SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 11, 2024

Hunter Larson

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Rough round out there. Talk about the conditions and how difficult this course was for you.

HUNTER LARSON: I mean, the course is gettable if you hit it in the fairway. I think I hit three fairways today and I think I played those holes 1-under par. If I can manage to hit more than three fairways I assume I'll play better.

I was super nervous to start, out of sorts. Kind of to be expected. I wanted to play well but kind of -- it's golf. Not going to be in negative spirits. I'm here talking to you guys. (Smiling.)

Q. Birdie on 8. Talk about that hole.

HUNTER LARSON: Yeah, that hole I hit a really good second shot. That was the first fairway I think I hit on the front nine. Hit a good second shot. Actually hit the flag and bounced over the green and chipped that one in.

That was like somewhat of at least got me going. I don't think I had made a par up to that point, to be honest with you.

Q. 14 and 15 things fell apart for you there. Talk about that stretch. Just wasn't hitting good shots.

HUNTER LARSON: 14 I hit a decent drive, 155 into the wind. A little flier. I tried to hit a cut 7-iron. I hit -- that was the best swing I made all day and it kind of jumped, went over the back of the green, hit the cart path, and went into the subdivision.

A lot of stuff was like -- I did make some bad swings, but also made a lot of good swings that just ended up in bad spots. That's kind of the way golf works.

Q. Talk about just your first tee, just hearing the applause from everyone around and what the feeling was from that.

HUNTER LARSON: That was cool. I was trying to just get the tee -- get the ball to stay on the tee, to be honest with you. I was a little bit nervous in that regard.

It's kind of hard to go through your routine -- a lot of stuff is coming at you. Not that it's good to start with a double, but sometimes -- it kind of settled me down in a little bit of a way.

Yeah, it was really cool hearing everybody. I kind of feel not disappointed that I let them down. Bunch of people that came out here. I felt like I kept in good spirits the whole entire time. I'm still going to enjoy it and go out there and shoot a good round tomorrow.

Q. Speaking of tomorrow, just still have at least one more round. How do you get back to that?

HUNTER LARSON: It's going to be one more round. I would have to go super, super low. Just trying to find a process and rhythm. It was hard for me to find that rhythm and process. Obviously it's a bigger stage than I've ever been on before. I felt somewhat comfortable. You start talking to yourself in your head, and I kind of was able to find that routine that I developed.

Hindsight is always 20/20. What happened to me happened for a reason. Obstacles are meant to be put in our way and we're either going to jump over them or we're going to just shy away from them. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to put in the work tomorrow, show up, and try to play good round of golf.

Q. You had many chances to play Waialae?

HUNTER LARSON: Yeah, quite a bit. I have never played it in a west wind like this. Normally Trade Wind string, like that stronger northeast wind. I came last week and played a little bit of like what would be Konas, but that had most south and less west in it.

That first hole we tee'd off on today was pretty brutal. Yeah, I mean, obviously just got to go and go home and to figure out what kind of went wrong mentally.

Yeah, just going to try to get a good night's rest and come out and play well tomorrow.