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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2017

Hudson Swafford

Honolulu, Hawaii

Q. Good start in Hawai'i for you?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: Yeah, absolutely. That's a good start. It's what I needed here.

Q. Anything special you worked on?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: I actually took three weeks off at the beginning of the break, just hung out, went to some weddings, went to the beach. Wasn't playing really good to be honest with you. Was kind of struggling with my game and just did a lot of short game work and got one lesson from my teacher, Scott Hamilton, and just clicked the Monday before I went to Palm Springs.

My wife and I always rent a house in Palm Springs the week before this event. It kind of clicked and everything kind of matched up and saw some nice golf out there on the West Coast and the courses for next week. Just kind of rolled over to this week.

Q. I've got to ask, playing in the afternoon, there's some cat that's posted 59 in the morning. What are your thoughts when you see that?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: I shot 2-under on the front and I made a birdie on 2, or I made a birdie on 3, and my caddie, he goes, "We've got to make seven birdies in the next six holes to catch Justin." So we were kind of laughing about it.

Just a lot of quality golf shots. Give myself chances, so that was nice. I mean, we were kind of joking around all day. It was good.

Q. What was the tip from Scott?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: I was chopping wood, getting laid off and out. So we got a little more, trying to get my hands a little close to my body. Club just a touch outside. Getting it more down the line. It wasn't short game. My short game was pretty good, but I just my iron play was terrible while I was at home.

It was just something really small, just getting my hands a little more in on my takeaway and that was getting the club a little more down the line at the top. Wasn't swiping it across it and having a two-way miss. Just kind of my fault. I get the club going a little way from my body and gets laid off.

So when we got it down the line, it was quick, really. I was really struggling, and went to him and it was a quick fix, just a couple hours. Went to Palm Springs and did some work and saw some good results. This is one of my favorite events.

Q. Why?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: Played well here. It's kind of a golf course that I grew up on. My home golf course is similar to this, short, dogleg, country club. You've got to control your golf ball really well here, and I feel like I do a really good job of that.

Q. What's the beach by your home club?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: It's about 40 minutes, not too far. It's not quite like this, but we've got the bermudarough, bermudagreens. I mean, I love these greens. Some of my favorite all year. I enjoy this trip.

Q. Is this a golf course you feel like you have to dial back on as far as off the tee?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: I would say that more about Harbour Town than this place. I'm not hitting driver everywhere, don't get me wrong, but I hit it more than, like, say, Harbour Town, or a couple other courses like that. So I kind of like that. You can be as aggressive as you want. You can kind of lay back. You know, the rough's kind of penal. You've got to play to the front of the greens, but growing up on bermuda, I feel like I have a good understanding kind of what it does.

Yeah, you've got to dial back a little bit, but you can also -- you can pick your spots. I feel like you can be a little more aggressive here than, say, Harbour Town.

Q. Would you have expected a 62 your first round of the year, and if you did, would you have expected to be three shots behind?
HUDSON SWAFFORD: Probably not a 62. But I saw some good golf last week. I really saw some good golf. Knew that I was doing some good things. Had a nice little 11 holes on Tuesday. Played pretty nice in the Pro-Am. Didn't make too many putts, but knew I was hitting it well. Knew I was stroking it well. I made a few putts today, and 62.

So I knew there was some good golf there. 62 is not quite what I saw opening round but you know, these are probably as soft as I've seen these greens, ever. So you could get it a little closer to the pins and the greens are phenomenal, so you can make some putts.

Q. Three shots back.
HUDSON SWAFFORD: J.T. is I guess playing some good golf right now. Hats off to him, because I felt like I played a pretty good round.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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