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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2017

Hunter Mahan

Greensboro, North Carolina

Q. Couple 65s. Solid stuff here the start the Wyndham Championship.
HUNTER MAHAN: You know, saw Chris O'Connell last week and we've been working hard for awhile now and seemed to click last week. Felt really good what we were doing.

Kind of just keep those feels and understandings for the last few days and felt food coming into this week, felt like this golf course I can take advantage of because I feel like I'm hitting my driver really well and want to be aggressive off the tee and get up there and give myself a lot of wedges.

Q. You mentioned Chris O'Connell. Obviously fantastic teacher, but the game appears to have been trending.
Is there anything special that he does to work on?

HUNTER MAHAN: I think it's finding the little successes each week. Not getting down about a score or a missed cut. Just take good stuff from each week, taking it to the next day and weekly and just focusing on that stuff.

You can come out of this pretty quickly and I just got to keep positive and keep moving forward and.

Q. You've done a tremendous job almost you through the bag. The performance out there on the greens was pretty special today.
A I feel like I've been putting well for awhile now. The short game is good. If you don't hit good wedges and irons you won't score good. I got great confidence in my putter and with my game and everything right now and so I just got to stay present and keep swinging free.

Q. Good luck on the weekend, man.
HUNTER MAHAN: Thank you.

Q. Hunter, backed up his 65 yesterday with another 65 today. As you look back on this round, do you feel like you played just as simple as it did yesterday?
HUNTER MAHAN: Not as simple. You know, it is Friday and I don't -- I felt like the game was in good shape and I just tried to stay present all day and be totally engaged on the next shot and not worry about anything too far ahead of me or too far behind me.

Make a lot of good swings out there today and got a couple good breaks and took advantage.

Q. I've seen you out here working on your game on the range on the PGA TOUR. What does it mean to you to finally put a couple rounds together and be in the mix heading into the weekend of a PGA TOUR event again?
HUNTER MAHAN: I feel like I'm trending in the right direction. The stuff I've been working on with Chris, we found a couple feels and understandings of what we're trying to do and I was able to felt really confident and free out there and was aggressive a lot with a lot of the iron shots.

Felt great to be out there just playing well and not stressing about every sink shot.

Q. Great playing out there. Two 65s. What was going on well for you today and what do you like, especially about this golf course?
HUNTER MAHAN: I think I'm driving it really well. I'm being pretty aggressive off the tee, hitting a lot of drivers.

Feel like that will get me down there and closer to the hole and obviously the closer to the hole you get the better chance you have to make birdies and shorter irons and wedges to these greens.

So, I feel like I'm putting the ball in play a lot and I got a great confidence in my putter right now. I feel if I get on the greens I'm going to see it pretty well. I just get the right speed.

Q. Sort of felt this building towards this?
HUNTER MAHAN: I felt like I've been -- you know, it's a process. I feel like I've been on a little bit of a journey into last year trying to figure out what kind of -- what kind of golfer I am, what kind of swings I need to make, you know.

It kind of starts from scratch. It feels a little better. I'm trying to get back to what I did when I was successful and my kind of fingerprints and what I do well and -- it's difficult.

I think it's a challenge to take it from the range out to the golf course in pressure situations and, you know, Chris and I worked last week and we kind of finally felt what I needed to feel and I was able to take it -- feel like I've been able to build off that.

That's kind of been the trouble. Couple good days and goes away for a couple days. I've been able to build it for week or so now and it makes sense to me.

Q. Is he a Dallas-based guy?
HUNTER MAHAN: He is, yeah.

Q. When did you guys start working together?
HUNTER MAHAN: October of last year, September.

Q. Is it hard to just focus on here and now and not to think big picture, especially something like the PGA comes along, I used to play in those things?
HUNTER MAHAN: It's disappointing not to be in Majors and in the mix at times but, you know, that's life. Everything else is pretty good in my life so I can't argue too much.

You know, I've had a lot of great success in my career and so I know I'm capable and just putting in the work and I'm motivated, excited to play and so just got to keep doing it and find the successes everyday no matter what the scores.

Q. Do you feel like you have that (inaudible)?
HUNTER MAHAN: I know what I need to do to play well. Whether I play well tomorrow, I don't know but I know what I need to do and I'm starting to understand it and feel it and how I am.

So, you know, the more I tell myself that I can do it, the better chance I have to do it.

Q. Getting back to sort of a fingerprint of what you have done, had you consciously drifted away from that or just a gradual, all of a sudden, you looked up, wait a minute?
HUNTER MAHAN: Gradual thing, right? Sometimes the cure becomes the cancer of doing something that's helping you at the time but through the length of time it's getting away from what I do well and how I need to swing.

I look back -- that's why I went with Chris because he loves how I swing and the good things and those things kind of mesh and in what I'm trying to do meshes with what his style is.

It takes time. For as great as I hit it at home, come to the course, it doesn't feel the same, it's a different animal from the range to the golf course.

Q. Three kids, 4 and under. Have you got that sort of figured out, go out here and do what you do?
HUNTER MAHAN: You know what you can and can't control when you have kids. You try not to control too much. I've got a great five wife and great support system. That's as good as you can hope for.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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