Following his second-round 66 which moved him into a tie atop the leaderboard at the Valero Texas Open after 36 holes, Bud Cauley answered some questions from the assembled media.

Here’s a transcript of the Q & A session.

QUESTION: Great round of golf on a windy day. Six birdies out there, bogey-free.

 
BUD CAULEY: I played really well, yeah. Probably even hit it a little better yesterday, just didn’t quite convert on some of the putts and today I putted really well which kept me going through most of the round.

On Scrambling

QUESTION: By putting well you made more than 133 feet in putts and you were 8 for 8 scrambling, 9 of 10 for the week scrambling.

CAULEY: It was windy out there. I knew I was going to miss some greens and I was able to hit some good chips and I knew when I didn’t get it quite as close as I would like, rolled a few in.

On Holes 16 and 17

QUESTION: I always think a good round has to be coupled together by some good pars. Talk about your pars at 16 and 17.

 
CAULEY: Those were huge. I just hit the wrong club on 16 and I hit a good shot, just the wrong club and good chipping down there and made the putt.

Then 17 the wind was blowing so hard I had that long putt down — I felt the wind blowing into and gave a little too much. To make that one was huge because I knew 18 was playing down-wind and possibly get another birdie there. So the par at 17 was big.

On Lucky Break

QUESTION: That was a 12-footer you made for par, two-putt from 53 feet away. Got a nice kick at 18 off the corporate chalet. You took advantage of that the good break.

CAULEY: You can’t miss right there. I was trying to keep it up the left. Pulled it a little bit but got a good break and for it to end up where it did and hit a good pitch and rolled?

On Course

QUESTION: How do you think the course is going to play the rest of the afternoon and going into the weekend?

 
CAULEY: It keeps blowing like this it’s playing pretty tough. You have to get in the fairway around here. May dry out a little bit. The greens were a little receptive this morning but, yeah, I’m sure they’ll dry out.

On Short Game

QUESTION: You were impressive today. Tell us about your short game and why everything was coming together so well.

CAULEY: It saved me a lot today. It was windy and tough. I knew I was going to miss some greens. Was able to put it on the right spot for most of the time and save some shots out there.

On Wind

QUESTION: 6-under today. What was the wind doing out there and how did you manage it?

 
CAULEY: It was pretty steady as far as the direction of it blowing. It was blowing hard. You know, it seems like every hole is either straight down or straight into the wind. You kind of — you know what you’re getting and you try to par the holes that are playing tough into the wind and get a hole like 18 downwind try to take advantage of it.

On Wind II

QUESTION: Do you feel like that is one of the more challenging aspects of this course when it does start to get fairly windy out there?

CAULEY: Yeah, because it’s not like the pins are in the middle of the greens out there. You have a lot of them tucked. If you don’t have a perfect number or the right wind it can be tough. If I — if I didn’t obviously hit a good shot, leave it in the right spot, make par and get out of there.

On Keys To Game

QUESTION: What went so well for you out there today?

 
CAULEY: I scrambled really well. I didn’t drive it poorly but, you know, just with the wind out there it was tough to get some of the iron shots close but when I did miss the green I was able to leave it in a relatively easy spot and get up and down, which kind of kept my round going.

On Momemtum

QUESTION: Can you carry momentum from round to round in your mind?

CAULEY: Yeah. Yeah. Obviously I got a lot out of my round today. I hit the ball really well yesterday and just kind of left some shots out there. Today was nice to scramble well and look forward to this weekend.

On Recent Strong Play

QUESTION: What clicked last week that you’ve been able to carryover here?

 
CAULEY: Just driving the ball well. You know, obviously last week there’s no faking it around there. You have to drive it well or you can’t play.

I worked on that a lot the week before and I was able to do that last week and carried that over to these two rounds.

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