ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 20, 2023

Sam Burns

Billy Horschel

TPC Louisiana

Quick Quotes

Q. Good round, frustrating round, a little bit of both? How do you feel about it?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I think it was a good round, but also a frustrating round. I feel like we didn't really -- other than the putt Billy made on 3, we didn't really make many putts. I would say we played better than what we shot today.

BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I agree. I'm pretty happy with my ball-striking. It's been pretty abysmal, but coming into this week, hit some really quality shots out there I needed to put some confidence in the bank a little bit.

But yeah, I think we look at it, we had some really quality looks last 10 holes, and to only make one of them is sort of a little frustrating. But that's the way it is sometimes. You're not going to make every putt, even though we want to make every putt, but when you've got two good putters like Sam and I, we're going to make our fair share at some point in this tournament.

Q. On 6, Sam, you hit a great shot into a foot on 6, and you had the shot by the lake. It didn't work out like you wanted it to, but is that the beauty of team play, when your teammate does something -- were you trying something there, or do you find yourself, let me try something, and if I don't pull it off, it doesn't matter?

BILLY HORSCHEL: No, we had a jumpy lie, 48 to the front, 60 something to the pin, and it was a jumpy lie and I'm hitting a pitching wedge, and it just came out dead. That's the way it goes sometimes. I knew Sam was real close. I didn't know he was tap-in, which was nice, but it was just one of those shots that didn't come off the way I expected.

Q. Billy, for you, can you use, even though this is a different format than what you're going to see the rest of the year, can you use this as a momentum shift to kind of launch the second part of the season for you?

BILLY HORSCHEL: I mean, trust me, I've been trying to launch every week. I've been saying this is the launching point. I sort of flew in this week and said, maybe I just need some good home-cooking this week to get it going.

I'll tell you what, I hit some quality iron shots out there, which I have not done at all this year, a quality iron shot at 17, quality iron shot at 3 and 9, so that goes a long way in the sense of what I'm trying to do, that I'm doing the right things, and if I trust it and I just swing the way I want, the ball is going to do what I want.

It was a great day, and hopefully I can continue to do the next three days and have a great result with him. Like I said, I'm waiting to get started here. It's been a really slow go for me this year.

Q. Tomorrow some rain expected near the middle of the day. How do you deal with a round that starts late and there's at least a chance that it could be difficult for you to finish tomorrow and maybe have to come back in and finish it on Saturday?

SAM BURNS: I mean, no different than we normally would, I guess. Just try to go through normal routine and just kind of see what the weather does. But I think ultimately just coming out here tomorrow with a good game plan and trying to put a good round together.

Q. Generally on your round today, you can shoot yourself out of it in this format in the first round, but obviously you didn't do that. If it's not the score exactly you wanted, it's still a good score that keep you with a chance going forward to be in contention?

BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, exactly. Scores aren't too low. You've got Keith Mitchell and Sungjae at 10 and maybe one or two other teams at 9. Listen, it's playing a little more difficult than it was last year, there's no doubt about it, even though the course is softer. There's more wind out there than I would say we had last year during the first couple rounds.

Listen, we got off to a solid start, just the way we want. Now we just have to continue putting good quality rounds together, play quality golf, and hopefully come the back nine on Sunday, we're back in a position to try and win this thing.