SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 6, 2022

Daniel Berger

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. (No audio.)

DANIEL BERGER: Break at all in that month or two leading up to the Ryder Cup, so I just wasn't ready to play and my body was telling me to take some time off, so I just listened to it.

Q. Is this the perfect place to get the juices flowing and get back into it?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a less challenging golf course off the tee than we see at a lot of other places around the year.

But you have to hit some great irons shots, especially when the wind's blowing. You know, the greens are challenging. So there's nothing easy about it, but if you play well you can make a lot of birdies, and that's a nice thing to come out when you haven't played in a while.

Q. Does it feel like this course fits your game pretty well?

DANIEL BERGER: I feel like I've played really well here in the past. I haven't had necessarily the finishes that I wanted, but a lot of the tee shots suit my eye, so it's nice to come here and feel like I'm in a good position to have a chance to win.

Q. Are there any distractions when you're looking across the channel to Molokai, maybe seeing a whale or two jump, is that different than other places?

DANIEL BERGER: Oh, it's definitely different than other places, but to me Hawaii is just a very peaceful place and I love coming here and definitely circle it on the calendar whenever I have a chance to play here.

Q. Do you know which one is Molokai and which one is Lanai?

DANIEL BERGER: I know Lanai is, is it like that way? Lanai is that way? I don't know. I'm not good with islands. There's too many of them. I know we're in Maui. That's what I know.

Q. You had some club issues getting here.

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, didn't, had some travel issues in general. But no clubs on Monday. They came later on Tuesday. I got here on Sunday, so two days without the clubs. Borrowed, one of the other caddies, Brett Waldman was here, so used his clubs and changed all the lies and lofts, so I got to hit balls on Monday, which was nice.

Q. Time out. You changed the lies and lofts on his clubs?

DANIEL BERGER: On his clubs, yeah. I changed the lies and lofts on his clubs, was using his driver. I just needed to hit some balls. Especially after a long flight of coming across the world to get here, I just had to get the body moving, so whatever I had was going to work.

Q. Did you put them back when you gave them back to him?

DANIEL BERGER: I did not put them back and, I don't know, I think I stole his driver. I still have his driver, so...

Q. Did you use it today?

DANIEL BERGER: No, I used it the first couple days because I was seeing some really high ball speeds that I hadn't seen in the past. But I drove it well today so I think I made the right decision.

Q. You said getting here was halfway around the world. Are you talking about Florida or were you on vacation somewhere?

DANIEL BERGER: Florida. No, I was in Florida.

Q. What did you do from the Bahamas, after you were worn out from that long break you had without playing golf until you got here? Did you touch a club?

DANIEL BERGER: I did play a little golf, maybe like, the last week I played a lot more golf.

But I'm not a huge guy and I don't love practicing as much as I love playing and I think that once we get out here we're practicing and playing every day, that is a little easier for me. You can take a couple days off and still feel sharp, whereas if you take a month off, it feels like you need two weeks to get back into it. But I feel great now. I mean, today was a nice way to start the year.

Q. What did you think when your clubs didn't get here?

DANIEL BERGER: I was a little stressed out because I knew I needed to play some golf. A lot of phone calls with American Airlines. That's for sure.

Q. What was one of your better birdies today?

DANIEL BERGER: Probably the one on 18, just to finish strong after a bogey on 17. Didn't really hit a bad shot the entire day.

Q. You left that lag putt short?

DANIEL BERGER: It was downhill, but it must have been into the grain because it was pretty slow.

But things like that happen out here. You get a little gust of into the wind breeze, and the greens are grainy, and you're going to make bogies. You just have to make a lot more birdies.

Q. Is there a secret to this course? There's some easy scorable holes and there's some hard holes. Is it just a matter of not screwing up the hard ones?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, you have to play the par-5s well and you have to take advantage of a couple of the par-3s, but I think for me the biggest thing is when you have a day like this where the wind's not really blowing 20, 25 miles an hour you have to score well. And I'm not sure what the forecast is for tomorrow, but if it's not expected to blow you know you have to make birdies.

Q. Is 66 a good score?

DANIEL BERGER: I think it's a great score today. I'm a little surprised that the scores aren't lower just with the greens being softer and the only defense right now is the fairways are soft, so a lot of the holes that you would be hitting low, short irons in, you're hitting long irons in because you're not getting that roll off the tee.

Q. Not to wear you out here, but I was curious if there was any one hole that stood out in terms of being an 8-iron or wedge hole that was a 5-iron?

DANIEL BERGER: 4 or 5? Like in the past I remember hitting driver, 8-iron, 9-iron. I hit 5-wood and 3-wood in, in the practice rounds. So it was a little into the wind, the fairways obviously are really soft.

And even 18 I've had 4-iron and 5-irons into 18. We hit 3-wood in today.

Q. Did you get there?

DANIEL BERGER: I hit it to the front kind of 20 yards short of the green from there.

Q. What did you do from there?

DANIEL BERGER: Chipped it.

Q. Why didn't you putt it?

DANIEL BERGER: Why didn't I putt it? It's too slow to putt it. But, yeah, it was a good day.