What they're saying: Brenden Pappas

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JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brenden Pappas, thanks for joining us. Tied for the lead, 6-under, 64. Opening comments.

BRENDEN PAPPAS: I guess I was chasing my brother down to hole 18.

You know, it's amazing. I started with a bogey on No. 1, and I looked up on the scoreboard, and I saw that Deane was 2-under through what must have been two holes at the time, and that really kind of changed my mindset completely.

You know, it wasn't a thing like, well, if he can do it, I can do it. It was just a rush of adrenaline seeing my brother playing so well, because you know, he Monday-qualified to get in here. He Monday-qualified last week to get into the John Deere, so you know, he has a lot to gain by playing well in these tournaments, as do I, but he has no playing status out here at all. So it was really exciting, and it got my adrenaline going early.

And you know, I just fed off that the whole round, watching him climb the leaderboard, and I kind of chased him up there.

I think it'll be a good evening for my mom back in South Africa watching her sons' names at the top of the leaderboard, hopefully through the day, you know. You never know. The birdies are out there.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I'm sure you guys have played a lot of tournaments in your career together. Have you ever finished one, two before?

PAPPAS: No. The closest we've come was at Monterey in Mexico on the Nationwide Tour in 2001. Deane won the tournament, and I finished somewhere around sixth.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Have you ever heard of two brothers at this level playing that well together? I know that the Byrums and the --

PAPPAS: Yeah, I mean there are, I think, three different families that have done well on the PGA TOUR.

And you know, my brother and I still have to do well. We want to win out here and really compete at the highest level, so we haven't really fulfilled our expectations to this point.

You know, just playing isn't good enough. We need to win, both of us.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Well, you're off to a good start. We'll take some questions now.

Q. How would you describe your relationship with your brother as far as golf goes? Are you competitive? Do you pull for each other? Do you help each other?

PAPPAS: Yeah, that's an easy question to answer. We pull for each other in a big way. I mean we practice together. We play together the practice rounds. We hang out and have dinner together.

You know, my brother's a really nice guy, so it's easy to get along with him, and there's nothing but really positive that goes on. We each have our little quirks that are very easy to overlook. I guess basically what I'm saying is it's easy to love my brother, so that's not an issue.

Q. (Inaudible).

PAPPAS: Oh, yeah. No, it's a lot of things that go along with just friendship, you know. We can say anything to each other and it's like water off a duck's back, you know. We laugh more often than we cry, I'd say.

Q. Can you give me an example of how you might help each other in the recent past?

PAPPAS: Well, you know, we're always working on something with the golf swing, you know. And if it works for you, then you tell your brother, hey, listen, I'm trying this. Let's try this on the range today, see if you like it or not.

At the beginning of the year my brother was releasing the club a little bit higher, and it got me thinking about how I swing the club, and the last six weeks I've been getting my hands as low as I can and releasing higher. So you know, it's almost to the point where we rely on each other too much (laughs), you know. What one guy is doing really affects the other guy, so hopefully some good golf between the two of us will lead to some really good tournaments for us.

Q. I understand he met you on the 18th green.

PAPPAS: Yeah.

Q. And you guys had a nice hug and a little chat. What did you say to each other?

PAPPAS: Well, he said, "Nice round." I said, "Well, I was chasing you all day."

It's hard to explain really. We just have a lot of love for each other, and that's the only way to say it really.

Q. Has your relationship changed this year because he doesn't have any status on the Tour? He said that this is like only the second time you've played with each other on the course all year long.

PAPPAS: Yeah. So you know, it's almost like I miss my brother the whole year so far, you know, and it's nice to have him around. And you know, I feel more relaxed, and I think he feels a little more positive about what he's doing, so to get together again has been a very good thing for both of us.

Q. Was it last week at the John Deere the first time you guys played together all year?

PAPPAS: Yeah.

Q. What exactly is your status?

PAPPAS: I'm out of Nationwide Tour School. I think I'm 30th or something on the reshuffle list. So you know, I'm getting into the tournaments at the moment, and I need to take advantage of it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Do you want to go over your scorecard?

PAPPAS: Yeah. 1, I blocked a tee shot right in the trees, and you know, that's no man's land, made bogey.

2, I hit driver-wedge to about 15 feet, made the putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 6?

PAPPAS: 6, I hit driver, driving just short of the green and hit a nice chip to about six foot and made that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 8 and 9?

PAPPAS: 8, I hit driver-wedge to about five feet.

And 9, I hit a driver to just short of the green and chipped and putted.

10, driver-wedge to about eight feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: And 15.

PAPPAS: And 15, I hit 3-wood just over the back edge and got it up-and-down.

And then 17, I hit 3-iron sand wedge to about six foot again, made that.

It was a very solid round. I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens, the kind of rounds that make your day easy. You don't walk off fatigued. You're ready to go and practice and get ready for tomorrow, you know.

Q. Is the course right for a really low score here, do you think, this week?

PAPPAS: Yeah. The greens seem to be a little softer than they normally are, so that makes the pins a lot more accessible from the fairway.

They had so much rain here that I think it was difficult for them to get the rough up and thick like they normally have it. You know, the rough is just sparse enough where you can actually advance it to the green at least.

I know in years past it gets really thick and healthy, and you can't advance it more than 160 yards, so you know, if you keep it inside the tree line off the tee, you can make some good scores.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports.