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BARRACUDA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 4, 2017

Stuart Appleby

Reno, Nevada

Q. Stuart, you followed up 14 points yesterday with a 10-point effort today. Just get some comments on your round.
STUART APPLEBY: Very different golf course than the afternoon. I mean, I was first group out in the afternoon, so we saw yesterday the course drying out, mostly in the greens. They got quite bouncy, which was a little surprising, being that the practice rounds were quite soft. This morning they were back to that. They were soft again. So I can see there's certainly two sides of the coin here with the course in its condition. You can't hit it near as far in the morning off the tee, but then you sort of gain that back through having softer greens and more receptive, so if your distance is good, you can stick it in close.

Yeah, I was probably a little bit stiff on the first tee today. I wasn't really warming up that good on the range and was a little concerned, and really didn't hit the ball very -- I say normal. Probably just really three-quarter swings for me today. If you can get it out of the middle, I made it work. I feel like I'm reading the greens pretty good. I sort of like the way I'm putting. I've putted well lately, and seem to have -- the slopes and the land seem to be working with my eye well enough. It's a great golf course. It's just good fun. A lot of math to be done out there when you're penciling through. But to get 10 points today was nice because I certainly got -- when I got to the first tee, that would have been a dream. Made the cut, and we'll just see what can happen.

Q. You had a rough stretch through the early part of the season, but then at John Deere you opened with a 73, came back 66-64. Was there anything there that kicked you into gear and you've played really well since?
STUART APPLEBY: It's really been my back has really been the decider on whether I -- that's why today I sort of unfortunately have had enough warm-up rounds and know my body well now, I can sort of tell where it's going. And those -- that round on Friday and Saturday at John Deere, it felt nice. I really felt like there was not a lot of -- I wouldn't say power, but a bit of zip for me, but I could repeat it. That's the thing I've found hard is being able to repeat; a couple of good shots or a couple of good holes and then I throw in an awful shot, so that kind of knocks a lot of wind out of your sails. And I was started to roll the ball better, so I started making birdies. I was struggling to make a couple birdies a round on average and missing cuts, so there was no -- always talked throughout my career, you make cuts, you feel like you're developing, you feel like you participated in a golf event and you've got something you can build on, and I really hadn't done that. So John Deere was nice.

I'm starting to make some birdies, and I'm rolling it nice. I'm reading it nice. I've just got to see if I can keep the ball in the middle of the club face and grab the right clubs often enough and see if I can grab 20 points or something over the weekend.

Q. You had a couple good looks -- I followed you for a few holes. You had a couple good looks at 1 and 2, just kind of like 10 feet?
STUART APPLEBY: 1 was longer than that. 1 was probably close to 25, 30 feet. 2, I made. I made that. That was probably, I don't know, 12 to 15-foot range for birdie. But that hole yesterday I knocked it up near the green, and today it was like, holy cow, it was playing so much longer in the morning. But like I said, the greens are receptive, so you can tend to be -- whereas yesterday you're like, okay, the pin is here, I've got to land it six short, and then six short brings in a bunker or a slope or something. This morning was a bit more -- you could get the ball generally -- it was either going to go forward two yards or maybe come back two yards. But when it gets to that four, five, six and bounce, maybe a little more, it can be tricky.

Q. Clubhouse leader right now going into the weekend. You've got to be happy making the cut, but you're in contention.
STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I'm in contention. I want to play four days. That's my goal. I'm playing well. I've got to try and just see if I can get my body to behave over four days. That's something I haven't had to -- I guess fitness test my body over those times, over those distances, and certainly around here, this is what we call in Australia hard yakka, which means it's hard work. But like I say, I'm hitting it down the middle, my distance is not there or anything like that, but I'm hitting it striking enough where I can place the ball in the right positions, and if I can just relax on the greens and just chill out and just try and keep pressure at bay or keep enough pressure at bay -- you put so much pressure on yourself as a pro. Everyone else is barracking for you and cheering for you, but you do put that on yourself. I'd love to have a couple more 10s over the weekend, 10-pointers, and move on to the next week.

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