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CAREERBUILDER CHALLENGE

January 17, 2018

Adam Hadwin

La Quinta, California

MARK WILLIAMS: Like to welcome Adam Hadwin to the CareerBuilder Challenge interview room. Adam finished runner-up last year. Thanks for joining us. This is kind of where it all started last season for you. You come back to the spot where you were one of eight guys on the PGA TOUR to shoot sub-60 around here with a third round 59 at La Quinta. That was some good memories, but that kind of led on to a pretty amazing year. But just if you could just recall that day and just give us an impression of what it's been like a year's gone by now, but what's the reaction been like, etcetera, everywhere you've gone.

ADAM HADWIN: It's hard to imagine it's been a year. Time's certainly has flown by. But a lot of good memories here in the desert. My first Canadian TOUR win was here, final group last two years here, and it's always nice to start the year making a bunch of birdies and getting the confidence going, especially before heading for Torrey. I feel very comfortable here, very at home, lots of Canadians, so it's always fun to play well in front of those crowds and hopefully looking forward to another good week.

MARK WILLIAMS: I mentioned it was where it all started for the year and you had an amazing year. You went on and won the Valspar in Tampa, I think you got married, and you bought a house, and you ended up making the Presidents Cup team, so there's a lot of things to deal with for you in that year. Can you just kind of sit back and think, well how do I top that now.

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I remember when I finished fourth at Canadian Open in 2011 and I kind of remembered it thinking to myself, I don't want this to define my career, I don't want to kind of be have that one good finish and never kind of play on the PGA TOUR, I guess. I've gotten myself here and I don't want that one win to sort of be I guess for my career, we're always chasing more, but I mean obviously it's going to be difficult to top. Last year was pretty fun, both personally and professionally. Just go out and keep working hard and keep trying to put myself in a position to win golf tournaments and having done that, now I understand a little bit more of what it takes and hopefully do it a few more times.

MARK WILLIAMS: The other thing that you achieved last year too or last season was making the TOUR Championship finishing 26th in the FedExCup, which is an, as we talked about yesterday, it's a high priority for guys to make that TOUR Championship. Just talk about what you'll need to do to get back there again this year.

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, making the TOUR Championship is kind of critical. If you talk to the guy that finishes 31st and the guy that finishes 30th, the amount of events that the 30th guy is going to get over the 31st guy is pretty big. It was a big stepping stone in my career last year. You just kind of have to be in every shot every week and it's difficult to do, especially early in the season, especially this wrap around season late in the fall after such a long year and Presidents Cup and all that, it was very hard to just kind of stay focused and get through and I don't think I did a very good job of that in the fall, but a couple months off now, kind of refreshed both mentally and physically, and just kind of get out there and have some fun again and enjoy it again. I think I just put too much pressure on myself there towards the end of the year last year, so just kind of go look at it as a fresh start again this year.

MARK WILLIAMS: Take some questions, please.

Q. Welcome back.
ADAM HADWIN: Thank you.

Q. Everybody focuses on the 59, but the truth is the last eight rounds you played here have been very, very good. What about desert golf and you click? Because like you said, you won on the Canadian TOUR here too.
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, that's a good question. I think partly the way the courses are set up and designed, it kind of suits my eye. Living in Phoenix for the last seven years or so now it's kind of all the golf that I've seen, mostly. So the way it sets up, the way the grass is, the way the greens are, this is what I grew up putting on as well, so I love putting on the West Coast. I feel like chipping from around the greens seems a lot easier, just the way the grass is. I struggle with Bermuda still and so I kind of like to make hay on the West Coast when I can. And you can't discount the Canadian factor as well here in the desert. I think we double the population when wintertime comes around, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know, but.

Q. It's a bad thing when you're driving down 111.
ADAM HADWIN: Listen, I'm only here for a week, so. But the crowds are great. Always get a lot of fan support here. It's nice to play well in front of them.

Q. The other question would be, which got more questions from fans last year, your victory or the 59?
ADAM HADWIN: That's a good question. It's probably split pretty much. I think they just bring it up both of them at the same time. "Congrats on the 59 and the win." 59's usually mentioned first though, if that means anything, I guess.

MARK WILLIAMS: Do you have a preference of the rotation that you play? It was a third round at La Quinta this year and it looks like it's going to your third round again. You're starting at the Nicklaus with Kevin Kisner. Is there any preference or is there any advantage on starting on one of these courses versus another?

ADAM HADWIN: Unless the weather is going to play a factor, which is usually doesn't. It looks like it's going to get colder on the weekend. So maybe not having to play Stadium when it gets chilly might help a little bit. But other than that, maybe last year I think I caught a little bit of a break being at La Quinta during the windy day. It blows a little bit more out here than it does at La Quinta. But as far as the rotation goes, no, just depends on where you catch a little bit of wind and where you go.

Q. That was my question, which was, last year you shot the 59 on Saturday at La Quinta, this year I think you're La Quinta on Saturday again.
ADAM HADWIN: I am, yeah. And if I'm in the same position on 18, I'm gunning for 58 this year, not playing safe for 59.

Q. Jon Rahm was in here and he said the courses really don't, which course he plays really doesn't matter to him except he's a little more familiar with Nicklaus. So you don't necessarily think that -- I mean La Quinta and the Nicklaus are the easier courses in terms of scoring maybe, but certainly doesn't matter the rotation?
ADAM HADWIN: Not the rotation, no. I've played here since 2011 Q-School, so I've played these courses more times than I can probably count. So I don't know, I mean maybe you could dive into it and maybe think that starting off the Nicklaus, getting comfortable, a little easier to hit fairways, maybe make a couple putts. But at the same time if you're a couple over early, then you start to press and it could be worse. So it can go either way, but personally I don't care.

Q. You make 13 birdies it doesn't matter.
ADAM HADWIN: Exactly.

Q. What's the kind of flow when you have to play with ams, obviously it's not something you do on a normal basis. Is there anything you a just, obviously playing a little bit slower than normal, anything else?
ADAM HADWIN: Maybe just walk a little slower, that's probably it. You don't want anything to change once you gets over the golf ball. You don't want anything to change when you're deciding on a club. Just want to get in there and stick to the same rhythm, same routine. But you're probably going to be waiting on par-5s, par-3s, stuff like that, so walk a little slower, hopefully get a good couple guys to play with and you can joke around and enjoy the day, because you certainly spend a lot of time with each other.

Q. Right, but in terms of the patience that you have to have, not saying these guys are terrible players, but you mentioned walking slower, do you notice you talk more, just to kind of stay in the moment a little bit?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, sometimes. I guess it depends on who you're playing with. Kevin's a pretty good guy, so it should be a very easy group to kind of get along and chat. Played with Colt last year and Colt's always a great guy to play with, he's very comfortable, very easygoing. So I think from an am standpoint you just hope somebody just wants to enjoy the day and isn't out there trying too hard, but you just -- I find sometimes if you can kind of focus almost on their day and make their day a little bit more enjoyable it takes some of the pressure off your round and you kind of, you get into focus when you need to and then you get out of focus when you're just kind of walking and chatting.

Q. Do you get have you gotten used to the bigger galleries here yet, obviously a lot of Canadians want to follow you. Your success, the 59, everybody was around you. First of all, do you get used to that and would you say this is the biggest, besides maybe in Canada, the following you get when you play around?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, pretty close. Tampa was pretty good last year as well, obviously being final groups on the weekend there, but outside of Canada, probably here and Tampa for sure. Like I said, there's so many Canadians here and I don't know if you ever get used to it, but it's part of our job, it's part of what we do, and I think it's fun. I enjoy it. Obviously, I want to go off and show off and play well in front of it, but if nothing else I think it helps my demeanor on the golf course. I can be a little bit calmer because I know I can't act up in front of a bunch of people. So I really enjoy that part of it some days, yeah.

MARK WILLIAMS: Just going back to the Presidents Cup again, leading up to that event you making the team at the playoff events and there was a lot of pressure and a lot of questions that you were answering. Now that you've played in it and had time to reflect on it, what was the experience like for you looking back on it now? Was there anything that stood out maybe that wasn't on the golf course, maybe off the golf course, what was the thing that really stood out for you.

ADAM HADWIN: First of all, it was an incredible experience, I could probably run out of adjectives -- great, incredible, awesome -- pretty quickly for it. Unless you're sort of in the team rooms and around it and experiencing it all, it's really hard to kind of portray what went on. But to be in the same room as some of the best players in the world, you look at Leishman and Grace and Adam and Jason and just to spend a little bit more time with those guys, understand what they kind of go through on a regular basis, kind of watch them, see how they handle things, see how they act. It was a lot of fun. Huge learning experience for me. Unfortunately, we got trounced, but we got another shot in Melbourne.

MARK WILLIAMS: Just a little note that the Maui tournament, the Sentry Tournament of Champions was Adam's 100th event on the PGA TOUR, so he's turning the page on a new century, so good luck in the next century.

ADAM HADWIN: Thank you, Mark.

MARK WILLIAMS: Appreciate it. Good luck, Adam.

ADAM HADWIN: Thank you.

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