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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 27, 2017Kyle StanleyRyan RuffelsAvondale, Louisiana Q. You guys made it look very simple, seven birdies out there for a 66. KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, we got off to a great start. Ryan made a great putt on 10. I think he made our first three birdies for us. That kind of took the edge off a little bit, and had a lot of fun out there with each other. Both of us played pretty well, hit it well. Yeah, we're pretty pleased with the start. Q. Ryan, I know you're playing the Latino Tour more often. How did this partnership come about? RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, yeah, Bud came to me a couple months ago and said that Kyle might want to play with me, and I met Kyle in Australia. He came and played the Australia Masters. I think we played in about the third round. We got along pretty well, and it's just nice of him to take me under his wing a little bit and invite me to play with him. Q. Was it a no-brainer for you? KYLE STANLEY: Well, like he said, we played together for the first time I think at the Australian Masters. He couldn't have been 16 years old maybe, and I was just really impressed, really nice kid, great player. Like he said, we share the same management company, so I reached out to Bud and Brad and they kind of set us up, and I thought it would be a good fit. He hits the ball really long, really well, good putter, so not a whole lot of weaknesses in his game. Q. Seven birdies, the four to start on then the little run on the inward nine. Take us through your run. RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I thought I hit it well until I saw Kyle start hitting the ball. That was pretty impressive. He hit a lot down the pin. I've been putting very well lately, so he gave me a lot of opportunities, and I was able to roll some in, and I struck it quite well, as well. Yeah, we just combined really well. He told me a couple days ago when we played on Tuesday, let's try and play boring golf, and for the most part that's what we did, we hit a lot of greens and we were able to roll a few in. Q. 6-under with seven birdies. Ryan, at what point out there today did you think this could be special, we've got the hang of this, we've got the feeling of how to do this alternate-shot? RYAN RUFFELS: Second shot of the day I put Kyle in the trees and he hit one from the left there on 10 up into that back corner, and I was able to roll that putt in. We started pretty hot, had four birdies in a row, and I thought, hang on, this is working pretty good, and we managed to go through the tough holes pretty well and make plenty of birdies out there. Q. You've got a lot of experience, your seventh year on TOUR. Your partner not so much. What kind of advice were you able to give your 19 year old partner today? KYLE STANLEY: Well, it's a little bit of a different format, obviously, than what we're used to week in and week out. We talked a little bit Tuesday about just trying to play boring golf, give ourselves a lot of opportunities in this format, just maybe avoid some big mistakes and just focus on hitting fairways and greens, and Ryan made a lot of nice putts for us out there, and both of us played pretty well, so it was a good day for us. Q. A lot of teams make a lot of sense on paper, but when we look at your two names together, we wonder how this team formed. RYAN RUFFELS: We played together in Australia about two years ago now, and I think in the third round, and obviously knew who Kyle was playing on the U.S. Tour and everything, so we had a lot of fun out there. I played pretty well, hopefully impressed him a little bit, and a couple months ago Bud mentioned to me that Kyle had some interest in playing with me, and I just thought it would be a great opportunity. I get along great with Kyle, and I think our games sort of are somewhat similar. Yeah, it just matched really well, and we've both played well here, too, so yeah, it strangely matches up quite nicely. Q. What happens if he says no, he doesn't want to play? Do you have a plan B at all? KYLE STANLEY: No, not really. RYAN RUFFELS: He didn't have to worry about it. KYLE STANLEY: I was hoping he wasn't going to. Q. Ryan, how much of this format have you played before, if at all? RYAN RUFFELS: Not once in my life. Yeah, Tuesday we played nine holes alternate-shot, and that was a first for me. And it was a lot of fun. Like I said, we both keep it in play, and we both hit it quite long, and we gave ourselves a lot of opportunities, so all it took was someone to start rolling a few putts in, like we both did. Q. Go through the 10th. That was a pivotal hole to start off your day. RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, we chose I was going to go off the evens and I hit a terrible shot down the left there with a 2-iron and put Kyle in some strife early on, and I was looking and he's looking at a high gap, and I'm going, wow, there must be a gap there, and he hit it, and when it took off, it sort of caught that back left corner of the green. There isn't much there, and then I had a tricky little sort of kind of 25-footer down the hill there, and yeah, got a really nice line and rolled it in, and that was a nice way to kick things off. Q. Where are you mostly playing now? RYAN RUFFELS: This year I've played two events on the Latin America Tour as well as I got an invite into Bay Hill. A few more invites coming up, and hopefully every week is an opportunity to get out here full time, so we'll see what we can do. Q. How many times have you seen him play? KYLE STANLEY: Well, he played five or six events out here last year, so I saw him then. Then he played Bay Hill this year, so kind of on and off. You know, it was a bit of a random match, but I was just thinking of guys that were fun to play with. He's young, so he's fearless, his opportunities out here are probably limited to six or seven, so I knew he'd come in here and play well. He's a pretty good guy to team up with in this type of format. Hits it miles, wedges it well, putts it well, so not a lot of weaknesses in his game. I just think it's a good fit. It's a fun tournament. Q. Given the low score, you don't really expect these kind of low scores in alternate-shot, are you? Are you surprised how low the scores are today? KYLE STANLEY: I'm not sure. I'm not really sure what to have expected. But yeah, I mean, listen, you take 5-, 6-under on your own ball, you've played a really good round. It kind of takes two guys to be firing kind of on all cylinders to see scores like that, but yeah, I don't know what to expect. Not too surprised. Q. Are you surprised how quickly you guys gelled today? KYLE STANLEY: No, not really. I mean, he hit our first three putts and made them, so we were 3-under through 3, and that just kind of took the edge off. Honestly, the most uncomfortable thing about this format is just the fact that I don't mind like making a bogey or letting myself down, but honestly, it maybe adds a little bit more pressure because I want to play well for him and not let him down in that sense. You know, we just kind of -- yeah, it's an interesting format, but yeah, we played well. Q. What ball do you play with? Do you guys play the same ball? KYLE STANLEY: So I play with a Pro V1 and he plays a TaylorMade. We alternated. Honestly, both balls are pretty similar, so it wasn't too uncomfortable for either one of us. Q. You saw him at 17, his age was 17 at the time you guys played in the Australian Masters? KYLE STANLEY: He was probably 16. It was 2014. He was really good back then, and obviously a little bit better now. A lot of talent for 18 years old. Q. Did you ever play with him since that Australian -- KYLE STANLEY: No, I haven't, until Tuesday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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