SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 5, 2023

Christian Bezuidenhout

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. Christiaan, solid playing out there, bogey-free, highlighted by that eagle at 15. Talk us through the eagle there at 15.

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah, so it's a drivable par-4. I just leaked my drive a little bit right, but hit a 40-yard chip shot, and I caught it well. Actually thought I flew it a little bit too far, but it checked up quite nice, and went right into the middle, so yeah, it was nice.

Q. A lot of players talk about the condition of this golf course and the green complexes. Do you find you like playing this golf course?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah, I do. It's one of those courses where you have to drive it well. You have to keep it in the fairway. The golf course definitely plays softer than what it did last year when I was here for my first time. That's where I think you can see the lower scores from.

But yeah, look, the greens are soft. It's unbelievable. They're rolling really, really well.

Q. Looked like the wind started to pick up as you guys were finishing the round. How do you think that's going to affect play this afternoon?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah, we had about 11 holes where it was pretty calm, and luckily I took advantage of that.

But with a little bit of wind up, the golf course playing softer, so it's going to play a little bit harder. It's definitely going to be trickier to get close to flags.

But anything 3-, 4-under in the afternoon is a pretty good score, I'd say.

Q. How do you assess your season so far this season? You're in an interesting position. You probably have to play a fair bit in the fall to get into that 125. How do you feel like you've played this year?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: I actually felt I've played better than my results. I went to a new coach middle of the season, so we made quite a bit of changes to my swing. That didn't really help much. But still felt I've actually played better than what my results were. There was a lot of tournaments where I missed the cut by one or two or finished bottom half between 35th and 50th where those results could have gone the other way.

My game is not far off. It hasn't been far off all season. I was just starting to put some scores on the board, and I'm starting to close the round.

I'm pleased to have a bogey-free round here. I haven't had a bogey-free round in a while, so yeah, it was nice to get off to a good start.

Q. When you say you switched coaches, who's coaching you now?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: So I started working with Jeff Smith. We've made quite a bit of changes in March. It was just hard to implement that specific changes and to try and still compete. You're trying to compete on the highest level here, so it's hard to make changes, but it was definitely changes that I had to make, and there's never really a good time to make changes.

Q. Speaking about changes, you've got some changes in your family situation coming up soon with a baby, and you've got the fall coming up. How will you manage your schedule, and what are you planning?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah, so I'm still planning on playing most of the fall events, even with a baby coming in three weeks' time. It looks like we timed it perfect with this week off.

Hopefully he decides to come in that week off. That would be great, so I can spend a few days with him and off to Mexico after that.

Q. You've played here before. We had such a brutal summer, the heat, no rain to speak of. How did the course play any different, if at all?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah. Last year was my first time here, and the golf course played softer this year, so surprising to say you didn't have any rain. The golf course looks like it had a lot of rain. The fairways are soft. The greens are soft.

Yeah, the golf course is in fantastic condition. The greens are the best I've seen them. So yeah.