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VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 22, 2019

Scott Stallings

Palm Harbor, Florida

Q. How tough were those conditions today and how good was your score to get it to 5-under par?
SCOTT STALLINGS: It was good, I mean obviously disappointed to bogey the last couple homes, but still like I didn't necessarily hit very many bad shots and still just got in some spots where you just really can't play from. I hit a great drive on 16, just hit it in the first cut and caught a bit of a flier and we had 150 yards to the front of the green and trying to play it right around there and the ball came out and flew past the pin. You get firm, fast and a little bit of wind and just a small mistake can kind of be magnified by the course conditions.

Q. You played this event several times, made the cut the last two years, is this a natural progression of the success you've been having here?
SCOTT STALLINGS: I played really well here my rookie year, I finished third and it was funny, I was talking to Kenny Perry on the range, I hadn't played well up to that point in my career, my rookie season on TOUR, and we were talking about it on the range on Wednesday before I played the pro-am and he said, is it about time for me to give one of my speeches again? I said, actually, I feel pretty good about my game and need to be a little bit sharper, a little bit better decision making, so on, so forth, because my rookie year, he, I, in the practice round I holed it for eagle on the 6th fairway and he just let me have it. It's like, I'm sick of you playing so good in these practice rounds and playing terrible in the tournaments; and, why are you playing so bad in tournament golf and all this and that, and four days later I finished third in the tournament and kind of spurred me on to have a great rookie season. But we had, we were laughing about that and that was nine years ago, but I feel good and look forward to the next couple days.

Q. We know you're keeping your eye on the NCAA tournament and the Vols, they got Colgate today. Size that one up for us.
SCOTT STALLINGS: Yeah, I mean, obviously, in the NCAA tournament anything can happen. But I would say they got a little fire under them after the finals of the SEC tournament where they got pretty well handled by Auburn. But just it's exciting to watch and exciting to have a team to cheer for and look forward to watching this afternoon.

Q. Out early on this Friday, second straight round in the 60s, Scott how did this golf course change overnight from what you saw on Thursday afternoon?
SCOTT STALLINGS: It was pretty receptive at the start of the day. As we made our way to the middle of the round early on the back nine it just automatically we got to 11, 12, 13, 14 it was just magnified and it was like the course firmed up pretty quickly and greens got a little bit faster and some of the pin placements you're going to see some guys probably struggle a little bit, they're just kind of on a knife's edge a little bit in some spots where a little bit of wind and a lot of play, kind of be interesting to see how it plays this afternoon, but happy with my position and look forward to the weekend.

Q. When a course changes like that mid round what adjustments do you make as a player?
SCOTT STALLINGS: You try to make them as fast as you can. I felt like I was in pretty good control of my game and I put it in some spots where, even in the midst of it -- look, you know you can't be, you can't be long at 16, and literally long and right even on the green on 18's no place to play from, you're putting downwind, downhill, down grain, everything running away from you. And just when the greens are this fast and you got that much undulation around the hole, it's just, it's kind of, it's tough to judge and but everyone knows that and everyone has to play with it, so I will try to do a little bit better job tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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