HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 20, 2022

Ryann O'Toole

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Ryann O'Toole. Opened the season with a 4-under 68. This is your first time experiencing the Tournament of Champions. This is something else. What was the day like for you?

RYANN O'TOOLE: To be honest, it reminded me of being at home playing with the guys that I play with constantly.

It's just a little different feel from playing with your fellow competitors to more so it gave me that laid back sense that I have when I'm just playing golf back at home on off weeks.

Q. Now you're out here back in competition. Opened up with one, two, three, four, five birdies; one bogey, closed with a birdie. Excuse me, birdie on your next-to-last hole. Tell us the story of your round. Looked like pretty steady for you perhaps.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, for the most part it was. Hit a lot of fairways and greens and kept myself out of the rough, which I think is key here. Just stayed patient.

I think the par-5s, the pin placements on the par-5s are kind of hard, so I felt like -- I mean, rather than getting frustrated and not birdieing a par-5s, I just -- I didn't birdie a single par-5 actually, to be honest.

So I made birdies other places and it seemed to work.

Q. I know you had a busy off-season, beautiful wedding.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yes.

Q. Congratulations to you and Gina.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Thank you.

Q. What was the off-season like, and when did you start preparing again to come back to competition?

RYANN O'TOOLE: You know, actually, like as soon as we got done playing CME I played probably two rounds of golf prior to the wedding; sponsor obligations kind of.

Sometimes it's hard to get away. I know that for the most part I wasn't going to play those weeks and then I wasn't going to practice when we went on our family friend honeymoon, so I basically started back up when I got home.

Then I got COVID again over Christmas, which was really no big deal. I was down for a couple days and pretty much just a small cold. So it was fine.

So literally the start of the new year I was back up and running, or right before.

And I honestly had Jorge in town, so we worked literally for the last two and a half weeks. I had him the most that I've ever had him in an off-season, so it was really good. We got some good work done.

Q. Glad you're feeling better and it wasn't too bad of an experience for you.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, I'm glad got it out of the way.

Q. Exactly. Get it out of the way now. This is a really cool experience were you're playing alongside Ryan Longwell and Colt Ford, himself no slouch at golf. Is it cool? You say just like playing with the guys, but I still think it's pretty cool to say, Hey, that's John Smoltz right there, just the experience of it all.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, to be honest, it is. These guys are killer at what they have done in their profession or still are doing. I played with Colt in Phoenix in a pro-am for that event that we had there.

And then meeting Ryan for the first time was great, so he has a good name.

Q. Yeah, he does.

RYANN O'TOOLE: These guys have just been very successful in their career, and to kind of talk to them about their sport and then how -- especially his position, how it mentally relates to golf. Like I always felt like a kicker feels what we feel as a golfer.

You know, it's not reactionary. It's very methodical. You're stuck in between times of hitting or kicking to think. We just kind of were chatting about that.

Q. And now I remember the question I was going to ask before. You mentioned putting the clubs away. It's weird, because for so many people golf is how they relax. For you it's the job.

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yes.

Q. Do you ever get to go out and just really play for fun? When you are out golfing, are you ever able to take your professional hat off?

RYANN O'TOOLE: Yes and no. You know, there are definitely times to grind and definitely times to have fun. I think just hanging out and playing with the guys, putting something on the line, is my version of having fun.

Still a job. You know, I don't like to drink on the golf course so I'm not like, oh, yeah, let's go out and play and have some beers. I don't like the way it makes me feel and I play shitty golf, so -- or bad golf, excuse me.

But, you know, I don't know. Like I said, when I got home and I have certain people that want to play, it's hard for me to say no.