SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 14, 2024

Byeong Hun An

Waialae Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome runner-up Ben An to the interview room here at the Sony Open in Hawai'i.

Not the result that you were looking for in the playoff. Overall a solid week for you. What positives do you take in this week and moving forward the rest of the season?

BYEONG HUN AN: I didn't have the best start today. Started with a bogey, birdie, bogey, missed some short ones out there.

Hung in there. Had some good run in the middle and finished off with pretty good birdies at the end. It just feels very disappointing. Came down to the last putt.

But obviously golf is played in 72 holes. I made some silly mistakes out there yesterday, today, and over the last four days, so it's really -- I'm not trying to blame on the last putts, but obviously it comes down to that. But overall had a solid week. I feel like I played well all around. Drove it pretty good, tee to green decent, putted decent on the green. It wasn't too bad.

Fourth last week, second this week, obviously it's very disappointing how I finished, but yeah, it's looking good so far.

Q. Talk about the birdie on 18 to set up the playoff and how you approached that hole knowing what the scores were.

BYEONG HUN AN: Yeah, I thought I needed maybe an eagle or at least birdie to give myself a chance. I hit a great drive down there. Had actually a perfect number with my 3-iron. I think it was 243 into the wind. It was just a perfect number, so I hit a full 3-iron. Hit it exactly where I wanted. Hit a good putt, just was a bad read.

But everything was good shots, and a shame it didn't go in.

Q. You hit a great shot to set up a short putt on the playoff hole. Talk about that shot.

BYEONG HUN AN: Yeah, another decent drive. In the semi-rough, I tried to roll it up there to the green, came up a little bit short, hit a great shot, just a poor putt and poor read at the end which could have happened on any holes during 73 holes. It's a shame it ended that way. It hurts, but what are you going to do.

Q. What do you think has been the difference in your game that's allowed you to have such great results coming off the break?

BYEONG HUN AN: I think honestly gratitude. I tried hard the last couple months when I took some time off to try and look back why every round mattered a little bit too much. Our team came up with, it doesn't matter. Golf don't really matter that much.

Obviously it means a lot to me and our family, obviously, but I tried to take a little bit of weight off my shoulder. I know I prepared pretty well in the off-season, worked pretty hard, so I think that the result shows.

Even with the tough start today and the last couple weeks, I had some tough spells during the round, but I always came back with some birdies at the end and to finish pretty strong.

I think that was the biggest changes, I guess, I had over the last couple months. I think the results showed this week and last week. It's been going pretty well.

Q. (Indiscernible) that you learned about yourself this week?

BYEONG HUN AN: I still have a long ways to go, I think. My game, everything. Everything, the swing, putting, short game, everything. I feel like we always say it's not mine, we always rent it. We rent this good run of golf, and hopefully I can rent it a little bit longer.

Hopefully when I take a couple weeks off and come back to Pebble Beach, hopefully I can get this run going.

I'm playing solid golf, I think.