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SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 3, 2019

Gary Woodland

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

GARY WOODLAND: If you're ever going to do it this is not a bad place to do it. Obviously the walk is huge, so we slowed down. We actually the pace of play was actually pretty nice. We didn't wait very much knowing that we needed to slow down. So we walked around, saw the pins where they were at tomorrow, kind of talked a little bit about tomorrow. And we're probably not going to dinner, we talked enough today, the caddie and I. So it was nice though. The weather was perfect and I played great, which helps.

Q. I was wondering if there's any disadvantage to not having a partner where you couldn't see his putts, couldn't maybe if you didn't have the honor, see how the wind was affecting shots.
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, maybe you know obviously the par-3s it's nice to club off somebody. Kevin and I played enough golf where we could have done that today, but it was nice to be out here. Obviously you're in Hawaii, my game, like I say it helps when you play well, that kind of puts everything out of the question. But it was nice to get some pins done for tomorrow and kind of see where they're at and game plan for tomorrow. But it didn't distract us too much.

Q. Putting well down the stretch. The unfortunate lipout there at 16 but a great read and then the make at 17 and then coming back with that 14-footer. Talk to me about those three holes.
GARY WOODLAND: I hit the first one, the lipout, I hit it a little too hard, but can I live with that. I hit the putts today right where I was looking. Made a couple early that was nice and to kind of get the confidence going and that was a nice one to finish. Didn't hit a very good chip and didn't want to leave that par-5 on the last one a par. So it was nice to make that there.

Q. Assess your round out there today.
GARY WOODLAND: It was nice. I drove the golf ball well, controlled the balls into the greens well and I putted well. So all in all I had everything working today, which was nice.

Q. Especially ball striking especially this place, especially with this kind of wind is very key. You talked about it earlier this week that you really feel confident where your game is. Did that kind of show today in how you played?
GARY WOODLAND: Definitely. I drove the golf ball and gave myself some good chances. I've been here for a couple days now, we came over early, so it's been blowing every day, so I'm kind of used to the wind, which is nice. But I definitely controlled the balls into the greens. I kept it below the hole and gave myself a lot of opportunities and it was nice to knock some in.

Q. Some of the new rules that come into effect this year, did you have any situations out there using the new rules?
GARY WOODLAND: I didn't. There was some spike marks that we tapped down, which was nice. We even talked about it yesterday, putting with the flag in in the pro-am, but we forgot to do it every hole, we haven't done it yet. So it was interesting playing by myself, I didn't have anybody to talk to, but the rules, for the most part today I kept it in the middle of the fairway and hit it on the greens it was pretty easy.

Q. Have you ever had a situation like that playing by yourself in a PGA TOUR event?
GARY WOODLAND: I played by myself at East Lake but I was first off. But never in the middle of a tournament where we had to slow down. It was an adjustment we made early though, it was nice, we kind of scouted where the pins are tomorrow and kind of game planned for that, but it was, if you're going to walk by yourself, this isn't a bad spot.

Q. Talk about the switch to Wilson.
GARY WOODLAND: It's been great. I did some testing this off season -- my contract with TaylorMade was up, the only thing I had was a driver deal -- and I did a lot of testing with irons. I didn't really feel like I needed to switch a driver, so it was more focused on the irons and I fell in love with the Wilson irons so the deal was pretty easy from there. I'm still doing work, doing work with the driver, it's getting pretty close, but all in all it's been a great switch, they have been great to work with and I'm excited about it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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