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February 5, 2023

Abraham Ancer

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club

TV Interview

Q. The tournament record and lifting your fourth professional victory this week. What a difference a week makes.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Completely. I knew going to Dubai, every time I come back from a break, the first time is usually a little rusty. I obviously want to play really good, but I want to see where my game is at.

Second round, even though I missed the cut by one, I knew I found something, and I felt really good that day. I just brought it here this week.

The golf course was in phenomenal shape. I think it's the best shape that I've ever seen it here in the previous visits.

I just hit the ball really well. Mentally I was in a really good spot. I felt like I made very little mistakes, and whenever I missed a shot, I was in a good spot to get up and down from.

Really happy with the result. And really happy where my game is trending for this year.

Q. Fourth professional title, but the first time you've gone wire-to-wire, I believe. You know how difficult it is sleeping on the lead. What kind of mental state did you have to keep yourself in throughout the four days here?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, absolutely. That was my first wire-to-wire win. I just didn't think about where I was on the leaderboard. I just felt like I just want to do that again. I played really good the first round, and I just felt like I wanted to keep that going.

I kept telling myself, just imagine if I was in like 20th place and just got to go out there and shoot a low one. It worked out. I stayed in the moment. Didn't really think too much about the previous shots or what was coming after.

So I'm really happy with my frame of mind during these four rounds.

Q. Sunday it looked very much like a two-horse race between you and your good friend Cam. Through seven holes you were scrambling hard through 5, 6, 7. He was putting some pressure on you. How important was that birdie you made on the par-3 8th?

ABRAHAM ANCER: That was huge. The middle of that front nine, I didn't hit a couple of good tee balls. One went way right, one short and left. Out here you hit it short and crooked, it's not very good. But I was able to scramble really well. I hit some really good chip shots when I hit a couple of bad second shots.

So that was huge. Making that putt on 8 was humongous for the round. It really helped me because, yeah, he's an unbelievable player. He pounds the golf ball, and he does everything really good.

So I knew I needed to stay calm. I couldn't make any mistakes, and hopefully -- I mean, it worked out.

Q. Rounding out that group was Matthew Wolff. You gave the average golfer a lot of hope with the performance you put in. In the distance battle, I think you won today. You showed him how it was done.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I'm joking with him all the time. We're walking, and I get to my ball, and I was like, all right, see you in a little bit. He hits it miles down there.

I look away. I try not to look at his tee balls and just play my game. I know we were playing different golf courses, but I mean, I love sometimes to have a 6-iron and try to hit it in closer when they're hitting a 9-iron. So just get a good frame of mind, and it definitely helps.

Q. It's always nice to start off the year with a victory. How does this change the goals that you've set yourself for 2023?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Definitely nice to have -- especially after a missed cut and knowing that my game was trending back home, I felt like I was hitting the ball really well. I was excited to get the year started.

There's definitely plenty of things to improve on, but this gives me a lot of confidence. Just knowing that what I've been working on back home definitely, definitely is working. Obviously the time off was huge. My body feels really good. So that's a huge plus too.