ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 7, 2024

Sam Burns

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess the round?

SAM BURNS: I think it was a solid round. I think it's, obviously, a difficult golf course. If you hit some poor shots, it's going to penalize you. I did hit a couple poor shots, and it penalized me. Yeah, played nice, hung in there on some holes, made some key putts to kind of keep the momentum going. Overall, a good round.

Q. What was probably the best part of your game today you felt?

SAM BURNS: I felt like I drove it pretty well. I think this is a demanding golf course off the tee. I think off the tee kind of sets up everything else. I feel like after the first few holes there, I feel like I drove it pretty well. I was able to kind of convert some of those putts that I needed to make.

Q. Four straight top 10s entering this week. Anything in particular you feel like you've been doing well over this stretch?

SAM BURNS: Nothing, I don't think, that really stands out. Just a little more consistent. Really, I think, coming into the year, had a good off-season, a lot of rest, felt excited coming into the year. I think that was definitely the key part of it. With this future addition coming, hopefully it gives me a little more flexibility later in the year.

Q. Consistent in a particular part of the game or all throughout the bag?

SAM BURNS: For more detail, I would say I've started off the year driving it pretty well. I've always felt like, for me, if I'm driving it well, I can give myself a lot of chances with wedges and irons. I think that is a huge part of it for me. I would say that's been really good to start.

Q. Scoring conditions, how would you characterize them?

SAM BURNS: Yeah, I think this is about as benign as you're going to see Bay Hill. Greens still pretty soft. Rough is obviously up. Not a lot of wind today. Today was a day that you had to go out and shoot something under par. This place always gets more difficult as the week goes on with more wind and just it firming up. Today was definitely a day that you needed to go out and shoot a good score.

Q. There were a lot of good scores, but do you feel it almost is not representative of how it's going to be as the week goes on? Sundays here always seem to be pretty brutal.

SAM BURNS: Yeah, exactly. Over the weekend, this place always just firms up and gets difficult. I think it's going to do that again this year.