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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2017

Billy Hurley III

Augusta, Georgia

Q. Talk about today and the wind.
BILL HURLEY III: Yeah, it was hard. I played nicely, really. I felt like I played better than 3‑over par, but kind of caught a gust at the wrong time on 15 and made a big number.
And then kind of just the wrong side of the ridge on 16. And that made it tough putting there.
Overall I'm fairly pleased with it. Certainly you wish‑‑ you certainly wish you would never hit it in the water. But I didn't feel like I hit that bad of a shot, just kind of definitely caught a gust there.

Q. What's this experience been like as a first timer? Has it been surreal at times being here?
BILL HURLEY III: Yeah, I think it has. At the same time, you know, it's what I've been doing for eight years, playing professional golf and playing golf tournaments. I'd like to think this is just another one. That's a little naive.
But once we got kind of flowing in the round it was just another golf tournament, so it was fun.

Q. Have you thought about your dad much this week?
BILL HURLEY III: You know, this may have been just as much his dream as mine. And I'm pretty at peace with everything that's happened with my dad. So I don't think about it too much. There was certainly a time a couple of weeks ago when I came down here and I thought about, man, he would really like to see this.
But thankfully for me, as I said, I've come to peace and come to terms with that and gotten most of the way towards closure on that. I don't know if you ever get a hundred percent closure. But I am, like I said, at peace with it, so it doesn't flood my emotions with it too much.

Q. The birdie at 14, you're in second‑‑ I think you were second. Were you looking at the board?
BILL HURLEY III: I knew that was obviously very good. I didn't know that I was second, no. And then like I said‑‑ now I know‑‑ but I didn't know then. But like I said, then caught a gust on the wrong side of 15, there.

Q. A wedge?
BILL HURLEY III: Yeah, it was a wedge, had 101 to the hole or something, caught the wind and laid down, and right as I hit it the wind picked up.

Q. Did writing that piece give you some closure?
BILL HURLEY III: That was a big piece of it. That did a long time to do. We started in October or something working on that. And we kind of‑‑ I've got other things going on, so it wasn't exactly the top priority. But it was kind of working through that and piecing that together, and finally putting it towards‑‑ and like I said, it was up until the last week we were still making edits and kind of fine tuning it.

Q. When you say "we," who worked with you?
BILL HURLEY III: The Players Tribune helped me, the editors, then.

Q. You pretty much wrote it?
BILL HURLEY III: Yeah, it was my story. I wouldn't claim to be that great of a writer. I had some help in that regard. But, yeah, it's my story. And it's how we wanted it to be portrayed.

Q. Do you walk away from today going, geez, I had it 2‑under, or do you walk away going, by the time today is over, 3‑over probably won't be a bad score?
BILL HURLEY III: Both, I think. Even getting it in the clubhouse under par, which wouldn't have been that off the planet to do, or that unrealistic to do, and given where I was. So a little disappointing in that, but I do think at the end of the day 3‑over is not going to be that bad.

Q. When you said you came down here a few weeks ago, how much did you play? How many days did you stay?
BILL HURLEY III: I played three days here. One in December and two in March.

Q. You have a lot of family and friends here. What's it like at night, in the evenings for you?
BILL HURLEY III: I try and just retreat. It's fun to have them around. But at some point I've got to focus on the job. We have two houses to make that help little bit.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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