PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 14, 2026

Nicolai Hojgaard

Aronimink Golf Club

Flash Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Nicolai Højgaard is with us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Nicolai, 1-under for you today. How would you summarize your opening round?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Yeah, it was good. I felt like I played really solid on the front nine. I would love to have been a few under going out on the back. There's a few tricky holes coming in, but I managed to shoot under par today, which I'm happy about.

Q. So I understand the front nine, you were hitting the ball really well, struggled to score.

The back nine, you were not hitting the ball that well, and there was all kinds of scores. So how did that happen?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Back nine requires a little bit more quality, and pace of play was incredibly slow on the back. We were two groups on a couple tee boxes. It was hard to get into a rhythm. Where, on the front nine, we were on the fly.

Yeah, it just required a little more quality. I didn't hit the ball as good as I did on the front and then made a couple bogeys. I missed a fairway by a couple feet three times today, and it was -- made a couple bogeys out of that. The rough is thick. If you keep it in the fairway, you can score out here.

Q. Much has been made of the greens, that that's the defense of the golf course. Did you find yourself -- did you put it in any precarious spots on the green where you're like, okay, this is a really bad spot to be?

NICOLAI HØJGAARD: Not today. I felt like they were quite generous with the pin positions today. I think it can play a lot harder if they really want to.

But managed to leave myself in the right spots for the most part of the day. So made it fairly simple on the greens today with a lot of uphill putts.