SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 14, 2021

Brendan Steele

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Going back to last year, do you feel like you have unfinished business at this golf course?

BRENDAN STEELE: I mean, yeah, a little bit. Obviously when you come that close, you hope that maybe you can come back and play well and give yourself another chance. That actually happened for me at Safeway. I was, in 2015 I led for the first 56 holes and kind of exploded on the way in, and then I won in 2016 and 2017. I do have a little history of that, so hopefully that can repeat itself here.

Q. Were you checking the scoreboard after what Malnati did?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I knew the scores were going to be lower. Last year the wind was blowing 30 to 40 miles an hour and the course is playing different this year, much firmer in the fairways and playing a lot shorter. But that said, you still need to hit really good shot. A little different style of play right now but really enjoying it.

Q. Yesterday at the range you said you were feeling good. What feels right in your game in particular?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, there's been a couple of things. I was really making my putting too technical and kind of ditched that and that's been good and found a really good feel in my swing.

You know, whenever you play well, you are just kind of blending right things and. If I was making my putting technical and trying to make my swing a little more feel-oriented, it wouldn't work as well. I've reversed that and it seems to be working nicely.

Q. What was working?

BRENDAN STEELE: I was really patient. I hit a lot of good shots. I didn't get off a great start. I made kind of a sloppy bogey on the first hole. But knew my game was there, and made a couple of nice putts early and kept sticking with it even when I made kind of a bad mistake on 13, as well. That's always a nice thing for me if I can just hang in there and keep trusting in myself. I have a tendency to lose confidence a little too quickly.

Q. Do you feel like you have a little bit of unfinished business after last year?

BRENDAN STEELE: A little bit. I played great last year. You just come up one shot short and there's all sorts of ways that you can find one or hope that Cam doesn't get up-and-down on last hole or whatever it is and we totally change the narrative of that.

I just want to do the best I can this whole West Coast. I didn't get off to a good start in the fall and I worked hard on my game and I'm feeling really good about it. I want to do well on this whole stretch of events and this is a good start for me.

Q. Same caddie as last year; the good feelings of last year, does that help?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, so we've done really well. He was on my bag when I won in 2017 and he was on the bag here in the playoff, and he's caddied about ten events and could easily have two wins. He holds me accountable to not just we want to do with the got swing and putting stroke but mentally and how I want to approach things. That's important to me and helpful and we enjoy spending time together, so it's really fun.

Q. When were you informed of the out-of-bounds stakes on 10 fairway?

BRENDAN STEELE: Got the text at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday night; seemed a little late. The only thing was a little troublesome about it was we didn't know where they were going to be. You want to play the hole and see where they are and hit a good tee shot and be like, okay, it's 50 yards left.

I was hoping that they would do the right thing and only put them where guys would try to go in between the trees down 10 fairway or whatever and not where like if you over-hook one trying to get it going left that it would actually go out of play and it doesn't.

So I think they did a good job if that's what they were trying to do.

18 is now out of rounds.

Q. Last year you hit a shot left on 18?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yes, but the out-of-bounds doesn't end there now.

Q. So your second shot would not have been out-of-bounds?

BRENDAN STEELE: No, because you can see there's two stakes 50 yards short of the green so they are trying to keep the tee shot on purpose from going down 10. That's all they are trying to do. I wouldn't have been out-of-bounds. But if you know it's out-of-bounds, you probably don't hit it over there, either.