CHARLES SCHWAB CHALLENGE

May 27, 2023

Adam Schenk

Colonial CC

Quick Quotes

Q. Adam, when everybody else pretty much in the field today has fallen back, you shoot 67. How did you pull that off?

ADAM SCHENK: We just really had great control of our golf ball today. Brent really helped me manage the golf course.

It played tough today. The greens were really firm. They're really baked out. It feels like walking on concrete.

We just did a really good job managing everything today. It was one of those days where right where we were looking was right where I actually hit it. It doesn't happen very often, but it's nice when it does.

Q. We talked earlier in the week about your confidence with the putter. Collaborate on the read, get right in there and hit it. There was the proof right there at the 18, finishing off with a sweet birdie.

ADAM SCHENK: It was. It was good to see one drop. And then the guy that jumped in the pond was a little comic relief.

It was a lot of luck making that putt. It was a foot and a half of break and extremely fast. So I was just trying to lag it up in there. If it goes in, great. If it doesn't, that's fine too, but fortunately it fell right on the right side.

Q. In great shape with 18 holes to go. You had a brush with a championship earlier in the year. Do you utilize that sort of thing tomorrow, Championship Sunday?

ADAM SCHENK: Absolutely. Draw off the past experience. Just keep doing my thing and control what I can control, just the normal stuff that everybody says. If I do that well and catch a few breaks, hopefully I have a chance on the back nine.

Q. Knowing that the greens are not going to soften up for tomorrow, probably continue to get firm, does that adjust anything about the way you approach the green?

ADAM SCHENK: It will. We'll just have to be really careful. On full shots it will make a big difference because the ball will be coming in higher with a lot of spin.

But on half shots, we had like 145 on 17, and it was a half pitching wedge, wind was down to the left. By flighting it in with a wedge, it's going to come in a lot lower, and it's going to skip a lot more. I couldn't quite get a 52 back there. So when I do play a half shot, I have to allow for the ball to release a lot more on the greens.

Q. More on the greens, have there been any comparable greens in the other tournaments this year you've played in, or is this kind of unique to their own?

ADAM SCHENK: Valspar Sunday were really crusty and firm, but that's obviously Bermuda, so I think they can get that a lot firmer and stress it out a little more. I guess they can stress these out as much as they want since they're not going to be here on Monday. But I would say Valspar.

Q. You had said after Thursday you weren't happy with the driving. Has it gotten better for you?

ADAM SCHENK: It has. It was much better yesterday. Today I drove it great. Like I said earlier, right where we were looking was right where I drove it a lot of times and hit a lot more fairways.

You have to capitalize on days like that, so it was nice we got it in at 3-under.

Q. Today feels almost like a major round with how difficult the course has been playing. How did you see it out there?

ADAM SCHENK: That's what we were talking about. It was like a mini major. It's not a long course, but it's held the test of time. There's a lot of scores around a couple over par, I'm guessing today. We were fortunate enough to get in at 3-under.

But it played hard. There's no two ways about it. You really had to be in control from the fairway, and if you're not, then you're in a world of hurt because it's just not going to stay on the green if it lands on the green from the rough.

Q. Now that you're able to take a little bit of a breath after the round, how excited are you for tomorrow?

ADAM SCHENK: Very excited. Winning would be really cool. If I do, that's awesome. If I don't, that's okay too. I'll learn from it. But I'll just go take care of my business tomorrow. Whatever happens happens. I can't control it. So I can just only control myself, and I'll just try and do that to the best of my abilities.

There's obviously a lot of good players out here. To win would be really cool.

Q. Whoever wins tomorrow, what are the, say, two things that that person's going to have to do?

ADAM SCHENK: Definitely, one, you definitely have to make some putts. You're going to have some par putts. You're going to have make some birdie putts from 10 to 20 feet. You're going to have to roll in a couple that you normally wouldn't or make some putts that you should.

And probably who who gets off the tee the best. You're not going to get lucky all day driving it in the rough, and you can only scramble so much around here with as firm as the greens are getting.

So I would say those two things are what the winner's going to do.