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PUERTO RICO OPENMarch 6, 2015Brandon HagyRIO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO Q. All right. We welcome Brandon Hagy to our interview room here at the Puerto Rico Open. Just your third TOUR start. And with the 67, 6‑under for the tournament, how is it feeling? How is your week going? BRANDON HAGY: Feels good. First time to Puerto Rico. Like you said, third PGA event, so no, I played well today, controlled my ball, which you have to. It's very windy out there. And I just kind of tried to let it go and hit good golf shots, so yeah, so it was a good day. Q. With the conditions, full shot wise, are you hitting many full shots and irons? BRANDON HAGY: Well, the downwind holes, for sure, you gotta get it up because it's not going to stop. But a lot of kind of controlled iron shots, for sure. You have to. I mean there's a few kind of front pins where you almost want to let the wind eat it up a little bit so it stops faster. But driver, really, I was just full swing, trying to hit it solid. If you hit it solid, it should get through the wind pretty well. Q. What's your comfort level like? You had a couple West Coast starts. With those under your belt, it's kind of a laid‑back atmosphere here, what's the comfort level like? BRANDON HAGY: It's super laid back. So I mean that helps. Pebble definitely gave me some confidence, boost of confidence. I got in Sunday night. I found out, and drove up there Monday, and those three course pro ams, that's all I know so far. I played Humana and Pebble, which are both three‑course pro ams, so this is my first regular PGA TOUR tournament. So I played a really good third round to make the cut at Pebble. I was a few outside the cut. I think I shot 66 at Spyglass, so that really kind of gave me some confidence, so I played pretty well on Sunday. So those experiences help. And really, I missed the cut by one at Humana, my first start, and that taught me a lot just how much each shot matters. Not that I took my foot off the gas the first time, but I played a really good Back 9, and I thought I was probably going to make the cut and I ended up missing by one. You know, so those type of things definitely help. Q. What was the difference between yesterday and today? BRANDON HAGY: Probably the putting. I mean a few more putts today. I hit the ball pretty similar. But I made a few good birdie putts on my front nine, and probably more so the par putts that I made, kind of ten‑footers on the front nine that kind of kept the momentum going a little bit, which you have to have, especially in conditions like this. You want to try and keep making those putts. It's tough to putt with wind like that because you got the wind, the grain. There's so many factors. Q. Last year Chesson came here as a rookie, had a great week. Do you think that could be your story this week? BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. No, I mean that's the plan. You know, I feel like with my length off the tee if I can hit some really good shots, and I feel like I can put myself in better situations to go at pins. So you know, it's just a matter of me controlling my trajectory because I usually hit it pretty high. So if I can control my trajectory and hit some solid shots, I absolutely think I can give myself a chance to win. Q. You are a long hitter. BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. It's definitely a strength of mine, kind of in college and brought it out here, yeah. Q. How difficult is it when you have crosswinds? How can you deal with those? BRANDON HAGY: You have to hit solid. If I hit my driver solid, the wind doesn't affect it as much. You gotta be smart, though. There's holes where, you know, it's into the wind. Like No. 7, I could hit driver on that hole, but I've just been hitting 3‑wood and kind of letting the wind take it and have a little bit longer into the hole. But you know, like No. 12, I think is a perfect example of a hole where I could hit like a 2‑iron or 3‑wood off the tee but I've hit driver both days and I've had like 110 yards in today. So if I hit a solid drive, even into those crosswinds it doesn't affect it too much. Q. How is it for you physically playing in this type of weather? BRANDON HAGY: Well, I think it's a combination‑‑ I mean it's a little humid. The wind‑‑ I mean any wind where it's more than, you know, 10 to 15 miles an hour, it's going to drain you for sure because you just have to focus that much more. But it's not‑‑ I mean it's not raining. I mean the weather is really nice. Q. Congratulations after playing two rounds. To get into the PGA TOUR, you got sponsor invite this week. So the qualifiers, how many have you tried since you turned pro, the qualifiers? BRANDON HAGY: I've done at least three prequalifiers. I made it through all of those, and I've done probably close to‑‑ I've done three PGA Mondays, missed those, and I've done close to five Web Mondays and missed those, too. It's very tough. And I mean those Monday qualifiers, you really‑‑ I mean it depends on the conditions, but you gotta be shooting 66 or lower. And I've played pretty well. I mean I've almost shot under par in every qualifier, but you gotta take it low in those qualifiers for sure. Q. Are you feeling happy that you made the cut so that might pass you into the prequalifiers? BRANDON HAGY: That's nice. Making the cut at Pebble, that got me through that. But to be honest, I don't want to be thinking about that. I want to be thinking about playing well in the tournament and finishing high on the leaderboard. Q. It was a great team you had at Cal‑Berkeley. How satisfying and inspiring James Hahn, I'm sorry, I know you didn't play at the same time, but the story that he came through. BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. I don't know names really well, but he did practice with us a little bit when I was at school. I'd see him every once in a while, because he's from that area. He's a great guy, really funny. I saw he gave me and Max a shoutout in his press conference after Riviera. But it's cool to see more and more of the Berkeley golfers playing well. Max Homa, he was in my same recruiting year as me. He's made it on TOUR and he's playing well. Joel Salter, my roommate, he's playing on the Challenge Tour now. Michael Weaver, who was my same recruiting year, he's doing well also. So it's neat to see that. And you have some older guys, too, Charlie Wi, who actually‑‑ he's from my hometown, went to my same high school and went to Cal. So I've known Charlie a little bit growing up. So it's neat to see some more Cal players, for sure. Q. Baseball chicks love the long ball, but golf wise, still love the long drives. It's pretty attractive. Do you have any stories on how like crack a golf ball or like the speed, can you like relate to it, like ball speed? BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. I've only cracked one driver. So Ping, I guess, makes pretty good clubs. I don't know. But no, I don't know. I think it's just kind of a combination of over the years just gradually adding yardage and getting my swing a little bit better so I could swing harder at it and hit it straighter. At Pebble I was definitely surprised that I got it to 190 ball speed. I've never really, you know, practicing and at lessons never got it that high, but when I saw that after the tournament I was like, that's pretty fast. But yeah, I don't have any like crazy stories I guess for you. Q. The five years you spent at Berkeley, did you play with any other‑‑ I know you played a lot of international amateur events as well. Did you play with anybody that you were impressed? BRANDON HAGY: I haven't played with anyone that I thought could consistently outdrive me. I played‑‑ there's one guy that plays at New Mexico, Gavin Green, who kills the ball. We played last year together in Arizona's tournament in the final group and on the first tee, I know Gavin pretty well and on the first tee I told him, Gavin, we're having a long drive contest on every hole. It's going to happen today. So I think we ended up tied like at the end of the day. So he hits his irons way farther than me, for sure. So it's pretty close with him. Q. There's no Shotlink this week, but like downwind, 18th hole, have you had‑‑ what did you have into that? BRANDON HAGY: Yeah, today, I hit it in the right trees. I hit a tree, so I had pretty far in. Yesterday I had 250 front in the right rough, and I hit 4‑iron into the green. So that was yesterday. I made birdie both days. I laid up today, made birdie and had a chip yesterday, made birdie. So I guess different ways to make birdie. Q. (Indiscernible)? BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. Pretty downwind, and it was between four and five, but for that pin I wanted to be past it, and it got a little bit of flier and went over. Q. When you won in college‑‑ people know about Haskins and Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. When you won the Byron Nelson, what's that like? BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. It's a tremendous honor. The Byron Nelson is a combination of golf, academics and community service. That was a big part of my experience at Cal was redshirting my second year, getting into the business school, doing well on the academic side, being a student athlete. So tremendous honor to win that award and be associated with Byron Nelson is pretty neat. So I definitely take that very seriously. Q. Did you feel a little bit overlooked? You played so consistently well, but other guys sometimes would get the spotlights. BRANDON HAGY: Yeah. I think for me it was‑‑ I gradually got better. Like I wasn't just like immediate breakout, right, so like my junior career, like I was pretty good, but got overlooked by some schools, you know, that I wanted to go to. I mean Cal was‑‑ don't get me wrong, an incredible experience. And even in college, like my freshmen year I played a lot of events but didn't play great and kind of my junior year I started to play better and my senior year I played great. So I think it's kind of‑‑ I'm not surprised. I mean I didn't win a lot of amateur events. I mean I won four college events, but I made it to the semis of the U. S. Am in 2012. So that was pretty big. But you know, I didn't win it. But I think your first comment just consistent play definitely describes my amateur career. I had a lot of high finishes and good events. I didn't win a lot of them, but I was definitely there. Q. What was the difference in your game then compared to today and yesterday where you've been able to put it all together? BRANDON HAGY: Well, yesterday I would have not qualified if I was in a Monday qualifier. So I think the biggest difference is a Monday qualifier is one day. A tournament is four rounds. Right? Even today, I mean today I probably would have maybe qualified‑‑ I mean who knows what the afternoon is going to do, but today I would probably be close to qualifying; right? So a tournament is more working your way into an event and playing steady whereas a Monday qualifier you have to get off to a good start or you're going to be behind the eight ball. So I don't think it's really a huge difference of my play and those qualifiers as opposed to this tournament. I definitely I made some putts today, which helps. Q. Swing instructor, anybody you work with and also your keys to the long drive? BRANDON HAGY: Brady Riggs. I work with Brady Riggs. He's a top 100 teaching professional. He works out of Van Nuys near my hometown in Southern California. I've worked with him for over ten years. So we have a great relationship, and it's really more of a friend relationship as opposed to a coach. So that's been‑‑ he's been an incredible influence on me. When I first went to him I definitely had flaws in my swing and game and he's really kind of nurtured me along. I also started working with a short game coach this last year, which has really helped, Kevin Lozares. He's in the Bay area. That's how I got to know him, being up at Cal. So that's been a big help. And then with the driver, I mean I think it helped that I played other sports in high school. I played football and basketball, and you know, I think just being athletic and doing those sports, and I have worked out pretty much my whole life. My cousin runs a training facility in my hometown. It's called Proactive Sports Performance. They train a bunch of Combine guys. They had Clay Matthews, Aaron Rodgers, Colin Kaepernick. They had Nick Swisher of the Yankees. I'm not sure what team he plays for now, but a lot of high‑profile athletes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing like football workouts. They have some TPI‑certified trainers there that I work golf‑specific stuff. So I think I've gained a little bit of distance since turning pro just because I've had more time to devote to that. And not necessarily‑‑ I've actually lost weight, but I've gotten stronger, and I think that's definitely been a bigger part of being a professional so far. Q. What was your position in basketball and football? BRANDON HAGY: Point guard and quarterback. Q. Was that high school? BRANDON HAGY: High school. Yeah. My freshmen year. I stopped after my freshmen year. So nothing crazy. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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