THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 21, 2022

Joseph Bramlett

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. So not the finish you were looking for, obviously, but still you got to be pretty happy with the position you're in just a couple back off the lead.

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: Yeah, I played great. I mean the score on the last two holes wasn't great, but I hit good shots, it just got very blustery and this is a tricky little golf course. So not upset, actually quite proud of the way I played.

Q. I was going to say that wind kicked in on probably five or six holes on the back nine?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: We guessed on the whole back nine and a couple of them I guessed right and a couple of them I guessed wrong, that's just kind of golf and the ones I guessed wrong were kind of at the end which is not finish that you want, but played really well.

Q. Not to dwell on those finishing holes, but can you walk us through 17 -- I saw what happened on 18 where you hit it over the green and the chip that almost went in, but what about 17?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: 17, I actually hit a really good 4-iron up the right and the wind just grabbed it. It hooked all the way into the water. I still don't know -- I honestly thought I hit a really good shot, I wasn't expecting it to go where it went, but it was just a gust and just got to play it.

Q. So you ended up making a bogey after hitting it in the water?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: Yeah I hit a really good 9-iron to 30 feet and almost made the putt, so it was not bad at all.

Q. How do you feel now, having this course and the Stadium Course out of the way, heading to the Nicklaus Course, which traditionally has had some pretty low scores and again today, how do you feel about going there tomorrow?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: I would just, yeah, I just feel good about where my game's at. I'm hitting it well, rolling it well, and my driver works, so it's all in pretty good shape. We'll just see what the Nicklaus Course presents us with tomorrow.

Q. It seemed like your putter was in pretty good form yesterday and again today. Is there something different that you're doing with your putter that's?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: Just been practicing and working with John Rattan for a little over two years now and we've worked really hard and we keep seeing these steady progressions, but like the results just haven't matched up. It's really come down to the green reading for me. Like I finally got my stroke to a place where it's quite repeatable and my speed control has gotten a lot better, which was a big jump for me, and now we're just trying to get the green reading dialed. And on days that I read the greens well I tend to putt and score pretty well and days when I get fooled it's a little harder to get the momentum going.

Q. You shared something with me on Wednesday that you were dealing with. Can you talk through that, are you comfortable talking about that?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: The driver? Yeah, no, I broke my driver on the range.

Q. What process did you have to go through late in the day on Wednesday?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: It's the second time that I cracked one on a Wednesday afternoon right after the TOUR trucks left. And the timing just sucks, it happens. Thankfully I did have a backup, but I needed to test it and I needed to get a hold of JJ and he's building another one for me, and so I needed to figure out like what I was going to go with.

Thankfully my coach was here so we hit enough balls on the range that we felt comfortable with it and the Stadium Course is fairly receptive off the tee so, yeah, it ended up working out great. But it was a stressful couple hours for a minute.

Q. Do you think sometimes weeks that start like that set you in a different frame of mind and your expectations are a little bit different or do you not really believe in that stuff?

JOSEPH BRAMLETT: Yeah, they certainly can. They always say beware of the hurt or sick golfer, so, yeah, I don't know, sometimes it definitely, probably gives you a little bit more patience because you understand that you're working against a few variables you're not used to, the expectations go down.

And this is a tournament that's tough because the scoring's so low if you make a bogey you feel like you made a double. So, yeah, I mean, maybe there's something to that, maybe there's not, but my game has been trending the right way for awhile and I feel good about things and just try to keep going with that.