HUGEL AIR PREMIA LA OPEN

April 21, 2021

Austin Ernst

Wilshire Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. 5-under 66. Just take us through the day. Six birdies. What made it a solid day for you?

AUSTIN ERNST: It was just overall just very solid. Ball striking was pretty good all day. I had a lot of putts kind of all day within 20 feet, and then made a few early.

Got off to a really good start birdieing 11, 12, 13. Yeah, I think overall everything was just solid and it was a relatively simple day. Not much stress. Really pars and that kind of thing, it was pretty easy.

Q. Any one of the particular birdies stand out a little more than the others maybe in the three straight stretch?

AUSTIN ERNST: 12 was a good birdie. Had a good 6-iron in about 20 feet past the hole and made a nice putt there.

But, yeah, just to get off to that quick of a start was nice. Then I birdied 17 to get to 4-under and just kind of cruised along on the back nine. Front nine but my back nine.

I had to work a little bit coming in on a couple loose shots. Overall, just kind of like where my game has been the last couple weeks. Got a few putts to fall.

Q. I was going to say, you've had some weeks that you've probably been pleased with; some weeks you've learned from. Since your win at Golden Ocala, do you feel like you kind of have found a good middle ground to grow from?

AUSTIN ERNST: Yeah, I think my game has been solid all year, and now I'm kind of just taking it where I have very good swing key that I'm working on. Every week it's kind of at that the same thing.

And then putting I am really trying to work on my speed and dial that in. That way when you do get a lot of looks I don't have to work hard for pars and I can kind of dial my reads in a little bit better.

Yeah, putter felt great today and irons felt really good too.

Q. You had a really fun group. You had the clubhouse leader in your group in Moriya who had 6-under including ten birdies. You kept your scorecard. You had Jin Young at 4-under. Obviously you kept score with Mo so you knew what she was doing. Is that ever a driving force when you're keeping someone's scorecard and you're like, Holy cow, this thing is on fire?

AUSTIN ERNST: Not really. She played really well coming in. I think it's nice when you have birdies in the group because you're seeing a lot putts go in. Not only for yourself, but you're seeing other people make a lot putts.

So we definitely had a very good group. Hopefully we do the same thing tomorrow and see a lot of birdies tomorrow, too.

Q. Nelly was mentioning she doesn't have the greatest track record here but played solid today. What is your track record here and what have you learned over the years at Wilshire?

AUSTIN ERNST: I had one pretty good year and one bad year. I missed the cut last time we were here in I guess '19, and then in '18 I think I finished right around top 10. I don't think it was a top 10 but 15th or something.

So I like the golf course. I think it sets up pretty well for my game. Kind of have some lines off the tees that I like. I can shape the ball where I want to.

Then kind of coming into the greens, really need to be able to hit quality iron shots to get good birdie looks. Greens have a lot of the slope to them. So for me I feel like that kind of fits my game pretty well. I'm normally pretty precise with my irons and I can get some good looks.

Q. When we didn't play here last year, when you usually come to a tournament year in and year out and then you skip a year, is there a little -- when you enter the week come back here, is there a little like, Oh, I got to remind myself of certain things or maybe a little different learning curve just coming back?

AUSTIN ERNST: Here and there. I have a pretty good golf brain to where I remember a lot of holes and I kind of remember what I hit off the tee at least. I might not remember what I hit into all the greens, but I have a pretty good idea of kind of what's going on around here.

Biggest thing around here you just have to get used to where the greens kind of fall off and kind of where they have those severe slopes you can use to your benefit or you need to stay away from.