THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2023

Hayden Buckley

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Hayden, quite an entertaining round of golf. Obviously talk about the highlight first. Pitching wedge?

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: Yeah, it was like 124, I think. It really felt like there could have been a little bit of hurt. It's really hard to feel the wind around that somewhat of a stadium. I knew if I could hit somewhere around a 130-yard shot, which I work on a lot -- you don't want to overdo it. I think one guy I played with before kind of overdid it and came up short, and I just thought, if we can hit one pretty straight, hope for it to land somewhere around the hill, and it just looked perfect the whole way.

I had a little feeling something like that might happen this week. I don't know, I've been hitting it well, but it's always nice to see it happen on that hole, too.

Q. Your reaction? Probably a pretty big thrill.

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: Yeah, I think a lot of people made fun of me the last time I made a hole-in-one in Vegas my rookie year. I didn't have much of a reaction. It was early in the morning, nobody was really out there, 17 at TPC there. I guess I had to have a little bit more of a reaction this time. I had friends and my wife in the crowd, so I had to entertain them a little bit.

Q. You had a hard time for not reacting?

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: I think there was a video that they posted, and I didn't have much of a reaction. A couple of my buddies told me I should have more of a reaction, but I told them I was even par; I wasn't the most thrilled to be even par.

This one was -- this was perfect.

Q. You had a share of the lead, playing really well, but this golf course can kind of get you, too. What was the aspect for the rest of the round?

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: Yeah, I think, what, 5-under through 11 holes, and that's with being greenside in two on No. 2 there, my 11th hole. So I had another chance for a birdie there.

After that, just didn't really hit any greens. I hit it in some bad places. I was hitting the ball great all day. I hit it great off the tee except for one or two holes I decided to lay back and missed the fairway.

Really I thought every aspect of the game was pretty solid all day. It's just, you hit it in the wrong place out here, you kind of have to chip out and hope to make par or bogey, and I just couldn't do it.

It's happened to me the last month. I haven't been playing the best. But I've turned over a new leaf this week, regardless of the finish, and just have to get it back tomorrow.

Q. Turned over a new leaf in --

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: I've just been struggling for a month or so. Ever since Sony I haven't had many good finishes. I've battled a few things and started working really hard on different aspects that I felt like needed work on, and I'm seeing those improve. It's just seven bad holes at the wrong time, unfortunately.

Q. What's the emotion of that? You're kind of riding a wave --

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: I think the hardest shot I hit all day was 18 tee, right after the hole-in-one, step up there and try to hit the ball in the fairway, and I actually birdied that and birdied 1 to make the turn.

I feel like I handled the hole-in-one really well, just after that I just simply didn't play well.

Q. What's your drink of choice?

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: Oh, gosh.

Q. How are you going to celebrate this?

HAYDEN BUCKLEY: For me, I need a lot of water, but maybe like a Maker's and Sprite I think is what I'll have. I guess I'm buying a lot of people drinks, too, so that's probably the only downside. Drinks on me, I guess.