ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 24, 2021

Wyndham Clark

Erik Van Rooyen

TPC Louisiana

Quick Quotes

Q. Wyndham, before you went in the water on 16 did you consider alligators at all?

WYNDHAM CLARK: Yeah, so I was talking to Rick in the scoring tent, and the first thing that went through my mind was snakes because I had to take my shoes off. There's snakes in Louisiana, so I thought about the snakes. And then I was like, well, there's alligators all over this golf course right now, and so I was just -- and it's also one of the ponds where there's big ones. I definitely thought about it.

I got in quick, and within probably 15 seconds of being in there I pulled the trigger just in case because I knew my partner was going to make par, and then I pulled off a great shot.

Q. You guys obviously had to go deep this morning, today, to get anything. How close were you to your number as far as trying to get yourself back in the hunt?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: I didn't really have a number in mind. I don't know if you did, but I mean, we played great this morning. It was definitely a lot calmer, so I think it's playing a bit tougher out there. I think we did what we needed to put ourselves in contention for tomorrow.

Q. You just kind of mentioned the strategy on 15 and 18. Can you walk us through that as far as putting first when the other one has got a look at eagle, for example, on 18?

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: Well, it almost frees you up in a sense. Like 15 he was in for 4 already; I can give that putt a bit of a go. It's an outside chance, and if I hit it six feet by, it doesn't really matter. The same went through my mind on 18, and unfortunately I kind of fell in love with the line and left it six inches short.

Q. Wyndham, I know you mentioned the other day that you weren't even going to play this event until your caddies kind of suggested that you guys should hook up. Erik, curious how that came about and if you were going to play or not.

ERIK VAN ROOYEN: I wasn't thinking about it. I didn't get into Augusta and I didn't get into obviously Heritage, and Wyndham asked me -- and obviously Wyndham is a great player in his own right, so when all that happened, it was always sort of -- it was always going to be a good team, so I'm really happy that he asked me to play.

Q. When did that all transpire?

WYNDHAM CLARK: So I asked him, and he said if I don't get into RBC then I'm in. So obviously selfishly he didn't get in, so I was like, great, I have a partner. Obviously unfortunately for him he didn't get into the tournament, so it was really kind of right before RBC last week that he gave me the go that we're going to play.