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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2017

Stewart Hagestad

Augusta, Georgia

Q. Good playing.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, it's nice.

Q. Who were all those people?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Oh, they were just buddies. I went to high school in South Carolina and then went to school in L.A. and grew up in Orange County and went to work in New York. And they're just a bunch of buddies from kind of all over. So, I'm just fired up that they're here.

Q. Who coordinated the shirt color?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I was going to wear this shirt regardless. And when they all saw that I was wearing this ‑‑ I guess they all went out and coordinated and bought those shirts for today and ironically it just worked out that way, so.

Q. What high school in South Carolina?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I went to the International Junior Golf Academy in South Carolina.

Q. In Hilton Head?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Exactly. And then made my way to SC and was lucky enough to get into the business school.

Q. So it sounds like you had aspirations of professional golf, most kids that go to that and, I mean, did you ever have those?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Oh, of course. Of course. Yeah, I had aspirations for a long, long time, it's honestly something I still think about every day. I'm not going to do it, but, no, I think about it all the time.
But right around the end of my freshman year, sophomore year I kind of realized really just how good these guys are and that was the time I started working every summer, and playing where I could, but setting myself up in other ways just to, down the road, resume building and stuff like that, getting experience. But, yeah, no, I thought about it for a long, long time.

Q. How was today? How did you play today?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I played well early on. I got a little loose on the back nine. My shot under pressure, which is kind of my comfort shot, is just like a hard fade, and I lost it a couple times. But overall I played well‑‑ I don't think I scored quite as well as the last couple days, I didn't make quite as many putts, but I'm right there.
I'm going to go work on a couple things on the range and hopefully tighten up a couple things, but, yeah, I mean, obviously, look, it's a tough golf course regardless of the wind, so it is what it is. But played okay today.

Q. Is it two houses housing everyone and what's kind of a rough estimate of total number of people here supporting you?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I won't get too much into detail, but yeah, there's two. I was supposed to be in the quieter one, even though everyone has dinner over there and it's gotten a little loud. But, yeah, I don't know what they're doing at night, I'm going to bed. Yeah, it's been great.
In terms of how many people are there? Between my friends, my family, and my parents' friends? Well, my parents are divorced, so if you include the two of them, and their respective groups, I would say there's probably close to 30. 30 or 35.
After that second driver I hit from the trees on 13, hopefully we gained a few more friends. So, if you want the address, come on over for dinner, we would love to have you.

Q. You go back with Spieth probably as long as anybody here. He started 10 back on Thursday, but he's right in the mix. What is it about him that kind of allows him to not only the way he plays, but the mental fortitude?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, I mean, I've known JT for that long as well and, I mean, they're just, they both have so much fire power, but in different ways. Obviously, Justin's a little longer, but Jordan's been the best putter I've ever seen for 10 years and it hasn't really changed.
His short game gets better under pressure, he starts hitting better golf shots in the clutch, but a lot of people talk about ‑‑ or maybe I'm wrong on the stats, I don't know ‑‑ but I feel like, in general, people talk about how he's not a great mid or long iron player, but when you hit it to 20 feet and you make every third one, that saves a lot of strokes.
So, I think he has a lot of confidence here and he's very, very comfortable and, obviously, what happened last year was one thing, but I mean the guy still went and birdied 13 and 15 to give himself a chance. That gets overlooked.
So, yeah, I wouldn't at all be surprised, even after Saturday, to see him there tomorrow afternoon. And again he's ranked top‑5 in the world for a reason. He's a total stud and I think this place really sets up for him nicely.

Q. Would you run through those shots on 13, since you mentioned them there a moment ago.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Well, I was a little annoyed with myself, so ‑‑ the only pin I was going to try and hit driver on was the back left pin. That was the only pin that I was going to try and hit driver on to really turn one.
So pretty much exclusively I hit fades. And I blocked one a little right. And then from there I had to keep it underneath the tree. So it was really between a 3‑iron and a driver. And the lie wasn't great. But I had to keep it really low.

Q. Was it in the grass or the straw?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I was in the straw. I was in the straw, yeah. It was between driver and 3‑iron. And it really just came down to trying to keep it as low as I could. Just kind of bunted a little driver out there and, candidly, I think that I thought about the two of them and I was kind of 50/50 in my head and thought the crowd would get a nice little kick out of hitting driver from the straw, so.

Q. And then what did you have?
STEWART HAGESTAD: I think I had 140 in and then hit 9‑iron. Hit an okay 9‑iron. Ended up catching the slope and rolling down to like 40 feet and made a really, really nice 2‑putt.

Q. Did you hear any comments from the crowd that you had driver out? Did they think maybe you were going to take a crack at it or anything? Or were you so zoned in you didn't hear it?
STEWART HAGESTAD: If anyone thought I was going for it from there with driver from the straw, yeah, I don't know.

Q. They see driver and they just kind of get excited.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Maybe, no, yeah, I thought J.D. and I, my caddie and I are pretty vocal and, I mean, I'm sure I made it relatively clear in our dialog or conversation that we were going to lay up. But if someone thought I was going for it, I'm really sorry if I disappointed them.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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