What they said: Russ Cochran

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Q. Talk us through the early part of your round, seven birdies through 11 holes, what's going through your mind at that stage?

RUSS COCHRAN: I was trying to get the ball on the green at that point. I hit some good shots, a couple in there close. But for the most part, I had a great feel with the putter. Been kind of struggling with it a little bit the first couple of days trying to kind of find the speed of them, but today, you know, everything -- I saw them beautifully. Seemed like I felt like I could make a lot.

Q. Double-bogey at 14 and you bounced straight back with birdie at 15, how important was that coming into the last three holes, quite difficult?

RUSS COCHRAN: You know, like Chip said, that's a big part of golf. Chip is great to play with. He said that was a great thing to do, and I said, yeah, it doesn't hurt when you're hitting a 9-iron or eight iron in there versus a 3-iron, the hole before. I think it was important.

But this golf course is very tough, and it breaks you down to the point where you're trying to hit it in the fairway and trying to get it on the green and trying to make the putt. Some golf courses let up and you can look ahead or whatever, but not really on this one.

So I don't think anything changes. Whether if I birdied 14, I still have to look down the fairway at 15 and try to hit that fairway.

Q. How excited about the possibilities tomorrow?

RUSS COCHRAN: I played well this year, and challenged a few times, and have not rung that bell yet. But I think the great thing about what I've been doing with my game the last two or three years, is getting in contention and maybe I'm just hard headed or whatever but I feel like I'm going to win, and you know, I'm sure when I play tomorrow, I'll have that same feeling. So won a couple of times so maybe it will be a good round tomorrow.

The key is there are going to be so many people just taking a shot at it, and you know, you can look -- I shot -- I could have shot, maybe, what, 7-under today, and so you look at anybody that is within -- depending on the day, is within those six, eight shots, they are going to have a chance to get hot and run the tables and go from there.

So doesn't do me much good, it did me a great deal of good to get up there, but it doesn't do me any good to grind a round out. I'm going to have to play pretty good golf tomorrow.

Q. Tom Watson is only three shots behind, so many people.

RUSS COCHRAN: Yeah, and the guys -- it's that situation, that tournament, that guys are going to ref it up and take their best shot and I'm going to be one of those guys.

So you know, you just know that you get off to a hot start and finish strong, and hope nobody's, you know, got super hot.

Transcripts courtesy of ASAP Sports.