INVITED CELEBRITY CLASSIC

April 17, 2024

Mark Hensby

Las Colinas Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Defending champion here, just some thoughts on being back as you prepare to go back-to-back.

MARK HENSBY: It's always exciting to come back to somewhere you've had some success. Yeah, looking forward to this week, and the course looks great. Looking forward to it.

Q. Take me back to last year. It wasn't easy but you got the job done, an extra hole or two. What did you feel most confident with your game last year on the course here?

MARK HENSBY: Well, last year I'd been in Australia for like two weeks, and I played a lot of golf. I took some people down. The game was in pretty good shape when I got here. Obviously this year is a little different, had two weeks off at home, but felt like I prepared pretty good last week to get ready to go again.

Q. What are you feeling best about as far as your game? What parts of your game are you looking to tweak?

MARK HENSBY: Well, my putting has been poor. I haven't putted very well at all this year. That's probably the main part of the game for me at the moment, so that's what I'm going to focus on the next few days.

Q. Format, is it something that allows you to take your mind off of things, watching the celebrities here and there, or do you prefer the laser-like focus on what you're doing?

MARK HENSBY: No, I like this event for that reason. Having one or two events a year where -- even at the PURE at Pebble Beach when you play with the kids and amateurs, it's fun. Celebrities are always fun to play with. It takes a little bit of the stress out of it, I guess. You're more -- like last year I had great amateurs. I think I had Wells and Taylor Twellman and Robbie Gould. I had a great bunch of guys last year, and that was definitely fun for sure.

Q. I know you're not in the Dallas area, but Texas, does that give you a little bit more -- are you able to drive to the event, a little bit more of a relaxed feeling?

MARK HENSBY: No doubt. I just drove here now, actually, just under four hours. It's nice to be able to drive up Wednesday and relax at home for those extra few days for sure.

Q. Is there anything from last year that you feel like gives you an advantage going into this year's tournament here?

MARK HENSBY: Not really because the weather I see is going to be poor on the weekend again. You can do all your practicing and get ready for a tournament, but the weather dictates a lot. Unfortunately, all the preparation kind of goes out the door to a certain extent when the weather gets poor. The weekend is going to be interesting for sure.

Q. Which celebrities for you do you get excited about to either see out here or play alongside, if there are any?

MARK HENSBY: None. No, to be honest, a lot of them I don't even know. I did the media day here, and the three guys that were here, Pudge and DeMarcus Ware and Tim Brown, I had no idea who they were. I had to look it up when I was actually going there. Being in Australia, celebrities don't -- I don't know who half of them are.

Q. Were you impressed when you found out who they were?

MARK HENSBY: You're damn right I was. When you read up on what some of these guys have done and you can see why they're celebrities, it's definitely pretty cool.

Q. Intimidating to stand next to DeMarcus Ware when he's that big?

MARK HENSBY: I'm not intimidated by anyone, but yeah, he's a big man.