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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 1, 2018

Billy Horschel

Scottsdale, Arizona

Q. Impressive opening round, 5-under on the day. How satisfied are you with your opening round?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Really good. Last year I struggled getting off to a really good start, so it's nice to come out here and play a good round, bogey-free round, 5-under par, I'll take it.

Q. Talk about how the course kind of changes, you start in the morning wave and it's freezing out here and then it warms up really quick.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it does. Obviously the ball doesn't travel very far, the greens are still frozen a little bit from the night, but once the temperature rises, the greens soften up, you can be a little aggressive. But it was weird out there today, the pins were tucked and it felt like Sunday pin locations out there.

Q. How about the atmosphere out here, day one, the crowds are already loud and at it starting in the morning?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, the crowds were loud. It's funny, when you get over there you see -- I played behind Rickie and Hideki and Phil and Jon Rahm and Xander, I mean it was thousands of people watching them -- so then when we got up on the green there was no one. So, yeah, obviously certain groups attract a lot more players and that's awesome. I love it being out here, the energy's awesome, it's a lot of fun.

Q. Bogey-free 5-under 66 to start today, just a few comments about the nice start.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it was nice. All last year I struggled getting off to a good start, I was probably 170 something on TOUR in first round stroke average, so it was nice to get off to a good start, something that my team and I really worked hard on in the off-season, trying to figure out why that was and it's nice to have that happen. Especially seeing I didn't feel good about my game today. I've been hitting it really good the last few weeks and today it just felt a little off. It's nice when my mishit shots still go straight and I guess I can thank Bob Parsons for that because I'm playing some new PXG irons, generation two of the 0311T, so my mishits go a lot straighter and go a lot farther than they have been, so I can thank him for that.

Q. Were you able to, without getting into too many details, pinpoint what was the issue with that first round scoring average?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, my head. We tried chopping it off, but we realized if that happened it wasn't going to be a good scenario. So I would just, really I think it was me just being too anxious, too nervous, too excited to get the first round going and a little bit of it was not hitting the ball really well last year. So that doesn't help, especially when that's the strength of my game, so I'm going to be a little bit more on edge. So we worked hard on just ball striking a lot this off season and it saved me. It saved me and my short game's improved tremendously, something that we have been working a lot on and, yeah, it's been really a lot of good stuff been happening early in the season that we're pretty pleased with.

Q. Rickie was just up here and he said he was a little disappointed in some of the things that were said out at 16. What was your reaction to the environment out there this morning?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I had nothing said. Obviously 16 is 16. Obviously there's going to be some idiots out there that say some things, but 29 -- how many people you can fit in there -- there's probably 15 idiots in there. Only thing that got said to me was I heard that damn Noles chant going on which obviously I hear that a lot, so it's all in good fun. I have fun with 16, I think I've embraced it from day one and I think the fans treat me very well and I never had any issues over there. But obviously there's some fans that take it too far and they should be booted out of this tournament right away.

Q. How come you think that hole atmosphere hasn't been replicated more around the TOUR?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Why? It shouldn't. No tournament should copy 16. The thing about 16, what makes it 16 is it's a 150-yard hole, there's no trouble, you're never going to make worse than 9 -- I mean --

(Laughter.)

You're never going to make worse than bogey, really. You're hitting a 9-iron at most. So it shouldn't be replicated. There's certain holes that try to replicate it. I love the Honda Classic, it's a great event, PGA National is a great venue, the staff do a great job. Unfortunately, the fans on 17 have become a little bit like 16 out here. And that 17th hole, yeah, it makes people's, you get a little tight on that hole. So it's a tough tee shot. But you shouldn't copy it. This is a one-week event a year, just the crowds that come in, the fans, I mean, no other tournament should copy it. I don't think it should be, and that's it. Every player on TOUR feels the same way.

Q. Nice round of golf, 5-under par, including a birdie at your 18th hole, the 9th.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it was a really good day. Last year I got off to really bad starts in the first round, I know I was near the end of the stats in first round scoring average, so it's something that we focused on a lot. And especially seeing I came out and just wasn't feeling great with my swing and I was able to get away with some stuff, play smart and I put some new irons in my bag, PXG generation two of the 0311T and my mishits are a lot better, they're a lot better, they're not nearly as far off line, they go just as far. So that was a big issue too, so maybe that's why my first round scoring average has been better.

Q. If the swing didn't feel good at the start, did it feel good after shooting 5-under?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, it still didn't feel good after shooting 5-under. I'm a perfectionist at heart, so did I hit good shots? Yes. Was I smart and how I swung the club? Yes, in the sense of keeping my tempo nice and smooth, not trying to do anything out of my ability. So yeah, just it's not far off, just little things here and there I'll go work on on the range and hopefully feel a little built more comfortable with it. Like I said, I'm a perfectionist and, is it that far off? No, it's just me being my perfectionist side.

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