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AT&T BYRON NELSON

May 16, 2018

T.J. Vogel

Irving, Texas

SHARON SHIN: Please help me welcome to the Interview Room at the AT&T Byron Nelson, T.J. Vogel.

Congratulations on Monday qualifying for this tournament. Good. Could you kind of talk to us about how grueling that process is for those people who aren't familiar with it?

T.J. VOGEL: It's tough. Before this year, I've only qualified twice in about the span of three years and -- four years. Monday is tough.

You really got to have your good stuff that day and it's tough to just get out of bed and shoot 6 or 7-under.

So, I've been fortunate enough that I've been playing really well. My putter has been hot and that's important for going low.

SHARON SHIN: This event is in the new venue this week. What were your impressions of this course when you were out there practicing?

T.J. VOGEL: I like it. It's different, very different from what we play. Lot of different ways you can play, use the contours around the greens and it's fairly normal off the tee but going into the greens and stuff you really got to be smart and careful with your approaches and make sure you leave it on the correct spot.

SHARON SHIN: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Were you aware of what Patrick Reed did in 2012 about his streak of Monday qualifying?
T.J. VOGEL: I was. It's very cool to be able to qualify for an event and be able to play at this level and, you know, what he did was pretty amazing.

Obviously that's something that I'm striving for and, you know, my number 1 goal is to try to get into the Web Finals through FedExCup and play for my card that way.

I'm a little over halfway. Hopefully I can get a few good events coming up and make it.

Q. He got the nickname Mr. Monday. Has anybody called you that?
T.J. VOGEL: It's Mr. Monday or Monday King.

Q. I'm guessing in these Monday qualifiers you have to have the mentality where you got to go low, you know, as did you and prosper the other day.
Is that difficult to go from that mentality and you switch over to the PGA TOUR event itself? Do you still have that go-for-break-type attitude?

T.J. VOGEL: Yeah. It's definitely a different mentality, different course. I mean these -- obviously the courses on the PGA TOUR are much harder. You have to be much more precise.

Mondays you can basically -- you need to fire at a lot of pins and make birdies and out here, you know, par is never bad and so basically -- I've played in enough, I think this is my 9th start so I've had enough experience to where I know how mostly the courses play.

You know, basically par is never bad. You want to obviously make birdies on the par-5s or try to take advantage of the wedge opportunities that you have and hopefully shoot a few under everyday and that's really good out here.

SHARON SHIN: Anymore questions?

Q. T J, do you have status on any Tour?
T.J. VOGEL: I have Web status. It's just not very good.

Q. So you feel like it's better to go from PGA TOUR Monday qualifiers versus Web?
T.J. VOGEL: Yes. It might even be easier to qualify for this Tour simply because the courses that the PGA TOUR sets the qualifiers up, they're more difficult and sometimes they're not a full field whereas the Web, since there's no pre-qualifier, you have two full fields for six spots each and the courses aren't as tough so I feel like if you take a look at the numbers a lot of the Web qualifiers you have to shoot 8-under and that was a playoff last week in Knoxville, whereas I shoot 6 this week and I'm in no playoff.

I see that happening a lot. So I'm like why wouldn't I just try to go for the PGA ones where you can be rewarded for shooting a 5 or 6 or 7 and get in. Just made more sense. Then you get in, you can make real money on this Tour, you know.

You get in like I did at Quail, finish 59th or whatever, I made I think almost $17,000, you know. That's like a 10th place finish on Web or something similar to that, 15th.

Q. Forgive me, are you through to the Sectional Qualifying U.S. Open, by chance?
T.J. VOGEL: No.

Q. Did you try local?
T.J. VOGEL: I did, unsuccessfully.

Q. Forgive me if I remember this incorrectly, I think I saw in the parings, on Monday pairing, are you from Sugarland? Where are you from?
T.J. VOGEL: I grew up in South Florida, Hollywood.

Q. So has this gotten kind of expensive trying all these Monday -- you sort of did the math just now about if you're successful and you make the cut, I guess it pays for the week but how do you manage, have you been driving to a lot --
T.J. VOGEL: I live in Los Angeles now. It's probably more expensive. It's a long trip but I mean I had a nice finish at Valspar this year and that's pretty much going to fund me for the rest of the year, at least. It is very expensive. You're spending at least a thousand dollars, you know, on flights, hotels, rental car and good.

SHARON SHIN: Anymore questions? One in the back.

Q. You're getting dirty looks from guys on the range on Mondays now when you show up?
T.J. VOGEL: They're just telling me we're playing for three spots this week is what they're telling me.

SHARON SHIN: All right. I'd like to thank T.J. for first time and good luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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