JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 8, 2021

Chez Reavie

TPC Deere Run

Quick Quotes

Q. Just overall assess your round.

CHEZ REAVIE: I played solid. The biggest thing for me is just the putter. I've been hitting the ball well now for about a month, month and a half. The putter has just kind of been really hot and cold, and today it was hot and felt as good today as it has in a long, long time.

Q. Has there been anything you're doing with your putting in practice or leading into this week?

CHEZ REAVIE: So actually this week I lengthened it a little bit and took a degree of loft off of it and it looked quite a bit better to me on the ground. I think it had a little too much loft before, looked a little left to me, so once it started looking better, I really putted well.

Q. You've been known to go low here, at least one 62, possibly two. What is it about this course that permits you to go low like that?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, I think it's just a great golf course. It's a golf course that really rewards hitting fairways and greens. You have to give yourself looks. If you start missing greens out there it's really easy to make bogey. The key is just to hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens.

Q. To finish with a birdie, how much does that do for your confidence knowing where you're sitting right now?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, it was great. I had a couple good looks. I had a good look on 15 and a good look on 16. Hit good putts, just didn't make them 17 really good look had to lay up and tough wedge pin so I just kind of gave myself a longer putt didn't hitting it over the green. Had a good look on 18 and was able to roll it in.

Q. Having not so good looks to be able to finish with a par, what do you think that says about where your game is at?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, it was good. I stayed patient. Even though I had a couple good looks and missed them, I just stayed patient and was able to roll in some of the other good looks.

Q. How does this set you up for the rest of the week, and what is it going to take? Are you going to need to go 6-, 7-under each day to stay at the top of the leaderboard the way things are now? What are you anticipating?

CHEZ REAVIE: You know, you're going to have to shoot low for sure. You're going to have to make birdies. The biggest thing is just to not make bogeys. It's easy to make bogeys out there if you hit it in the rough, and so if you don't make bogeys you have plenty of birdie opportunities. The key is to not make bogeys and that makes your birdies worth more.

Q. Did you play a lot of position golf off of the tee? Is that key out here?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, absolutely. You've got to give yourself some good angles. You have to know some of the pins you can't go at, even if you have a 9- or 8-iron. You still to kind of look middle of the green because if you miss the green it's an instant bogey. You have to kind of know when you can take your shots and when you can't.

Q. You've been here before, had good rounds. How valuable is course knowledge on this layout?

CHEZ REAVIE: You know, it's everything. It's not just course knowledge but it's actually hitting good shots into certain pins and you remember those shots, and so when you're standing over a 9-iron you're like, okay, I know I hit this to a foot last time. You kind of have good vibes and a good feel for it, so that's huge.

Q. Was that the case today?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah. I had a lot of good numbers. Some similar shots. Some similar shots I didn't like, so I kind of played from those and didn't make mistakes that I had made before. But yeah, like you said, that's all course knowledge, and the mistakes I remembered making, I tried not to do it again.

Q. And stayed out of the rough today I presume?

CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, yeah. I hit it in the rough off of one tee shot, I think, and I think I missed one fairway and missed two greens. Yeah, I had a lot of good opportunities today.