SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 9, 2025

Adam Schenk

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. A bogey-free 64, excellent start. If we can get some comments on your round.

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, Brett and I just stuck to our game plan, played solid all day, kept it in the fairway. I think we missed one green all day, so it's kind of hard to mess it up from there.

It was nice to finish with three birdies. I made a nice par putt on 15 which was probably the turning point of the day. If I miss that putt I'm back to 2-under and I played awesome. I felt like I should have been 4- or 5-under.

Fortunately caught fire the last three holes. You never know when that hot stretch is coming, and fortunately it did end up coming on the last three holes.

Q. What happened during those three holes? Any of those birdies really stand out?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, I hit a pretty poor drive on 16, but we hit the right shot, and it ended up in the fairway bunker, and then had a nice number with a gap wedge and hit it to three feet, so hit a nice shot. It's always nice when they go to three feet instead of 12 feet. So made that one, and then made a nice 18-, 20-footer up the hill on 17, then 18 hit a nice drive, hit a terrible second shot. The only place we weren't trying to hit it was right and I kind of hit it right and had a bad lie. Probably one of the best short game shots of my life, just kind of a hit-and-hope, and fortunately it went to three feet and snuck it in the right edge.

Q. First time in six starts opening up in the 60s here. What was the biggest difference today and what are your thoughts on this golf course and how it suits your game?

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, it has not suited my game the least bit so far. I love the course. I don't know what my low score is here, but 64 probably has to be low for me by two or three or four maybe. Never been in the 60s in the opening round? I would have liked to have said I had one round in the 60s opening, but it doesn't surprise me. It's definitely nice to finish a good day off once I've played so well because if you play four days like that, you're definitely going to have a chance. But it's nice when you can have your ball-striking day and the day you putt it well needs to be a low day to give you some momentum and propel you into the week.

Q. Talk a little bit about your goals for this season.

ADAM SCHENK: Yeah, that's a good question. I kind of take it tournament by tournament. I'd love to make the TOUR Championship. That's always the end goal. I'd love to win a tournament or two. Playing rounds like this is a good start for everything, so just kind of take it one day at a time and make the necessary adjustments as we go and not get too far ahead of myself.

Q. What keeps you coming back here even though it seems like you don't feel like you have success here?

ADAM SCHENK: Well, that's a good question. I feel like -- I told Brett, I feel like I can win Palm Springs. That golf course probably suits me a little bit more, and the best chance for me to win Palm Springs is to get a little warmup here, and I've been working really hard at my game all off-season, so I felt prepared.

I didn't start off the week playing great in the Monday pro-am but came back Tuesday playing better and Wednesday we played really nice yesterday. It's never that far away even if you're playing bad golf, so it's nice to see it coming together, and I've been working hard and have a lot of nothing to show for it the last six months, the last year, so hopefully maybe I'm in the right direction now.

Q. What club did you use for that great short game shot?

ADAM SCHENK: I used a 60-degree. It was kind of sitting down in not a hole but there was a big tuft of grass behind it, which made the shot a lot harder. I was kind of worried about going under it, so I just got a little steep on it and tried to catch the ball first. Kind of hit like a controlled chunk shot that came out perfect. It was probably a 1 out of 10 hitting it that close and pulled the right number out of the hat, I guess.