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AT&T BYRON NELSON

May 18, 2018

Adam Scott

Irving, Texas

ADAM SCOTT: You can do it on these courses. Give you a little room. You get really focused on targets and got a lot of room to work with. Even some of the shots not so great, they can end up good, too.

You got to play a little bit with the slopes here and there and use them to your advantage and I did a pretty good job close enough to hole a couple more putts. That's not easy out here, either. It's tricky spots on the greens to putt from.

Q. (Inaudible)
ADAM SCOTT: No, absolutely not. I really haven't challenged the golf course at all in two days. I played back a lot which I think is actually kind of playing to my strengths when I'm striking the irons good I can lay back and take zero risk off the tee and maybe have to hit a 6-iron when I feel I have the control to do that.

Q. You're a high ball-striker yet on the links golf course, it seems to be elevated.
ADAM SCOTT: I think certainly growing up a little bit in Australia, I didn't grow you up on the Sand Belt but I learned to play quickly as a kid down there but definitely the last 8 or 9 years my understanding of links course, especially at Open Championships has gone way up.

I played very well in The Open for quite a few years and very similar kind of strategies you can use here, although it's not as firery in the fairways as we're used to see on the links.

It's similar around the greens and hitting -- even though the yardage looks long, you really only carrying it 30 yards short sometimes and let it feed, and be able to play those shots is a lot of fun and takes some adjusting in the brain to do that and I think I've done that nice this week.

Q. Talk about adjusting, we spoke together about six weeks ago. Where is the confidence level now that we spoke about?
ADAM SCOTT: It's much different. I think it's a comfort level more than confidence. I think the real confidence I'm looking for can come with the result this week but comfort level is much better.

Even though I was playing okay I was very edgy going to the course, anxious about what can happen in the round. That's just how my golf was. I played lots of good golf. Doubles, triples quite often this year and it's not fun to go out there. Get a lot of gray hair doing that. Last couple weeks have been really solid and much more calm going to the first tee.

Q. Adam, bogey-free, 6 birdies but all you did was give yourself chances. Could have been maybe a little bit better in the 2nd Round.
ADAM SCOTT: It could have been. I was kind of hoping it was going to be because I wanted to just close the gap on Marc a little bit more than I did. It was looking good after 9 holes but he played really solid the back and I just couldn't quite get them to go when I wanted them to and I'm comfortable with where I'm at.

Q. Maybe describing the dynamic, playing with a good friend in Marc Leishman and watching what he was doing to this course, especially yesterday, maybe learning from what he was doing as well and putting it to use for yourself.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah. Look I think both of us feel comfortable on this kind of course. You can see by the type of shots we pick to hit and some of the situations that some level of experience in this golf coming in and certainly the way Marc strikes the ball lends itself to on the ground and releasing and he can see those shots very easily.

He's got great feel on the greens and that's what I've seen for two days, his putting looks so good and just when you think he might lose a shot, he buries a 10-footer like a tap-in and it's been nice to watch. Obviously he's very confident and we're all going to have our work cut out for us over the weekend.

Q. Tell us about today.
ADAM SCOTT: Solid day today. I struck the ball really well tee to green. I was never really in any trouble and played the front-9 beautifully and just couldn't quite make the same amount of putts on the back-9, but bogey-free 65 is a good score at the end of the day. Hopefully have a few good rounds in me. Make a few putts and I have a chance this week.

Q. What is it like playing with your fellow countryman?
ADAM SCOTT: I love playing with Marc, especially a guy that is on form. I almost felt like I had to hop on his coattails and get dragged along the birdie train a bit with him because he was running away yesterday and, you know, he's a guy who I know loves this style of golf so even feeding off some of his shot choices or club choices was easy for me.

So, kind of worked to my advantage. Even though he's beating me by five shots, it was helpful playing with him.

Q. (Inaudible)
ADAM SCOTT: There are a couple of courses that I would say have been built recently that it can resemble. I think of Bainbougle down in Tasmania or the Lost Farm particularly down there seemed very similar style, maybe a little tougher element down there in Tasmania that what we're dealing with here in Texas.

Similar, some courses. Even my home course of Broad Queensland was redesigned with quite expansive fairways and busy green complexes, which seems like this. I think it's been fairly popular style of design over the last 10 years or so if you have land available to do it.

Q. Would you say you and Marc feel comfortable then on this kind of course?
ADAM SCOTT: I think -- look, it's not like the Sand Belt but the thing that's the same is the ball releases a lot of the Sand Belt, too, so even though there isn't quite the undulation and size greens where you're used to pitching 20 short of the hole and watching it release up -- and I guess with experience at links golf over at The Open Championship, wherever we played, maybe an easy adjustment, you know, when you come here and see that happening and know you're hitting a 6-iron from 240, it's just going to go up there.

Q. How much of the focus is on the bigger picture as you need to turn things around with your season with the U.S. Open?
ADAM SCOTT: Absolutely. This is a good start to having a great back end of the season. I still think I can have a really, really good year. Last week and the first two rounds this week really promising to me.

I got to play for this weekend. U.S. Open spot for me is kind of up for grabs now. I'm in a position that it's going to be somewhere around that. I got to get better if I can but I'd love a chance to win this tournament. It's been a long time since I've won a tournament and I'd love to be in the mix again.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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