SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 8, 2021

Daniel Berger

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. Great round of golf today. Doubled up yesterday's score. Does that mean conditions were twice as easy or the experience of yesterday and these new greens and new golf course paid off today?

DANIEL BERGER: I think it wasn't twice as easy. Obviously, not having the wind blow as hard definitely made it easier. But I felt like Collin and I kind of got into a little bit of a rhythm and kind of fed off each other, made some nice birdies here and there. And when it's going well, it just seems easy, and today was a good day and it was an important day to keep myself in contention.

Q. I was going to ask you about the pairing. It seems like a very comfortable pairing the way both of you strike the golf ball. And just talk to me about feeding off of each other and complementing each other as the round goes on.

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, we hit the ball a similar distance, so a lot of times I'll be looking into his bag to see what he hit or he'll be looking into my bag to see what I hit. But overall, he's just such a great player and whenever you get a chance to play with someone who is playing well, it kind of feeds off onto you. So I felt like it was just a good energy today and we made a bunch of birdies and kind of hung in there.

Q. Speaking of energy, talk about the energy starting the calendar year to get things going here in Kapalua with tournament winners, and this year at least, those who finished in the top-30 of the TOUR Championship. It's a special group here.

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, if you're playing in this event, you've done something right on the year. And it's a long way from Florida, but it's well worth it when you get the chance to come here. So hopefully we'll be back next year too.

Q. How would you assess the round out there today?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, we played great all day. Started off nicely with a couple birdies in the first five or six holes and then kind of stalled out there a little bit in the middle of the round and finished off strong and overall it was a great day. I mean, it was a day that you had to play well with the conditions being as they are now, not very windy, so I put myself in a good position going into the weekend.

Q. Does it help when you and Collin play together? Do you guys kind of play off each other?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, it's definitely nice to see guys you're playing with making putts and hitting good shots. It's easier than if it's going the other way. So it was a good pairing. It was very light. We were very, joking most of the round, and that's usually when you play you're best, when you're not too stressed out and not too worried about the results.

Q. The way the course is laid out -- you said you kind of stalled out early, played well -- you played well early, stalled out in the middle -- but does this course kind of set up for that big finish where you got 14, 15, 18 with 16 and 17 in between? Can you really make a good run there?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, that closing stretch of holes you have to play well on. You've got two reachable par-5s and a short drivable par-4 and that's really where you're going to make most of your birdies throughout the round. And again, this weekend is going to be the same kind of situation. You've got to play those holes well. And if you look at the previous years, Justin, guys that have won here, they have played those holes very well.