Q. Tom, current tournament leader, 8-under par. If we can get some comments on an excellent day.
TOM HOGE: Yeah, I guess a little bit unexpected because I had a few weeks off and took a little time away from golf, so I didn't know where things would stand coming out today.
I made a nice putt on 6, I don't know what it was, 30, 40 feet, and then holed the wedge on 7. That really jump started things.
It was an interesting day. I feel like I missed some very makable birdie putts, but I holed some real nice long ones for eagle on 16 and some other long ones.
Certainly happy with the score, but I've got to make a lot of birdies the next few days.
Q. I was going to ask you about 7. Can you walk us through what happened there.
TOM HOGE: Yeah, I think it was a 52-degree wedge I hit in there. I was going right at it the whole way, but I hit it about halfway up the stick. You hit the pin, it can bounce anywhere, it seems like. This one came down and hit the left side of the hole and stayed right in there.
So it was a nice 2. There was a little bit of repair needed for the hole to fix that one up, but that kind of got things going for me. I started making a lot of nice swings after that.
Q. Was that the plan to lay that far back on that hole? A lot of people are going --
TOM HOGE: Yeah, for sure. I know it looks like they've taken a couple trees out, maybe up the left side with the renovation. More guys will hit driver, I think, and get up there close to the green, but for me my strength has always been that 100, 125 range. So if I can give myself a lot of opportunities from there, I think I'll be successful.
Q. And then the other eagle on 16, just reachable par?
TOM HOGE: I had a 6-iron in. Hit it a little more at the hole than I would like to. I was trying to play left. I just made a nice putt there by 30, 35 feet going down the hill.
It's a putt that's pretty quick out here. I was just trying to have good speed, and it went in luckily.
Q. So you've played out here before quite a bit, I think. To have a card with no bogeys on it, how important is that in a tournament where you have to go low?
TOM HOGE: Yeah, for sure. The biggest thing is just keeping that momentum the whole way. You've got to keep making birdies.
Occasionally the wind will come up out here and you don't have to shoot as low, but for the most part the winning score is going to be 20, 25 under par. So you've got to keep going every day.
Like I said, it's a good start, but I know I've got a lot of work left.
Q. Question on your two eagles. You did them two different ways. Is one more thrilling than the other? Is it funner to drain the long putt or throw one and hole it in?
TOM HOGE: It's always nice to hole a wedge shot like that because it's been a while since I've done it. Shoot, I'm trying to think of the last. I can't even remember.
For me it was a bit of a slow start. Conditions were so good early on, I was even-par through five holes, made a nice putt on 6, but that really jump started me. There was a nice stretch in there where I followed up with some birdies afterwards.
Q. Do you have an estimation how many times you've holed it like that?
TOM HOGE: I don't know. Seems like there's probably three or four every year, I would say. It's been a while for me. I can't think of the last one. I'm sure some of our stats guys could come up with that for us.
Yeah, it's always fun to hole one of those.
Q. And then you said you took some time off. What did you do in the last couple weeks to get away from the game?
TOM HOGE: Last couple weeks we went down to Mexico, down to Cabo, did a little fishing down there and kind of put the clubs away a little bit.
It was a bit longer of a break than I'd normally take, but I'll be fresh for this last push at the end of the year.
Q. Tom, coming off your career best year, just recap that season for us and also how you're hoping to build on that this year. You're off to a good start with the T-12 at Napa.
TOM HOGE: Yeah, I felt like last fall I got off to a good start. I've played well in the fall in the past. I feel like there's a lot of good golf courses that set up well for me in the fall.
That's one of the reasons why I'm playing a lot this year still. I feel like I could get off to a nice start in the FedExCup. I felt like I had that last year and continue that into the West Coast. Just trying to do more of the same.
I didn't play as well as I would have liked in the summer last year, but you get off to this nice start, and you can kind of relax even when you're not playing as well.
Just trying to play as well as I can here in the fall and give it that head start.
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