DUBAI INVITATIONAL

January 10, 2024

Nicolai Højgaard

Dubai Creek Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Welcome back after a nice winter break. Give us a sense of what you've been up to during that time.

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Yeah, it's been nice having some time off. A week out, felt fine, a bit of rust. Went back to Denmark for a few days and didn't touch a club for a few days which was the first time. Quite nice spending time with friends and family, a bit more quality time. Then we got out here for a week, practiced in mid-December and over Christmas. Been out here for first of January.

It's been a lovely time in December, but I also really want to get back out again and start would going. Excited to be back and looking forward to '24.

Q. How much do you miss those competitive juices flowing?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Sometimes when you practise, and sometimes it's tough to create the adrenaline and rush that you get in tournament golf and that same pressure. When you don't pull it off, the same way you get angry when you don't do stuff. So excited to get back out now and see where we're at.

Q. This seems to be the perfect place to start off the season. Quite a relaxed atmosphere but what a great venue to play?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: It's a lovely place. Doesn't get any better than this. We spent a lot of time here at the Creek and hotel. You've got paddle and you've got tennis. You try to stay away from it, but sometimes you just want to do something else. It's perfect. Perfect start to the year. We all love Dubai and the course is in great shape.

Q. Now after a terrific year that you had last year, how do you bring that across into a new year after such a long break as well?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: It's about starting working your way into the season, see where we are at. See the things we have been working at in the off-season and trying to make goals of the stats, where can we gain a little bit here and there. That's where the focus is right now. We are trying to build in 2024 from 2023 which was a great season, and we are looking forward to a good 2024 as well.

Q. Playing both tours this year, how excited are you for that prospect?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Looking forward to it. Always want to start here in Dubai, and so really look forward to these two weeks here, and then we go to Torrey Pines and start the season off in the States and probably going to focus a little bit more on the PGA TOUR until August and then come back and play here.

So it's an exciting year. Really looking forward to see how the season unfolds but there's a lot of stuff involved.