Q. I’m here with Tim Clark. 7-under par, 63. That’s a pretty special day.
TIM CLARK: Very happy with that. First time I’ve really seen the greens. I didn’t know quite what to expect. Got out there and got comfortable on them early. Really played pretty solid. It’s hard to say I left any shots out there. I was around the hole all day. I was very happy.
Q. You hadn’t seen the course. I heard your preparation for this week was a little different. Tell us about it.
TIM CLARK: We shot off to the Bahamas for a few days after Kiawah. It was a brutal week. Felt like I needed a little bit of relaxation. Relax down there for a couple days and obviously I’m pretty relaxed.
Q. Just one more question. Carl on top of the leaderboard. You’re behind him.
TIM CLARK: Carl likes this course. He’s won here before. I think to see that in the morning, obviously let me go out there and shoot for birdies. I knew the scoring was out there.
Q. That’s a tremendous round. Well done. Very well.
TIM CLARK: Thanks.
Q. It’s a great day if you’re a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan. Your friend shoots 62. Five birdies, one eagle. How good was that round in your opinion?
TIM CLARK: It was great. Seeing Carl out there that early, I didn’t want him to get away from me. I was in the field. It was nice and I just — I hadn’t seen the greens here, obviously got in here Wednesday. Obviously a great day.
Q. You closed it out, a slam dunk on the final hole, the 9th.
TIM CLARK: I didn’t want to come up short, a tricky putt but, you know, I used great imagination on the greens all day. I was able to read the putt. Obviously hit it a little bit firm. Probably would have missed the green if it didn’t hit the hole.
Q. Tim, you were well inside the number of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. What is your philosophy heading into The Playoffs beginning with this event and moving forward?
TIM CLARK: It started for me last week. I think 123, 124 going into the PGA. I needed to play well there and had to get myself in a good position going forward. So I felt like I was under the gun the last few weeks.
I seem to play better like that. This is a huge week. You have a good opportunity to move way up in the standings and get yourself started. You have to play well. I really want to move up now and then carry that momentum to The Playoffs.
Q. Best of luck.
TIM CLARK: Thank you.
Q. Talk about the first round.
TIM CLARK: Obviously very pleased with that. Didn’t really know what to expect coming up but having seen Carl shoot what he did in the morning I knew it was out there if I played a great round so it was nice to sort of keep pace.
Q. Nine fairways today. That’s kind of key with these, keeping it in the fairway, isn’t it?
TIM CLARK: I got off to a shaky start with the driver, missed my first few fairways. Managed to scramble par. Once I started to hit the ball a little better I gave myself a lot more chances for birdie.
The greens are great, putting really well, knew as they would and I think it’s been a great change to the golf course.
Q. You’ve had some success here early on when you played here back in 2008. You like to come back. It fits your eye a little bit?
TIM CLARK: Having been at North Carolina State and playing a lot of golf here, it fits my eye for sure. Premium on driving. You’ve got to position your iron shots because the greens are undulating.
Q. Your game is coming into form with The Playoffs?
TIM CLARK: I’m happy where it is right now. Five months ago I just started back playing golf and it was tough. I was struggling a lot and — but I knew it was going to take some time to get back. Obviously right now I’m doing it.
Q. You obviously got off to a good start. How much more patience does that help you with?
TIM CLARK: It helps. It’s a long way from over. I’ve got to keep going out there, plugging away. Three more days is a lot of golf. I’m in that position now where solid golf is going to give me a chance here on Sunday afternoon.
Q. (Inaudible).
TIM CLARK: I don’t know. If you look at the results, it can certainly point to that. I guess playing on this type of grass, bermuda grass is a lot different, you know, the humidity and the tree-lined golf courses, it probably helps the guys.
Q. Going into the weekend, what do you have to do to keep this pace up?
TIM CLARK: I got to keep pace with Carl. He likes this course, he’s won here and when he goes low, he really goes low. If I’m able to hang in there, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
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