THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 18, 2024

Scott Stallings

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess that round today, first one of the week?

SCOTT STALLINGS: It was good. It was nice to kind of piggyback that on top of my round on Sunday. Did not putt well at Sony all week. It showed how much I had worked on my putting this off-season, which was almost none. I've been definitely working on some changes in my golf swing, especially my back swing, so that definitely kind of trumped the priority list as far as to be able to be comfortable coming out to the West Coast with some confidence. Was able to spend some time with my short game coach, Tim, the last few days, and kind of cleaned up some setup stuff. Kind of got in some bad habits and, to be honest, hadn't really spent much time on it. I hit more balls in this off-season than I hit in any off-season combined, and just trying to get very comfortable with some of the changes I'm making. It's nice to kind of see it progressing honestly quicker than I expected.

Q. The 64 in Sony in the final round, that gave you some confidence coming in here. What do you feel like you really excelled at today?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Keeping it in front of me. The courses are perfect, greens are perfect. When you get out of position, you got to have some discipline to not do something you don't need it to do, because you're going to have so many opportunities to make birdie. Probably one, should have maybe drove it a little bit better on some of the par-5s, just kind of give myself a little bit of a chance to knock it on the green in two. But able to get three or four, three out of the four with not being able to go for any of 'em in two. So, happy with that. Head over to La Quinta, practice a little bit, and get ready to do it again tomorrow.

Q. Given the nature of this format and the courses and weather we have, it's ideal, the courses are in great condition, how much do you change your strategy? You mentioned in a previous interview just keeping the foot on the gas pedal on the right and don't even touch the brake. Does it change the way you play some shots out there?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Yeah, it definitely, from a mentality standpoint, like, you feel with the conditions like they are, if you're on your game, like, every hole's a birdie hole. And part of that is the weather and the conditions of the course that we're playing. Especially when you're feeling good with your game, it's like, you're looking at a lot of flagsticks and trying to hit it right down 'em.

Q. Speaking on the putting, what were some of the small little setup things that you changed?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Kind of get like cocked behind it like where I kind of, my shoulder are kind of shifted over a little bit. Just some old bad habits that kind of show up playing golf in kind of suspect weather at home and with greens that aren't rolling -- they roll great, but they're not super fast, so you get real hitty, and you come out and play on TOUR and it doesn't really work. So, just kind of simplified it kind of make sure everything was kind of pointing in the right direction and after, definitely by Tuesday I felt a lot better kind of over the top of it and was able to carry it over to today.

Q. You talked about how you feel almost like a second chance on this career in golf. At this point, do your expectations change on how you look at a season, how you come up tournament by tournament, than you did maybe 10, 15 years ago?

SCOTT STALLINGS: Yeah, definitely tournament by tournament, but I kind of evaluate it as like, Man, do I want to continue to get better, or do I want to continue to push, do I want to train, do I want to do all the stuff that you have to do to play and compete at the highest level. And if those are still yes, then, like, man, I still feel like I got a lot left. Maybe the day you wake up and it's like, okay, maybe it's time to figure out something else. But I feel very blessed and to have an opportunity to be out here and definitely want to continue to improve and work on my game to be able to play and compete with the best.