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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 27, 2018

Ben Silverman

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Q. Everybody just wants to know what you had for dinner last night. What a great Friday turnaround.
BEN SILVERMAN: Thank you. It feels awesome to play this well again. I haven't gotten this low since last year when I won on Web, and it was the same kind of feeling I had Sunday night last week before the rain delay happened. Things were clicking, I knew exactly where the ball was going and putts were falling. It was awesome, a lot of fun.

Q. And to do it here in front of the hometown crowd, it's got to feel special.
BEN SILVERMAN: Yeah, it's perfect. Couldn't have scripted it better really. I've got the Canadian shoes on, red and white, and got to play 40 minutes from where I grew up, so it was awesome.

Q. That was quite a round out there. What was going on?
BEN SILVERMAN: A lot of good things, obviously. I finally was able to get back to last week Sunday night before I got rained out when I made those five birdies in a row. I knew exactly where the ball was going, a little like -- I could feel the difference between a little draw, a little fade, and see my lines well and was rolling the putter very well, and everything was flowing.

Q. You've played this golf course I'm sure a number of times over the years. Is this the sweetest round you've played?
BEN SILVERMAN: So this might be a surprise. I've only played nine holes before this tournament on this golf course. I didn't grow up playing here.

Q. Didn't take long to figure it out, though, after yesterday. Was it just getting more comfortable or was that just everything was working with your actual game?
BEN SILVERMAN: Yeah, yesterday, when I think back, when I compare today to yesterday, I didn't feel the same kind of comfort as I did today, and it might have just been the fact of it being slightly tired from last week or having more people around me that I know that are watching me. So I was able to get in a better mindset today, and it flowed nicely.

Q. And then that Monday finish at Barbasol, did you just not feel it anymore? Was it gone?
BEN SILVERMAN: It wasn't that it was gone, it was just that precise feel that you need to shoot a 63 wasn't quite there. I was still hitting it well, but it was just slightly off enough to just make a bunch of pars.

Q. You get to this time of year, and you are in a position for the FedExCup. How easy or difficult is it to separate that from what you're doing on the golf course?
BEN SILVERMAN: Well, I know exactly where I stand. I know pretty much what I have to shoot to secure my card for next year, so the focus with that is to go out and -- in my mind in the best possible state to make birdies because I know I need them. So that's the focus.

Q. Are you in a spot now where you've got more yards off the tee, or is there still more to be found?
BEN SILVERMAN: I think there's always more to be found because I can get stronger in the gym and move my body faster when I get some time to do it. But just technique-wise, we've definitely picked up some yardage. The tee shot on 18, I had 9-iron in. I don't know how far it was, but normally for me that's -- I'm not down there. Definitely we've been keeping an eye on my speed, and it's getting faster, which is nice.

Q. At the start of the year you always made a point of taking a day away from the golf course. Were you able to do that this week with everything that's going object?
BEN SILVERMAN: We did. It was more of like a half day. I finished up at 12:30 on Tuesday, and then Morgan and myself and Jack went up to my parents' house in Thornhill and hung out at the pool and had dinner and had my grandparents come over and siblings, and we had a little post-birthday celebration for Jack. It was great.

Q. First Canadian Open in Ontario. Now that you've easily made the cut, are in contention, how much of a relief is that, and how does your mindset change going into tomorrow?
BEN SILVERMAN: It's actually -- I don't feel relief, I feel I'm five shots back of the lead, and I need to stay inside that top 10 to lock with my card, so I'm still going to be pushing to try to catch the leaders as soon as I can and then contend to win this tournament.

Q. You were a shot off the course record. Were you aware of that? Was it on the back of your mind at all?
BEN SILVERMAN: I had no idea. I didn't know what the course record was. I was just trying to keep going lower.

Q. It was Garrigus last year, 10-under 62.
BEN SILVERMAN: And he shot 9-under yesterday. Yeah, I didn't know.

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