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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

January 30, 2020

Billy Horschel

Scottsdale, Arizona

Q. Talk about how it was out there.
BILLY HORSCHEL: Today was a really good round of golf. Any day you shoot 8-under, no bogeys, you can't complain. I played really solid today. Got off to a really good start making a couple good birdies. Didn't take advantage of 13, the par-5, but felt like my game before the this week wasn't in really good shape or was disappointing and my teacher, Todd Anderson was coming in week so we made a couple changes, a couple tweaks to the putting stuff that was a little off. I've been rolling it well and then haven't hit it great at all. And same thing, we just made a couple setup changes that allowed me to have the feels that we like to have a little bit.

So today was great. I just made a lot of putts, which is always a nice thing. I'm a really good putter and then when I'm starting to roll putts from 25-plus feet in, it's an added bonus and that's what I did well today. And I hit some really good shots when I needed to and took advantage it have.

Q. Does it make you nervous when you make some tweaks to your swing or your approach?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Well no, not at all because if you would have seen the way I hit it the last couple weeks and putted it, the tweaks were beneficial, a really big benefit to playing well. Without them, I wouldn't have shot today for sure.

Q. What do you think was the biggest change or the most impactful?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I think for me just the swing. I mean, the putting, my setup gets off a little bit and I didn't know exactly what it was and that was a quick one. The swing, just I haven't been able to have control of my golf ball. I didn't know if I was going to hit it left, right, down the middle, or if I was going to hit it solid. But we worked really well Tuesday for about a couple hours before we went out and played nine holes. Just, we have been working hard the last couple years to try and get back to the ball striking that we're accustomed to. And statistically over the last couple years, it doesn't look bad but to me it's just not as consistent as I want it to be day-in and day-out. So just doing some setup changes that allowed me to have the proper feeling I want on my down swing. Just, it felt comfortable. And it's still not 100 percent. I still get into making a bad swing here or there, but my good swings are really good and my bad ones aren't, they're inside the golf course boundaries now.

Q. Psychologically, does this give you great momentum now going into the next few days?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, it does. Seeing shots that I haven't been able to hit, the last couple weeks, just gives me a big, big boost of confidence. I mean, a perfect example was yesterday in the pro-am number 15, par-5, we probably would have laid up in a tournament, but we had 260 to the pin or 255 front, something like that, and we said, It's a pro-am, let's just go ahead and go for it, let's test the swing out, and I hit this beautiful 5-wood that was straight as an arrow, hit it to 10 feet. So that gave, gives me confidence. I mean, seeing it on the range is one thing, but seeing it on the golf course and being able to do it on the golf course is another. So the work that we have done the last two days was a success and whether that translated over to the tournament, I'm not sure. I wasn't sure. But I knew that it was a successful week already and it was just nice to come out and be able to do what we were trying to do with the golf swing out on the golf course when it mattered.

Q. What has a bigger affect on you when you see, like, you made, as you mentioned, a couple long ones, 40-footers, so forth, seeing that go in or seeing like a 6-footer for par go in?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I think par saves are always bigger. The par save I made on 7 was nice. Didn't hit a great iron shot. That was one of the bad swings we made coming in and just, I think anytime you can not drop a golf shot is huge and that's a really big thing for me. My bogey avoidance, historically, has been really good. No one likes making bogeys, but if I can keep my bogey avoidance down, that means that I'm always going to have a really good chance to contend that week.

Q. Did it feel like the hole was big out there when you're making some of those, a few of those long putts?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't know. The hole doesn't look bigger. I think what just, what happens is I just see a line or I see a track towards the hole, really more defined, and so then the goal is just hit it with the right speed. And I feel like if it gets around the hole, the ball's going to find some way to go in the hole. Sneds jokes around, he knows when he's putting good when the ball's trying to find its way in the hole instead of trying to find a way to miss.

Q. There have been a lot of guys that have come through here that have said this is as good as they have ever seen the greens here. Did part of that, you agree? And did that maybe contribute to rolling it so well today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah I think the greens have been really good shape the last couple years. There surely aren't any thin areas out there that there's been in the past. I mean, I think we all know coming here every year there are just a lot of divots in the fairways and a lot of pitch marks on the greens. It's just a golf course that gets beat up with play, historically, before we get here. But it's always in really good shape. They do a really good job even with dealing with 150, 200 people playing all the way up until Saturday before the event, of taking care of the golf course. But, yeah the greens are by far the best I think I've seen them in sense of health-wise and sense of grass and not having any bare areas around the edge of the greens or anything else.

Q. We talk so much about what it's like to be a golfer on the 16th hole. What do you think it would be like to be a sign holder when you know that no one's going to be quiet, but you have to hold up the sign anyway.
BILLY HORSCHEL: It's a pointless job. I mean it's a job out here that you should just not even. I mean, there is no reason to make your shoulder tired by holding up a sign all day, just go ahead and keep it down because no one's going to listen. But, I mean, they have got a great spot to watch some really exciting shots be hit in and also see some unique things in the crowd throughout the week.

Q. Did the crowd respond to you as your score got lower and lower? Did you feel that?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I was on the front side so there was no one out there watching, it's a ghost town, especially when you tee off the back side in the afternoon, it's ghost city over there and it's nice to play like that. It doesn't even feel like we're at this event.

But 16's a great atmosphere, I love it, I have historically done really well. I would say if you look over the last five, seven years I think my scoring average on that hole would be top-5, top-10. I just seem to hit really good golf shots there and make putts. I love to please the crowd and get them going. So, yeah, I love this, I love this event, it's always an event that I want to play really well in, I've probably put too much pressure on myself over the last couple years to try and today I just woke up with a sense of calm and ease and it was like whatever happens today happens.

Q. What's the most unique thing you've seen on 16 in the stands?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I mean probably something I shouldn't say, I'm not going to say. I mean, there's, we can always, we can -- we all have stories and I don't have any PG stories that I can come up with right now. But let's just say you see unique things or you hear about unique things that happen throughout the week that sort of you scratch your head about.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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