Media Center Interviews

March 30, 2021

Pre-Tournament Interview with Abraham Ancer

DOUG MILNE: Like to welcome Abraham Ancer to the virtual press room here at the 2021 Valero Texas Open.

Abraham, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. You're making your fourth start here in the Valero Texas Open, kind of a home game, if you will. If we can just get a few comments on being back here at the 2021 Valero Texas Open.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Thanks for having me. I'm actually, I'm pumped, I'm pumped to be here. Home game for me, I live just down the road, so sleeping in my own bed is awesome. It won't take me very long to get here. The golf course is in great shape. I love playing here, I love playing in front of my family and friends, they're going to come out. I miss this tournament with people, and any tournament with people, so I'm really excited, I'm pumped.

DOUG MILNE: As far as your season goes, you've had a couple of top-5 finishes so far this season. If you can just talk a little about your game and what you're most happy with coming into the week.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I feel like I've been playing pretty good golf. The last month I've hit the ball really well, just haven't really gotten that much out of my rounds. But that's okay, I have great feels out there practicing. Last week, same thing, I felt like I played really good golf, things just didn't really align my way to keep going forward. But the game is there, I've just got to stay patient and stay aggressive. Like I said, I feel really good.

DOUG MILNE: I've just got one more question and then we'll open it up for a few folks on the outside to ask question. The fifth hole, new tee box there. I know you've had a chance to get around, lengthened it quite a bit. Just talk about your strategy, thoughts on that hole.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, it's a hole that is really fun. I wish we'd play that hole every time as drivable, but pace of play will make it very tough. I believe that's one of the reasons why maybe they did, I don't know, I could be wrong. I like it. It's not an easy tee ball anymore. Makes you think if you want to hit your 3-wood or maybe hit your driver and challenge a little or more of that fairway. But I've always hit -- I feel like I've always hit driver once this -- from there, but I've only played it twice. It definitely makes it tougher because the landing area's a lot smaller. Just hit 3-wood and a wedge and try to get it close. That green is pretty tough, too, by the way.

Q. Maybe I should go to the end, do I need to wait for the Spanish section. What do you think, Abe?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Doug, where you at?

Q. I'm at home, taking a break. I just wanted to ask you, you seem to have gotten better, performing better and more consistently year after year after year. Have you noticed that yourself and what is it that you -- that you've done to reach that level of progression?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I feel, Doug, that I've -- once I played my first year on Tour and it was a rough year, I tried to change a lot of things. I realized that that's not the way I should play golf, I should just play golf the way I know how to play golf and not change anything and just get better at what I do.

Once I realized that, I've been working really hard outside the golf course with my body as in staying healthy and really being able to peak at the right times. But also, on the mental side, confidence-wise, I get to the tournament, I feel like I belong, I feel good, I feel confident. Before, maybe there was a little bit of doubt as like is my game good enough to be out here. I feel like now I have confidence, I know my game can perform on really big stages and big tournaments. So I just go out there and try to enjoy it, have a good time, but also be very competitive and try to win.

Q. Secondly, you made your Masters debut in, I want to say '19, is that -- the year Tiger won?

ABRAHAM ANCER: No, my first one was last year.

Q. November?

ABRAHAM ANCER: November, yeah. I missed it by a little bit in the world ranking, I think.

Q. Okay. What experience do you take from November to April considering the course will be much different? Anything at all, and if so, where?

ABRAHAM ANCER: I just want to take the confidence that I'm pretty much going to play against the same guys that I played that week. Although the golf course is going to be playing different, I like firm and fast golf courses and this golf course was completely the opposite. So I'm not saying it should suit me better firm and fast because I don't know, but I'm excited to see it. I want to see how much the ball rolls out on the tees and I feel like if I can have an 8-iron instead of a 6-iron, it will be a huge help for me. I'm just pumped to be there. If anything, it gave me confidence knowing that I can hang there even though it was my first time.

DOUG MILNE: Abraham, it looks like we've got a handful of Spanish questions, so for those, I'm going to turn it over to Sara Diaz, who will help in Spanish call on those gentlemen.

Q. How long have you been in San Antonio and what prompted the move here?

ABRAHAM ANCER: I've been here since 2015, if I'm not mistaken. Graduated from Oklahoma and then I spent there a semester and then I moved here. I've always like San Antonio. Growing up I remember visiting just for fun and Fiesta Texas at the time, loved it. And it's close to where I grew up, three-and-a-half-hour drive or four-hour drive, great golf courses. I have a lot of friends outside of golf that I just, whenever I'm done playing a tournament, I want to come back and not see like the same people, I want to see my other friends. It feels like home away from home for me and it made a lot of sense for me to live here.

Q. What do you think about having so many Latinos heading to the Masters tournament?

ABRAHAM ANCER: That's awesome. I feel like Latin American golf is growing quite a bit in the last two, two years. Hopefully, every single year we can make that even bigger. Yeah, it's very exciting. I feel like there's a lot of young players coming that are still not on Tour, but hopefully in the next coming years we'll have a lot more. I'm really pumped about that.