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CAREERBUILDER CHALLENGE

January 18, 2018

Martin Piller

La Quinta, California

Q. What a nice round of golf. Nine birdies and only one bogey.
MARTIN PILLER: Yeah, it got off to a great start, it's just kind of the way you got to be out here, really in the desert. When the weather is great like this, the courses are great, you really just have to do that, you have to shoot something low at least one of the days and, yeah, really happy to have done that.

Q. I saw you looking at a couple leaderboards, you knew what Jon Rahm was doing. When you come out here is it you are going to be aggressive, that's the only way to play this?
MARTIN PILLER: Absolutely, yeah, this week for sure, because it's going to be -- it's like this every year, that's the nature of this event. So I wasn't too concerned about what anybody else was doing today, but, yeah, you absolutely have to be aggressive mentally. I think you got to be okay with being 7-, 8-, 9-under on your round.

Q. Your wife 25 weeks pregnant, walking all 18 holes, I tried to give her a ride and she said, nope, I want to have the exercise. How nice is that?
MARTIN PILLER: Yeah, she's tough, she can handle it. She, obviously, can go home whenever she wants or go to the hotel whenever she wants, but, yeah, she's tough, she can handle it.

Q. Course conditions today? Anything that you can complain about there?
MARTIN PILLER: Oh, no, it was pure. It's perfect. Everything's perfect out there. This tournament, every year it's always going to be great, so, yeah, it's really just all on you, go out and execute. You can't find -- if somebody comes in and complains about one of these courses, they will complain about being hung with an old rope and so, yeah, it's perfect out there.

Q. Is there anything in particular that was clicking in your game today?
MARTIN PILLER: I hit my irons really well, but really just giving myself good chances early and I mean when you turn at 30, starting out, I mean it's going to be a pretty good day. You think like, okay, really can't play bad at that point, but, yeah, it was just kind of a combination of everything and just trying to keep it going on the back.

Q. You had one of the celebrities in your field. What kind of company was Charles Kelley out there?
MARTIN PILLER: Yeah, he's cool and a really good player. Both our amateurs were really good players, but, yeah, I had never met him before, obviously, and I know who he was, but, yeah, he was nice. I got to loan him some sun screen so I felt like I contributed a little bit to his day and hopefully he had fun.

Q. Is he going to pay that forward in the way of tickets in the future?
MARTIN PILLER: Oh, that's fine, as long as he had a good time, that's all that I care about.

Q. Are you one of the types that enjoys playing with celebrities, the amateurs for the three rounds, do you have that personality?
MARTIN PILLER: Yeah, celebrities, absolutely, as long as they're not on a rival sports team that I like, but other than that, it's, yeah, I mean and he was great, he's an entertainer every day, so he knows the deal, so but he was a lot of fun and engaging and enjoying himself.

Q. Is there anything different about your game this season than like the previous seasons on TOUR?
MARTIN PILLER: I don't know. I would say I'm maybe a little more patient, maybe. I think before I would get real aggressive or real impatient, but I think maybe this year I'm -- or the last few months I've been a little bit more patient with stuff and just not, if I hit a bad shot or something, just be like, yeah, it's okay, don't worry about it and just kind of go from there. But physically I don't think anything's too different, but maybe just being a little more patient.

Q. And then, it doesn't lock anything up, but the fourth at Mayakoba, does that help at all just with taking a little pressure off or anything like that?
MARTIN PILLER: Yeah, I've never been this nice of a position early in the year, so, sure. But again, I would like to not just keep my card, I want to be a part of, be in contention at tournaments and I want to be kind of in the mix at a lot of things, so but certainly Mayakoba helped a lot.

Q. You don't want to set the career wins record for the WEB.COM TOUR?
MARTIN PILLER: No, I don't want to be the Crash Davis anymore of the WEB.COM. I'm ready to move on from that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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