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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

January 31, 2020

Billy Horschel

Scottsdale, Arizona

Q. Rough start, great finish. How do you feel going into the weekend?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I feel good. The game's in a good spot. I think the start was nice, a little shaky, Scotty my caddie said, congratulated me on No. 5 when I finally made a par. But, you know, it was what I expected this morning, I was a little, a little antsy, I didn't sleep very much last night for some reason, or didn't sleep well enough, at least. But came out, I felt good with my warm-up and the thing I've been having the issue with is just taking the tempo I have on the range to the golf course and that was the situation early. I slowed it down and got back into the tempo I like to have on the range and started hitting some really good shots. And we may not have got rewarded for them early on, but we stayed patient, I hit a lot of good putts, I hit two bad putts today I would say that I wasn't very happy with, two 3-putts from short range. But other than that it was a really solid day, especially to birdie 16 which I love doing. Like I said, I've said it for awhile now, I think over the last five, seven years I've got probably one of the best if not top-5 scoring average on that hole. I seem to birdie at least once, twice a year when I come here and I've got one, I'm 1-2 and I got two more rounds to try and get at least one more.

Q. What is it about No. 3 that you make it look pretty easy.
BILLY HORSCHEL: I don't know, I'm not sure what my -- I've just hit really good fairway woods in there. Hit a perfect 5-wood in there yesterday and today was a perfect high cut soft 3-wood into that green and landed it in the only soft spot I guess there is on that green early in the morning when the greens are rock hard and ended up 15 feet behind the hole I think and made a nice eagle putt.

But I think when you make an eagle there the day before it sorts of gives you a little confidence coming into the next day. So I just had really good clubs going in and made really good golf swings.

Q. What's the biggest difference in the player you were when you won the FedExCup and the player you are now?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Oh, well that's a great question. I think I'm a -- my short game for one is a lot better, I can rely on my short game where, back in 2014 I really couldn't. I think consistency-wise I'm a lot better. I may not have shown it over the last, whatever so period of time, but I think consistency-wise I'm a lot better and just the patience and maturing, I mean I think I won the FedExCup at 27 and I'm 33 now. I'm still young, but as you get older you learn and you learn not to get so worked up when things may not be going well or things feel off, you just keep plodding your way around the golf course and that's what I did today. I think today, the start I had, maybe the Billy of six, seven years ago would have, you know, go birdie, bogey, eagle, bogey, you know, would have been a little more flustered. But I just stayed patient and worked it out to do some good stuff going in.

Q. You were at or near the top of the leaderboard last year you're right back here this year. What would it mean to close and be able to hoist the trophy here in Phoenix?
BILLY HORSCHEL: I love Phoenix, the Scottsdale area is awesome. I used to spend quite a couple weeks out of the year, two, three weeks, you add them up together, a few years ago before I had three kids. And I just love this area this time of year. I've been coming to Phoenix now for, man, 15, well, what, 14 years now, 14, 13 years. I played Ping in college and Ping was a company I played with when I first turned pro and I've been with PXG for five years and to get a win here in Scottsdale would money a lot. I know it would be great for Bob Parsons, who is a life, a long-time resident of the Scottsdale area. It would be really great for PXG and everything. And so -- we actually had a little joke when I first signed, he said if I won the Waste Management Open the first year, in 2016 I said that I would get a PXG tattoo. Well I didn't win in 2016 and I'm not going to get a PXG tattoo if I win this year, but he can go ahead and get himself a PXG tattoo if he wants.

Q. Have you discussed any location of the PXG tattoo?
BILLY HORSCHEL: No, there was no discussion of that. No. We shouldn't get into that.

Q. You're going to renege on the bet?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Well the bet was only good for one year, it wasn't good for the lifetime of our contract or, yeah, the lifetime of the contract. So, but like I said, Bob's been a really great friend of mine, I've learned a lot from him, I respect him and what he does in business and the way he goes about business and takes care of people. I think he doesn't cut corners, which I love and that's one reason why I went with PXG. And it's been a great five years, has it been as successful as I would like and I think they would like? No. But there's still plenty of time left to get some more victories and bring a little bit more recognition to PXG, because I think we have some of the best clubs if not the best clubs in the business.

Q. How did the crowds responds to you today?
BILLY HORSCHEL: Yeah, I think they were great. You have your few, your idiots out there that want to say certain things, but everyone was fun. I mean, I love making birdie at 16 and getting the crowd going. It's a lot of support out there, like I said. We'll see what happens this weekend. They always can change at the way the wind blows sometimes, but I think I like to play up to the crowd a little bit, I'll chatter back to them once in a while if they say something, but it's a fun event, I love coming to it and will be coming to for a long time.

Q. Club on 16?
BILLY HORSCHEL: 9-iron. Flew a little bit further than we thought but that's adrenaline and it turned out well and it was a nice putt to make.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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