SHRINERS CHILDREN'S OPEN

October 9, 2021

Adam Schenk

TPC Summerlin

Quick Quotes

Q. How about the finish there?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, great finish. I mean, the wind on 18 being straight in makes the hole a lot easier for me personally. Yesterday it was in off the left, so I kind of faded one down the right and the wind took it. Being straight in you can't get to those bunkers, so it made the tee shot easier and fortunately I had a good number in, a nice gap wedge I could throw behind the hole and spin back. So fortunate today, seemed like I had a lot of good clubs, made all the putts I was supposed to make and a couple that I really wasn't planning on making, so today couldn't have been a whole lot better for me.

Q. Was there any part of you that was, I wouldn't say frustrated, but you didn't get off to the greatest start through like six holes, no panic or anything like that, is there?

ADAM SCHENK: Definitely disappointing, but there's so many more birdie holes out there and the first five or six holes might be the probably the hardest holes on the golf course, minus the finish. But, yeah, exactly, I knew it was going to be a lot of birdies made, there was a lot of scores shot, I saw Lanto shot a nice low score this morning, I talked to him, and, yeah, I just knew I needed to come back and make some birdies, hopefully on the end of the front nine and then on the back nine during that stretch where it's pretty gettable.

Q. Did you talk to Lanto after he finished?

ADAM SCHENK: I did just for a second.

Q. And he told you it's really easy out there, you can do this?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, that's it. (Laughing) We didn't talk about golf, but I did talk to him.

Q. And then club on 8? What club did you hit?

ADAM SCHENK: I hit a 6-iron. Trying to hit it to the left edge, left center and maybe have it fade over. If not, finish it just left of the green, chip it up and make the putt. That was a fairly difficult shot for me because I like to draw the ball, but was really fortunate it landed right on the front and hopped up to five or six feet, five feet.

Q. So if I'm not mistaken this is your first stroke play 54-hole lead?

ADAM SCHENK: I think I was leading at Barracuda. First full field or like big field event, yeah.

Q. How do you feel you'll handle a 54-hole lead?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, I mean, I haven't been in this situation a lot, I started to play a lot better towards the end of last year, but just keep doing the same things I've been doing, I mean you're going to have to shoot a low score tomorrow. I think the weather's going to be pretty scorable like it was today. If it gets a little windy and firm and crusty in the afternoon, but someone's going to shoot low and hopefully it's going to be me. There's going to be some low scores in the morning, someone could shoot 60, 61 or maybe even lower shoot, so definitely going to take a good round tomorrow, so it's not like I can go out and shoot even par and win so that helps with the mindset of what I have to do.

Q. Looks like there's about eight or nine guys within three or four, does that change your approach that you need to be aggressive from the start or you're just going to stick with the game plan?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, I mean, you never know when you're going to reel off like three, four, five birdies in a row like I did on the front nine. I was over par through six holes maybe and if you press it and make a silly bogey or two, that's when you really get frustrated with yourself, but a couple bogeys might happen, hopefully they don't, but if they do then just being patient and waiting for my stretch of hopeful birdies. And if they come, I hope they do, great. If not, just then just do the best you can do.

Q. Did you get that afternoon nap on Thursday?

ADAM SCHENK: I did. Yeah. For about an hour. I did watch some Friday Night Lights, that's my show I've been grinding out.

Q. In this pursuit of winning what have you learned?

ADAM SCHENK: What have I learned? That's a good question.

Q. In one sentence or less. I'm just kidding.

ADAM SCHENK: That everyone's good enough to win out here, you just have to believe in yourself and not beat yourself, in a sense.

Q. Do you believe in yourself?

ADAM SCHENK: I do, yeah. I started to believe a lot more in the last couple months.

Q. Why?

ADAM SCHENK: What's that?

Q. Why did you start believing?

ADAM SCHENK: I started to putt a lot better. So I just, I've always been an okay putter, a little streaky, so I think I've started to hit my wedges better, which is a big help, because I do drive the ball a little bit longer than average, not as long as a lot of the guys out here, but this week you just have so many wedges. Short game still needs to improve a lot, but wedges and definitely putting.

Q. Did you do anything putting-wise? I mean, what did you do to get more confidence?

ADAM SCHENK: Just a little bit of change in the stroke. Nothing major, no, very small and it's just streaky. A lot of weeks you putt really well and some other weeks you putt well and they don't go in. So there's not a big difference between putting well and not putting well. So hopefully I can finish it off tomorrow and have a good day.

Q. Everyone putts good out here or they wouldn't be out here, right?

ADAM SCHENK: That's right, everyone out here is a pretty good putter.

Q. Do you have to remind yourself of that, that you can't expect every single thing to go in, it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean you're putting bad?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, you're exactly right and my caddie Brent reminds me of that quite often. He does, he does remind me of that quite often.

Q. Curious, 15, you had the reachable four, what did you do there?

ADAM SCHENK: I cut a driver up against the wind. Turned out it was one of the prettiest shots I've had in a long time because I haven't driven the ball really well today, which I got scuffed up wedges out of the rocks to show it.

Q. Wind was coming off the right?

ADAM SCHENK: Off the right. I probably hit a 280-yard drive at sea level, maybe 275, and it cut way right and then came back left and finished right in line with the pin and just went to the back of the green. Which wasn't a, not a bad spot to be, but it's not like ideal, because I still had a 50-footer with, very fast, but lagged it down there to a couple feet which was fortunate.

Q. I don't mean to go on and on about it, but what is your line off the tee?

ADAM SCHENK: I learned that those left bunkers aren't bad, so honestly I try and hit it at those left bunkers. Tomorrow I don't know if there's going to be a little less wind, I would love to hit a 4-wood and draw it into it and if it finishes left that's fine. But I've hit it in those right bunkers so often that's not an easy shot.

Q. How did you feel knowing you were going to be playing with Sam, probably the hottest player in golf right now?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, I mean, Sam's a great guy, his wife and my wife are good friends and I don't think you can really talk about how good enough Sam played today. He had complete control of his golf ball, he could have birdied the first -- like my caddie Brent said, the first 14 holes, literally he just hit it so good, he just didn't make any putts today. He played significantly better than I did today, I just had the breaks go my way and made a few more putts.

Q. Did you think you were going to play good this week when you got here?

ADAM SCHENK: I've played here -- I played well in the past -- I played okay, so I was hoping so. I actually, I played pretty well in Jackson, I missed the cut there, but, I mean, I was hoping so, like I guess I would say.

Q. How do you know you're playing well and miss a cut, how do you put those two together?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, just I probably gave away three or four shots the first round at Jackson and then didn't make any putts, didn't hit any wedges close, nothing just went close. Missed the cut by one. So it could have been -- you talk to anybody that missed the cut by one, maybe some people played good, maybe some people didn't play good, but I felt like I played good and it could have been five or six shots lower quite easily, but it just didn't happen for me that week and I gave away too many shots on Friday.

Q. But you still walk away thinking, there's not much wrong here, let's keep going?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, it's fine, it's such a long season it's just 30 events is -- I play a lot.

Q. It's October.

ADAM SCHENK: It would be great to get off to an awesome start and I have a chance to do that tomorrow. Just looking forward to that.