THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Tom Hoge

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you assess your first round?

TOM HOGE: Yeah, it was a good solid day. Kind of what you want here on the Stadium Course, pretty simple on the fairways, hit a lot of greens. It was a little bit more of a conservative day for me. I haven't been hitting it that well coming in here, so I just tried to hit a lot of greens and stay out of trouble for the most part.

Q. That conservative play can help here with all the trouble that's out here, correct?

TOM HOGE: Yeah, for sure. When I've looked back on rounds in the past that I've played here, a lot of the mistakes I made have been being a little bit too aggressive, getting it up there on some par-5s, on 12. You can get in some bad spots. So a little more conservative and a good start for me with a long way to go.

Q. What was working so well for you out there?

TOM HOGE: I really hit it well. Started hitting the ball in the fairway off the tee and I drove it pretty well for the most part. I hit one bad tee shot off of 1 and was able to save par with a good wedge shot from 110 yards to save par. But pretty good day for me.

Q. How difficult was the course playing?

TOM HOGE: We were lucky our first seven or eight holes. There was really no wind and the wind started coming up, so it will get a little more difficult as the day goes on and the week for sure.

Q. Talk about early on the wind didn't seem to be out there at all and then as the day went on it seemed to build. Were you prepared for the wind that you had today and do you also realize that tomorrow can be completely different; you might get lucky, you may not?

TOM HOGE: Yeah, we had a lot of wind in our practice rounds leading up to it, so we were prepared for that wind. It was very nice this morning. It was almost a little bit more difficult because I think they put a little bit of water on the golf course overnight, so some shots were spinning back that we hadn't seen off the start there for those first few holes. But as the wind's going to pick up, it will dry out and it will get faster for the weekend.

Q. Are you comfortable with the setup in general or are there things places where you don't have such comfort level over like a tee shot or a second shot?

TOM HOGE: I think I'm as comfortable as you can be on a Pete Dye golf course. The whole golf courses makes you uncomfortable, really. But you just -- there's so much trouble looming with every shot, but you just got to make real confident swings out there is kind of my key to it, and I've had a little bit of success here in the past, so hopefully I can keep driving the ball straight and keep them on the greens.

Q. What was your best shot today?

TOM HOGE: I hit a great 9-iron into 18. I think I had five feet or so. But to get back to that back pin, that was at a time where I still felt like the greens were pretty soft and accessible so you could hit it back there, and nice birdie to make.

Q. What was the point of the day where you felt sort of the most wobbly, if there was a point?

TOM HOGE: The first hole I hit a wild tee shot right and had to scramble for par, had to chip out sideways and get up-and-down from 110 yards, but for the most part it was a pretty solid day for me.