What they said: Bryce Molder

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JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Bryce Molder, thanks for joining us here after a second round 62, which is a personal best for you on the PGA TOUR.

A great first two days of playing. Certainly a lot of players still on the golf course, but you certainly have to like your position through 36 holes. Maybe some opening comments.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yes, it's certainly a good position to be in. I don't know what the lead will be in. It may be 13, it may be more.

But it's in good position, one of the last groups on Saturday, and have some fun. It's been a strange two days with no breeze, really warm, but really good scoring conditions and fortunately just able to capitalize.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Brian Davis was just in here a few minutes ago, and he imagined that the conditions will probably firm up over the weekend, not to mention you will have a later tee time, so maybe talk about the conditions that you are anticipating on the weekend.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yes, I think it's warm and humid enough where, I don't know if they will let the greens get too firm.

If the wind blows, it could get a little firm. But a little bit of breeze, I think, could make a big difference around here. All of those guys would know better than me because, because this is my first time playing.

I know any direction, just maybe 10 miles an hour, can really change your comfort level on a lot of tee shots, and then the difference of being in the fairway, and being two or three yards off the fairway, is a big difference out here.

So, I don't know what to expect come the weekend. Just try to keep doing what I'm doing.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'll take some questions.

Q. You mentioned being in the fairways, I think you missed like four over two days, has that been a key to you?

BRYCE MOLDER: Well, it certainly has been. It's not what I've been doing the last month or couple of months. I've been struggling off the tee.

And actually last week, I struggled off the tee, but my irons came back and started feeling good, so I know it was close.

The wind was blowing so hard last week that if you were just a little bit off if your timing was already just a little bit off, it could be tough. I think that's a big part of it.

I think my golf swing was starting to go in the right direction, and I could tell just like I said with my irons starting to get a little sharper last week.

But, no, certainly I've hit a lot of fairways so far, and in a lot of cases picked a club off the tee that I could be making an aggressive move at and kind of take the bunker still out of play, and I think that makes a big difference for me.

Q. Bryce, as you stood over that birdie putt at 18, if that went in, you would have tied the course record. The first time around here you may not know that. Did you think about that? How did it feel to be that close even if you didn't know it?

BRYCE MOLDER: I would love to say I didn't think about it. But I pretty well knew, or I thought that 61 was the course record. I knew I would be tied with at least a couple of people if I did it. I thought I was going to make it. It actually felt good. I actually had a poor putt.

Q. Did you pull it?

BRYCE MOLDER: I read it correctly, lined up correctly, felt like I was playing too much break, and I kind of just let myself pull it, I think, instead of just trusting my line.

But you do think about those things, but when you are playing well, and you are in the position to do that, you're kind of able to forget about it and just kind of move on and hit the shot.

But you certainly get a little bit of excitement when you're shooting a low score.

Q. From a ball striking perspective, how does today's rate with some of your better rounds anywhere, PGA TOUR, amateurs, or what have you?

BRYCE MOLDER: I would say yesterday was one of my best ball striking days that I have had of the year for sure. And today was not quite as sharp, but my irons were very good. Again, I missed a couple more fairways today.

Q. Did you putt better?

BRYCE MOLDER: Yes, I did. I made a chip. I made a couple of long putts. I actually hit a couple of irons closer and missed them. But it was a good ball striking day. I wouldn't say it was one of the best. But somebody said last week was kind of playing pool, you just kind of maneuver your way around the table. Well here, for sure, you are just trying to maneuver your way around the course, open up the greens to the right angles and then if you execute some shots you can play well.

Q. Your play, is that a result of a long period of hard work, or did you stumble on to something new?

BRYCE MOLDER: Usually the harder I practice the worse it gets. There has certainly been more time on the range in the last few weeks.

I worked a lot with a friend of mine, he's a sports psychologist as well, Gio Valentean (phonetic). He really challenged me this week to, No. 1, forget about the last month and forget about my golf swing and really just go try to use my imagination and attack a golf course my way.

What I mean by that is, just if I feel comfortable hitting a 4 iron off the tee, hit a 4 iron off the tee. If I feel comfortable hitting driver, hit driver. Just do whatever I can do to get in the right position and play to my strengths.

For instance, No. 1, a lot of those guys are going for that green in two, and I kind of am just slapping a driver down the left hand side. So that way I know I can lay up to a perfect number and just make it a stress free hole.

Little thing like that go along way, just not really ever getting yourself in trouble. But there is also execution, which has been a lot better. That's made a big difference obviously.

Q. I guess it's easier said than done, you say you just go out and have fun. For you guys there is such a fine line there. Can you talk about that tough balance you walk?

BRYCE MOLDER: Birdies are fun and bogeys are not fun. But if you can kind of accept the challenge of the course, and the conditions, and look forward to that. This golf course, there is a lot of golf courses out there, and certainly ones that we play, that don't force you to hit shots and to think and to maneuver the ball around. And this is one that forces you to with the treeline and the bunkering.

And so it makes it a little bit easier, but it makes it fun, because it's kind like, all right, this is the shot, it's the only shot, now let's just go try to hit it.

Like I said, sometimes it's just an iron off the tee. But if you miss that iron, all of a sudden you made an easy hole into a tough hole and that happens a lot out there.

Q. You talked about, if you feel like 4 iron, hit 4 iron, driver, hit driver, did you throttle back to some irons on some holes that you might have been tempted to hit driver in another venue or another week?

BRYCE MOLDER: A few times, yes. Not a lot. But there were certainly a couple of times when I could have gotten it up. There is a lot of holes with bunkering around where the bend is in the hole. A lot of times where you can get it right up between them and get a wedge in your hand, or lay back, and say okay, it's going to be a 7 an 8 or a 9 iron.

Doing that I think has just freed up my swing a little bit as well because I didn't feel like I was hitting it at such a tight neck and I almost felt like I could hit this as hard as I want, and it is not going to get in trouble. And that, I think, has really kind of freed up not necessarily laying way back. And then once you get freed up, then all of a sudden you feel like you could be a little bit more aggressive after that.

Q. (Inaudible)?

BRYCE MOLDER: No. 1 is one case. The two guys I played with went for the green in two. One of them made birdie and one didn't. It's not like I played it.

But for me, I missed the ball right for a month and a half. You just can't miss it right off the tee, so I just kind of throttle it down a little bit, hit a little easy driver off the tee, and made for an easy lay up. So pretty much it almost felt like it was a 100 yard hole. And when I'm putting well, I just need to get on the green as quickly as I can and just trust that my putter is going to work over the long haul.

Q. They had the tees way back at 4, what did you wind up hitting in there today?

BRYCE MOLDER: I hit a hybrid, kind of like a 2 iron, just to the very front fringe. That was my one bogey. I ended up missing about a four or five footer.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Can we go through the rest of your scorecard then and maybe we'll take one or two final questions.

BRYCE MOLDER: Yes, I started on hole No. 1. I hit a wedge in there to about six feet and made it.

No. 3, I hit a 7 iron to about 20 feet and made that. 3 putted from probably 40, 50, 60 feet on No. 4 from the fringe. I made a long one on 6. Kind of nice. Made about a 35 footer, I'm guessing.

I knocked it in there pretty close on 9, maybe eight or ten feet.

10 again, right below the hole, made another putt.

I didn't birdie 11.

No. 12, I'm getting confused here, which one is No. 12? That was my chip in. I hit it long and right of the green and hit one of those chips. It felt great. It took the right hop. When you chip in, you land the ball, I had to land it off the green. Any time you do that it's lucky.

14, I hit an 8 iron into about a foot.

15, I made a fairly long putt. Made about a 20, 25 foot putt.

I missed a close one on 16. Made a close one on 17 for birdie. Hit it pretty close again on 18, and I missed that one.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Anymore questions? Bryce Molder, thank you.

BRYCE MOLDER: Thank you.