Q. How would you characterize the round today?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: It was weirdly like easy (laughing). I didn't really have, put myself in any bad positions out there, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of center of the greens and had putts for birdies, which is nice. Which usually, I would say, is not my MO. But I so saw the scores out there not going too low, I knew I didn't have to be too aggressive. I knew the greens were firm, wind started picking up in the middle of round. It's one of those golf courses you want to be aggressive on because you have some mid and low irons in, but you can't get too aggressive out here because the greens are small and it's hard to get up-and-down. So I would say it was somewhat an easy 5-under, which are nice, they're not always that way, but it was a low stress.

Q. You said you only played nine holes of a practice round. Was there a reason for that?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: I missed the cut at the PGA. Sort of threw up on myself coming in and missed the cut by two shots. I went home. I went home until Tuesday morning, flew out here, played nine. I was in the pro-am late, so I was planning on playing 18 holes, and that got washed out. So, long story short, I played nine. But I came out Wednesday morning and walked the back nine, so it wasn't new to me playing that back nine. Yeah, spent some time at home just with the family, which I'm on the three-week stretch now, I knew if I didn't get home I wouldn't see 'em for about three and a half weeks, so it's important to see those kids grow up and that's what I did.

Q. Did it maybe kind of play into a little bit of an advantage not, you know, maybe even though you though you wanted to play the extra nine holes, maybe a little fresher?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Less at my age is always better, I think. I don't stress about seeing the golf course too much. I give credit to Mark Long, his yardage books, you don't really have to step foot on the golf course anymore, they have every nook and cranny out there. The green surfaces were where I spent my time. There's a lot of subtleties on these greens, and I took a lot of notes and planned where I wanted to putt from and did a decent job of that today.

Q. Heard outside you have a little extra motivation with that beautiful car out there. Can you tell me about that?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Yeah, my dad had one of those when I was a kid, and then when my brother turned I think 16 he got rid of it, probably -- actually, I know, for insurance reasons probably, insurance probably doubled when he turned 16, he had a sports car. So the motivation is -- he doesn't know this -- he might, he'll probably know it now, but is to win that car for him, there's no question.

Q. Is there a little extra motivation, you've had some good starts this year, to pick up a win?

CHARLEY HOFFMAN: Yeah, if I'm healthy I feel like I can beat anybody in the world. When my back gets a little funky I don't think I can beat anybody. It feels pretty good. Obviously heat and humidity and all that works in my favor, there's no question. If I stay loose, my back stays loose, I can hit it as far as anybody and I can play with 'em. When it gets a little stiff it's a tough game for me. So I feel good with the weather forecast this week and I think I got a great chance. It's one of the old traditional golf courses that you look on the calendar and go, I think I can win this week, have a good chance to win this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

144407-1-1044 2024-05-23 23:22:00 GMT

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