BILTMORE CHAMPIONSHIP

September 18, 2026

Neal Shipley

The Cliffs at Walnut Cove

Quick Quotes

Q. Neal, quite a round; 62. Just get some comments on your career-best effort on the PGA Tour.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, just clean card today, which always helps. Made a couple really nice up and downs coming around the turn on 10 and 11. Those are two really good saves to keep some momentum.

And then just took care of business on the par-5s today and was able to roll a few putts in. Got one or two bonus putts to go. Got a really nice one there on I think seven. Got a really nice birdie putt on that par-3 to go.

Had a couple others throughout the day that looked like they could have dropped as well.

Q. Not just a clean card today, but yesterday as well. Bogey-free through 36. Pretty nice. Talk a little bit about both rounds up to this point.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, just been doing the little things really well. Getting up and down; leaving myself in manageable up and down positions. I feel like a lot of the work we've put in throughout some of the time off is really showing.

I been working really hard all year and it's great to see some of that showing up in competition.

Q. You mentioned a bit there, but five of five from the sand; ten of ten scrambling so far this week. So that has been on pointe.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, not bad.

Q. That's not bad. Talk a little bit about how excited you are now for the weekend.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, pumped for the weekend. It's always great to be in this position. It's what you work really hard for. I've been focused on trying to win this year and we're in a great position to do so. Just got to take care of businesses and keep doing what we been doing.

Q. You talked a little bit outside about how Pittsburgh prepares you a little bit for this in terms of the elevation, the mountains around. Just talk about how that helps you.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, I mean, growing up in Pittsburgh it seems like every golf course has maybe 17 or 16 really good holes and there are two holes they just kind of fit in because they need to. They might be a par-3 down a cliff or a second shot on a par-4, par-5 that's up a mountain.

So you kind of -- it kind of takes some experience to know how your golf ball reacts to wind when it's in the air for that long, or maybe how it reacts downwind when you're going uphill so much.

And I think just having that experience growing up playing on a lot of uneven lies, it's been helpful out here today. I feel really comfortable out here.

Yeah, just really enjoying the golf course. Feels like it's -- obviously it's been treating me well.

Q. So much success as an amateur obviously; also Korn Ferry Tour last year. Just talk about your whole professional journey up to this point and how you feel like you stand.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, I mean, I had a great year last year. Had a great start to my pro career. Yeah, just kind of start of the season wasn't really what we wanted. Been kind of clawing back to get my game back where it should be.

You know, I feel like a lot of that work is finally showing. It's weird. Golf is one of those sports where you don't get instant gratification. You got to work for a long time to see results.

I feel like I'm seeing kind of the fruits of that labor, and really pumped about where we are right now. Had a lot of great experiences in my amateur career and throughout my professional career that have prepared me to be in this situation, so really excited for it.

Q. Just looks like right now 4-shot lead. Pretty good lead going into Saturday. How comfortable are you? Have you had a lot of big leads it the past? Any trouble sleeping on a lead?

NEAL SHIPLEY: I probably won't have any trouble sleeping. I'm pretty tired right now. It's been hot out here. No, having the big lead is something I'm not necessarily used to. Both my wins on the Korn Ferry Tour were come-from-behind, a little bit dramatic.

So I'm actually really excited about it. It's not as stressful. When you have to shoot 61 and come back from like six shots back to win. I really like to position. I'm excited to keep the pedal down and yeah try to make it a bigger lead tomorrow afternoon.

Q. Take us through the first three holes if you can.

NEAL SHIPLEY: Yeah, yeah. So hit a nice drive down No. 1. We had maybe just under 100 yards into that pin. Just kind of flipped the sand wedge up there. Used a backstop behind it. Ended up with five or six feet. It was pretty much a straight-in putt.

No. 2 hit a really great iron shot. It was a nice 4-iron; a good high cut in there. Landed just short of hole high, kind of rolled towards the back edge of the green, and it was a little slippery putt down there and kind of a double breaker. We were able to kind of get that one to go in.

And then, yeah, on No. 3, we hit an iron shot, kind of pushed a little bit to be honest right on the flag and ended up almost jarring it. Probably had 12, ten feet coming back and were able to get that one to sneak in the side door as well.

So yeah, great start. Starting 4-under through three is always good. At that point, you know, I was really focused on keeping the pedal down the rest of the day and I think he was able to do that really well and kind of take care of business.