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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 20, 2015Morgan HoffmannORLANDO, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: All right. We'll like to welcome back Morgan Hoffmann to the Interview Room. Morgan, congratulations on a stellar second round, off to a little bit of a hiccup with the bogey at the 1st. You followed that with 9 birdies throughout the rest of the round. 65 today in Round 2 of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. With that, turn it over to you with some comments on whatever we may have missed yesterday (laughter). MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah. You know, just had a nice relaxing night, went to bed earlier, obviously got up early for the tee time today and just try to stay in the routine and my caddy and I pretty much set a game plan for the week and just trying to stick to it and it worked today. DOUG MILNE: Okay. With that we'll take questions. Use microphones to help our transcriber, that would be great. Q. Just wondered if it feels as easy as you're making it look for you right now. MORGAN HOFFMANN: You know, it's not. It's very -- I have to make a very conscious effort on every swing to stick to this cut routine because it's a little different for me but it feels great when I trust it and I hit a few shots, did that were pretty bad but I recovered well and, you know, if I stick to the one feeling that I have it should work out. Q. Couple things, Morgan. One of those was on 15. I'm more curious about your process going to 16 tee when you hit a nice one. MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah. I just try to remember what I've been working on and swinging and I kind of got tentative on the last couple of drives aggressively: I didn't go through my routine. I felt great out there today and kind of got quick and was a little maybe overconfident so I hit that quick hook and then on the next shot I went through my routine and it worked. Q. Just curious, when you went to work last weekend to get away from the straight ball, could you have gone either way? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah. My natural flight is a draw. More control over a cut. Q. Morgan, when you do a streak like you had starting at 3 and running off 6 birdies in 7 holes, are you thinking about anything or is that one of those good times when you just kind of -- everything goes blank and it happens? MORGAN HOFFMANN:  Yeah. I'm trying to birdie every hole out there so it was good. You know, just hitting great putts and good shots into the greens reallying helps. It's nice to hit some greens for a change. This year hasn't been that great and it's a good change. Q. What specifically about the course have you liked, you know, in terms of what you've seen out there in the last two days? Obviously 66 and 65 something has been working well. What about this course has been kind of playing well in your mind these last two days? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I've been playing here since I was a kid, AJGA, Golf Academy for Gary Gilchrist. We always had matches against each other and play a lot of aggressive shots. So, I'm pretty comfortable hitting a bunch of shots into the greens and going at kind of tucked pins because I kind of seen it before which it's really nice. Q. Morgan, Danny said it feels like playing with a monk when he's paired with you. Do you have a different personality between the ropes than outside? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I mean I try and stay pretty even keeled out there, try not to let anything bother me and yeah, I'd say I'm trying to have fun but I'm also very serious and enjoying myself in between shots but when I'm in my routine I'm pretty focused, I think. Q. You like playing with Danny? MORGAN HOFFMANN: He's awesome. I'm not going to tell you what he calls me but when I hit a good shot he's hilarious. Q. (Inaudible). MORGAN HOFFMANN: It's weird. Q. Morgan, let's talk about something serious here. Your bio said you were a hockey defenseman for 7 years. Do you ever put on the skates, grab the sticks and go out to play again? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I was actually supposed to go to Vegas last week to go skate with Gretzky, he has a celebrity and three kind of tournament rounds for hockey. So that would have been fun but I feel a little bit smart and try not to get hurt before the Masters. Q. Morgan, how common is that for you to do a 12 hour range grind after you miss a cut? MORGAN HOFFMANN: It actually hasn't been that common this year. When I was a junior I would go out from dawn till dusk. I'm trying to get back into a good routine and have a day planned out for practice and know exactly what I want to do. It took that long. I'll probably just do that until I start feeling comfortable and when I was a kid like ten years old I used to hit balls all day and that's probably what helped me get here. I'm going to start going back to that I think a little bit. Q. Morgan, I think it was on 12 you ended up getting a shot off the cart path and ended up over by the trees and in the bunker. You still were able to save par on that hole. When you're able to do that two shots that don't end up where you want them and still able to save, is that kind a motivating factor for the last couple holes? MORGAN HOFFMANN: The second shot into the bunker was exactly where I wanted. I tried to hit in that bunker to get up and down there. There was no shot to the green from those trees which that was kind of a fun hole, nice to hit some shots under trees and out of some rough sometimes. No, it's good. It was definitely a good save for birdie. Q. I think it was on 5 did you chip-in or did you putt that in? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Yeah. I was on the fringe.  Putted in. Q. Secondly, what's your plan for tomorrow? You still going to fly down to Ft. Lauderdale? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I'm not sure yet. I was talking to my mom. She was going to have a service in New Jersey this up coming Saturday so I'll probably just do that. My grandmother had a lot of caretakers from the Philippines down there so they're going to have a service for her in that part of the family tomorrow. I'm going to just stay here this weekend and then go out to New York next week. Q. If you had concentrated on hockey, how far do you think you could have gone? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I loved it. If I wasn't playing golf I'd be playing hockey for sure. I would like to think I would have gone pretty far but, you know, I had to pick -- my dad made me pick one sport in high school and it turned out to be the right choice. Q. So you can't really pick two more disparate sports, one is very solitary, one is very team oriented, one is serious cerebral, one is physical. How do you explain that you love them both? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I'm an adrenaline junkie. Golf, it's hard to be calm out there but it really helps me focus and it's a challenge for me. Off the course I like doing a lot of fast action kind of sports and I get my fix off the course. During golf it's the hardest game I think to play and I love a challenge so it's fun for me. Q. You mentioned coming here when you were younger. Did you play in those HP events they had here, I think maybe Rickie one won or Uihlein won the next one. Were you here those couple years they played here, do you remember how did you? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I was, yeah. Yup. I don't remember how I did. I was close to the lead and I didn't finish well coming in but I mean I love this course so it's fun to be back. Q. I guess I'm going to be the one to ask the question. What did you have for breakfast and what did you eat on the golf course? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I had a big breakfast this morning and five eggs, turkey, oatmeal, raspberry, strawberries and then on the course I had turkey breast, sweet potatoes and green beans. Q. Quick golf one, not to slow in interview down, what was your lie and line on 18 and is there any thought not to screw up a nice round? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Not to screw up the last hole. Yeah, I'd like to not screw up the last hole. Yeah, the lie was okay. There's kind of a clump of grass right in front of the ball, the only thing I was worried about, and my line was kind of left center of the green, little left of where I hit it. Right when I hit it I knew it had enough to get to the front of the green so it was good. Q. You may have already kind of answered this question but when you talked about all the aggressive shots and matches and stuff you played here as a kid, does anything stand out, either any match, any shot? I'm looking for a great story here Morgan, pressure is on. MORGAN HOFFMANN: I'm really not that great at remembering things. I played with a kid named Alex "Wopenhain". He used to fly 350. Everyday on No. 6 he would just hit it over the green and chip, get up and down for eagle. The sickest thing I've ever seen. Man, I wish I could do that. Q. Where did he go? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I don't know what he's doing now. Q. This is obviously a big stage for you to try to claim your first PGA TOUR win. Does your comfort on this course maybe ease the pressure a little bit heading into the weekend with such big names, obviously McIlroy is up there, Poulter there, Oosthuizen is up there. Does your comfort here maybe ease the pressure heading into the weekend? MORGAN HOFFMANN: Definitely. I felt great about this year, coming in and I wasn't off to the greatest start. It's a course I'm comfortable on really helps and playing well on top of that is really great. My caddy and I are having fun out there. We have a nice confidence and flow going so hopefully can carry it through the weekend. Q. Curious about one more thing. Walker Cup was '11? MORGAN HOFFMANN: '09 for me. Q. Are you right now where you thought you would be, ahead of schedule, behind schedule, what do you think? MORGAN HOFFMANN: I mean I'm behind my schedule. I would have liked to have won a few times by now. This is my 3rd year out here. It's frustrating but it's obviously the most -- the best guys in the world playing on the PGA TOUR and I mean I'm so lucky to be out here and grateful but I've seen myself a little higher up than what, you know, I've performed and hopefully I can continue down this road that I'm going now. Q. If you could answer this question or not, I don't know, but if you look at your peer group through college and amateur days of Harris and Russell and Patrick and I don't know where Koepka was around there, how much fun is it to be kind of the middle of it now as the generational shift is blossoming? MORGAN HOFFMANN: It's so cool. Coming out here my rookie tee year was pretty tough, kind of nerve-wracking with a lot of older guys out here and most of the guys are pretty nice and a few are very standoffish but now having like the college career that I played against it's pretty awesome. We can go out to dinner, have a lot of matches and it's cool. It feels like college again. Q. Make it easier, do you think seeing guys you grew up playing with -- MORGAN HOFFMANN: There's definitely a comfort zone there for sure. DOUG MILNE: Real quick. If you could just run through your birdies and bogies for us and we'll cut you loose. MORGAN HOFFMANN: All right. No. 1, hit it in the bunker on the right side of the fairway, then bunker again near the green and the greens were a little firmer today so I flew the ball a little far on 1 out of the greenside bunker than I thought and then lipped out on the putt. No. 3 was a good shot, 8-iron in there to I don't know, six feet. It was a putt pretty straight. 4, hit in the bunker just short of the green in 2, got up and down. Hit a 3-wood in there. Had kind of a squirrely lie in the fairway. It was good to make birdie from there. On 5 that was really good one, not expected, kind of just hit -- I had like four feet of fringe to go through and my caddy was like he thought there was no chance of it getting to the hole and actually trickled. It was a bonus. On 8, it was a good hole. Great drive, great second shot, pitching wedge in and good downhill right to lefter. 9, hit it close and with an 8 iron. 12 -- I'm so bad at remembering these things. Cart path. Yeah. As I said earlier, I was in the trees on the right and then punched through to the front bunker. Had a pretty easy bunker shot and hit pretty close out of there and made that birdie and 13, 13 was awesome. The pin is tucked back right. Hit a nice pitching wedge right at it. Was feeling confident there. 15, hit a bad drive and had a really bad lie in the rough and then hit a bad wedge shot. That wasn't the greatest hole but made like a 4-footer for bogey. That was a good save. Then on 16, had -- I was trying to cut a 6-iron and double-crossed it but that was a good up and down from behind the green. DOUG MILNE: All right, Morgan. We hope to see you in the weekend. Thanks. Great round today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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