prepared, I feel like, because it wasn't too long ago that you were playing a competitive round of golf. I definitely feel like it's very beneficial playing the week before a Major.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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