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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 9, 2018

Beau Hossler

Pebble Beach, California

DOUG MILNE: We'll go ahead and get started. Like to welcome Beau Hossler. Thanks for joining us for a few minutes of the off to great start at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. 65, 67 to start. No bogeys so far on your card. So clearly got things working your way. Just a few comments on 67 today at Spyglass.

BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah it was a solid round. Got the ball in play nicely off the tee, got myself some good birdie looks and kind of tried to take advantage on holes that were get able today and try to make pars on some of the really tough par-4s out there.

DOUG MILNE: You're off to a great season, missed one cut in nine starts before this week and coming off a good finish last week in Phoenix. Can you kind of pinpoint a few things that are working well for you?

BEAU HOSSLER: I just had a pretty consistent game plan, haven't tried to do anything crazy. The thing is with golf you got to be pretty patient. I've just really tried to focus on my game plan hit to a lot of the middle of the greens with longer clubs, try and be more aggressive with the wedges and kind of take what the golf course gives me and fortunately it's been coming around a little bit.

DOUG MILNE: Open it up for questions.

Q. I think this is your fifth straight week playing. What's the challenge making sure that you're mentally and physically sharp each week as each of these weeks goes on and also you're still playing well, is it going to be hard to finally take a week off?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah, it's certainly a challenge, but I played a little bit more than five in a row last year, so I feel good about where I'm at now physically, especially coming off that break we had about six weeks off for winter there, so physically I feel good, mentally I feel good, and like you said, my game's coming around right now. So it's nice to be playing well while I'm playing well and at the same time you got to rest up at some point too, so the West Coast Swing is really nice, it's all the golf courses are great, I played a good amount of them and definitely want to take advantage of that.

Q. Are you playing next week?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yes.

Q. What were some of your better birdies today, since we didn't really have any data. Maybe 12 or you got the par-5s, most of them anyway, right?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah, I had a nice one on 12 there. Hit a 7-iron to about four, five feet. That can sometimes be a little bit tricky par-3. So that was good. Made another good one on 18. Then the par-5s were pretty nice to me today. They were pretty gettable out there but you just can't really take them for granted at all.

Q. What did you do on 18?
BEAU HOSSLER: On 18? I hit a 50 degree to 12 feet and made a good putt there.

Q. The other thing is, I think Pebble yesterday outside of 18 which was a good par when the wind came up. 10 you had a nice par save out of the bunker. Any, anything close to a bogey today over what was your best save if there was one?
BEAU HOSSLER: Not particularly. I had, I missed a couple greens but I chipped it relatively close and didn't really have anything crazy left for par. So it all starts off the tee. I was getting the ball in a good spot off the tee and was able to get some shorter clubs from the fairway. I can be relatively aggressive with those, but still be kind of cautiously aggressive and gave myself a lot of good birdie looks.

Q. When you look at this leaderboard and you see guys that you played with in college like Jon Rahm, Aaron Wise, Zalatoris, does that help your confidence going into the weekend knowing that you beat these guys many times?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah, I haven't really looked at the leaderboard, but if all those guys are up at the top it's, I've always said even since I was in college that I felt like the best players out there could when they're playing well compete out here. And I still feel that way. Now that we have all kind of jumped to the pro ranks we're still pretty young, but with that being said I think the young guys can be competitive out here and I think guys like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas have proven that.

Q. You talked about your game plan as a key. Can you expand a little bit?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah, I just, I've tried to focus on attacking the golf course when the shots are available to me. Whether that be me getting in the fairway and having a wedge in or sometimes having a 6-iron with a gettable pin location. But before kind of last year I made some mistakes in some TOUR events where I was getting too aggressive with longer clubs and the way the courses are setup week-in and week-out out here you just can't really make those mistakes and I think I've been pretty disciplined and have stuck to that game plan and that doesn't mean the bad rounds aren't going to happen, but hopefully they just happen a little bit less.

Q. Speaking of aggressive, when you get greens like this that are not only poa annua but get a lot of traffic on them do you have any type of anti-aggressiveness when you get 18, 20 feet to make sure you don't have three coming back?
BEAU HOSSLER: Yeah, certainly you want to kind of try and die them in. It's kind of a Catch-22 there because if you really want to make mid-range putts, they need to have pace at the hole. But if you're going to do that you're going to have three, four feet coming back and those are the knee knockers that you don't want on these type of greens. So certainly leaving the ball below the hole is important, just because you're obviously able to make a more aggressive stroke and that's kind of where I got kind of handcuffed today a little bit, left a few shots that I hit good shots as far as proximity, eight to 15 feet, but they were kind of downhill, side hill putts and like you said, I can't be that aggressive on those. So it will be key the next couple days to try and keep the ball below the hole where I can make good, confident aggressive strokes.

Q. Have you found yourself spending more time over 3-footers here than you did in say Phoenix?
BEAU HOSSLER: I don't think you really gain anything by spending any more time, just because sometimes it's a little bit of a crap shoot, especially late in the afternoon and you get greens that are near the ocean for whatever reason those seem to be kind of the softest, spongiest and sometimes the bumpiest greens around the hole. So I try and make a stroke like it's a perfect green and kind of live with the result. More than likely there's going to be some putts that you hit good putts and they don't go in and I guarantee you that's going to happen to all 156 guys playing this week.

Q. The other thing and I maybe you can relate this to Palm Springs, just the dynamic of being tied for the lead, being around the lead, going into Saturday, and you're away from the action. Different golf course, you're not with the people who are contending. What that's like.
BEAU HOSSLER: It's a little bit of a different dynamic, but I try and not let those kind of things affect me. I really like MPCC I'm looking forward to playing there tomorrow. But, yeah, any pro-am obviously every day is even if you're not leading it's a little bit of a different format and something that it's nice to have played before, so I'm fortunate to have played here and in Palm Springs this year at the CareerBuilder. So I feel very comfortable with it. But like you said, playing on a moving day type day, not at the home track for the tournament, that's certainly different than really most weeks out here.

Q. Where were you Saturday in Palm Springs?
BEAU HOSSLER: Saturday in Palm Springs? I think I was on the Stadium Course there.

Q. When you played Olympic at age 12 or whatever that was, did you find yourself in awe of anyone that week?
BEAU HOSSLER: I don't know if in awe, but I mean it's always cool to see guys that you've always looked up to competing and also to be competing with them. So tried to kind of learn how they managed themselves, honestly more off the golf course than on. But I'm certainly feeling comfortable out here now. It's taken a little bit of time, I would say, played eight events last year, I think I played what is this my 10th this year. Yeah, so starting to feel really good out here and really comfortable and I know that I can contend and compete out here.

Q. In the 20-odd events you played, amateur, member, what have you, do you pay much attention to anyone else?
BEAU HOSSLER: When I'm playing?

Q. On the group on the range, anywhere.
BEAU HOSSLER: No.

Q. Do you care?
BEAU HOSSLER: Not really, no. No, I try and focus on my own game.

Q. Have you ever been intimidated?
BEAU HOSSLER: I don't think so. There's been some moments in my career that I've kind of stepped into a new arena, but I wouldn't say it's intimidation it's kind of just going used to a whole new facet of the game, really. A whole new level. Whether it's for me going from junior to college golf it took a little bit of an adjustment period there. It took a little bit of an adjustment period for me out here. Certainly didn't take advantage of the starts that I was able to receive last year. Now I feel totally comfortable out here, I feel like I can compete and I feel like I can win at this level and even though I haven't had really a super high finish, I feel like I've proven to myself that I can get in the position to win and now it's just a matter of playing a really solid weekend.

DOUG MILNE: Thanks for your time and best of luck on the weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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