ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 6, 2021

Charley Hoffman

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. I know not the way you wanted to finish, but still a 67 today. How would you assess your round?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Yeah, besides the start and finish everything in between was good. Had a few lipouts in the middle of the round, but had some par saves which kept the round going. But the reality is that 18th hole is playing as hard as it's ever going to play. So getting out of there with a 5 is never going to kill you.

Q. Seemed like it was going to rain today, going to be tough conditions, no real rain to speak of. How did that kind of change the way you kind of maybe attacked a little bit?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Yeah, just a little bit of sprinkle we got softened the golf course up enough where you could get aggressive. Now the last few holes the wind started to blow a little bit, little different story. But early in the round you saw the guys in the morning going low, so you knew there were some birdies out there and you were able to attack a little more than yesterday. It's a golf course you're always a little bit on edge with all the water out there, but if you put it in play off the tee you were able to make some birdies.

Q. Mindset heading into tomorrow?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Who knows how these guys finish up, they can make some birdies. But obviously in a position to go and attack tomorrow and try to get a W. And it's been awhile but it's a good position to be in.

Q. We're going back to a year since THE PLAYERS last year when everything kind of shut down. What were your thoughts on the coronavirus and COVID during THE PLAYERS last year?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Yeah, I remember talking to Jay on Thursday afternoon and trying to figure out what we were going to do. I, personally, I thought we might be able to finish that tournament, at the end of the day he made the absolutely the right decision by cancelling the tournament. And obviously we shut down for awhile and the country, the whole world shut down.

He made the hard decision that I don't think I would have been ready to make and cut us off, but you know what, sometimes -- that's why he's in charge and gets paid the big bucks to make those hard decisions. But he's made some very strategic moves through the pandemic and coming out of it and I think golf's -- I know golf's in a better position now than it was a year ago with how many people are playing the game of golf, the growth, I mean the rounds are up, I mean that's -- I mean, the blessing behind all this is people are playing golf again and buying golf clubs, buying golf balls and it's a beautiful thing.

Unfortunately, we had to shut down for a little bit to see the greatness in the golf, but you know what, a year later I'm glad we're going back to Ponte Vedra and trying to win a PLAYERS championship.

Q. How have your thoughts changed on the coronavirus in this last year?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: I would say I was a little naive going into it a year ago, I didn't think there was really a big issue in America. But obviously I think there was a lot more coronavirus at this tournament a year ago than we ever could have known. You know what, I mean, the reality is it's a dangerous, dangerous virus and you got to respect it. And I think this TOUR has and that's -- I mean, we played through this without a stoppage, which, being on the board as a player director, I would have told you that would have probably been impossible to do.

And that's just, that gives all the credit to the management coming up with a good plan and the players following that plan that we set forth and to keep us safe out here and keep our distance from everybody and it's nice, first of all nice to see fans back in attendance and cheering us on.