Media Center Interviews
March 31, 2022
First Round Interview with Rasmus Hojgaard
Q. Rasmus, 6-under par 66, I know in not way you wanted to end the round, but still a very good start to the tournament. If we can get some comments.
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, I played well today, hit a lot of greens. Or I feel like I hit a lot of greens, I haven't checked the facts yet. But putted amazingly. It's the best I've putted for a long time and yeah, that just builds some confidence and I felt I could be aggressive on the greens.
Q. A couple holes to get you to take me through. First of all, the eagle on 18 earlier in the round.
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Okay. I think I had 233 meters to the front and around 260 to the flag. It was a good number for 3-wood and yeah, I hit a very good shot into the middle of the green and rolled a long putt. Yeah, that was nice.
Q. Take us through the last hole if you can, too. Sorry.
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, no. Yeah, I didn't feel like I hit that bad of a tee shot and I had to chip sideways back into the fairway. Had I think 133 meters to the flag, just was a little too aggressive with that shot. Yeah, short-sided myself and I didn't get up and down and suddenly you walk away with double bogey. Yeah, that was a bit annoying, but it happens.
Q. I wanted to ask about No. 6 as well. It seemed like that was a rough tee shot, but you were able to get a birdie there. Can you take me through that hole? I think it said the ball was in the native area?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, that was a poor tee shot there. Got a bit of a break there. I had a gap in the tree there and hit a full lob wedge onto the middle of the green and rolled another long putt. Yeah, that was a bonus.
Q. Was the lie okay there? Where was the ball?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, it was a good lie. It was just like firm, what do you call that? I don't know. It was like a firm patch where there wasn't any grass. Yeah, I knew I was going to get spin on the ball so I could be quite aggressive with that second shot.
Q. What does it mean to you in general to be near the top of the leaderboard of a PGA Tour event at the end of day one? What's that like for you now?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: It feels good. It's not much different, you go out there and just try to play as good as you can and if you're playing well and you're up there on the leaderboard, it's just great. I mean, it's not something you walk around thinking of in the first round. I was just trying to stay calm and just stay present and it worked well on 17 holes today.
Q. How much do you feel like a strong performance last weekend kind of propelled you into today? Do you feel like you had some kind of momentum coming into this event?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, it definitely gave me the confidence, for sure. I was playing consistent last week and was putting good. Seems like I've brought it into this week as well. It's just nice to play good golf.
Q. I read that prior to last week you were dealing with an injury situation. What was going on there?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: Yeah, I had a problem with my back, so yeah, I was out for a month where I didn't really do much. We kind of got it sorted and then I thought I've been away from tournaments for a while, so I thought I might as well just go to Puntacana and see how I play and it turned out good.
Q. Was it a difficult recovery process? You just had to rest up? Kind of what went into it?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: No, it wasn't that tough. I had to rest a little bit, you know, do some treatment and then I got the green light that I could start practicing again and I haven't dealt with it that much since. It's starting to feel good.
Q. Was it surprising at all to play as well as you did in your first tournament after a little bit of time off or did you kind of expect you could just get rolling right away?
RASMUS HOJGAARD: No, I wasn't expecting to play that consistent, to be fair. I didn't really have any expectation going into it, I was just happy I could go out and swing the club and play golf. Yeah, it was fun to play consistent golf where I could feel like I could put some low numbers and that's just, you know, what we're trying to do every week. That was just a bonus that I ended up, you know, in a top-10 and got into this week.
