Q. Lee, slow start but you turned it around with a flurry. What allowed you to flip that switch?
LEE HODGES: The thing is I really wasn't hitting that bad a golf shots. 11 is just a really hard hole. I just barely hit it in the rough, had a terrible lie, had to just hack it out, didn't get up-and-down from, whatever, 40 yards.
Then 13 I plugged it under the lip under the front bunker and had to hack it out sideways. Really wasn't me doing anything wrong, it was just a couple bad bounces here and there.
So I just told myself, something is going to flip. Then made the eagle on 15 and then got a little lucky on 17. Actually hit it in a really bad spot off the tee and hit the best chip that I could and just hit the flag and went in. You get good breaks and bad breaks.
Q. What makes this tournament unique, and do you feel different out there? Obviously you stick to your process, but do you feel a little different just in this scene?
LEE HODGES: It just depends on where you are. 16, 17, 18 is just something like we never have out here, to be honest. Like there's just such an energy around that hole.
But in the past I kind of have been nervous to play those holes because you don't want to get booed. But this week I've really kind of embraced the fact that if I hit good shots, they'll cheer for me. That's what I did today, I hit some really, really good shots on those holes and heard some claps. So it was nice to hear that.
Q. No boos today?
LEE HODGES: No boos today, zero boos.
Q. Have you been booed here?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, my record on 16 is not great, so to hit that one in there to 20 feet felt like I hit it to a foot today.
Q. When was the last time you made two eagles in a round?
LEE HODGES: Probably 3M the final round. I made two eagles the final round there. I would actually guarantee you that was the last time.
Q. What do you have to do the rest of the weekend to sustain this momentum?
LEE HODGES: I mean, just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm actually really proud of this round in more ways than a lot because I've been playing some really, really good golf this year and played super well last week at Pebble and then made a 9 on my last hole of the tournament to go from like top 10 to 33rd or whatever it was.
It would have been really easy just to kind of roll over this week and just be like, I can't believe I did that and kind of sulk on it. But I was really proud of the way I came back.
Q. Would you mind expanding on that a little bit more?
LEE HODGES: I just meant the Pebble thing, just literally ruining a tournament in 12 minutes. I don't know if I've ever done that to that extreme before, especially in a tournament obviously as big as that. So that one hurt a ton.
It took a couple days to kind of sulk a little bit. My wife would probably tell you the same thing. But I was proud that I came out today and bounced back to what I was doing.
Q. Having those two top 10s already this season, how much confidence does that give you to bounce back and know that your game is there?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I've been playing as good a golf as anybody out here, and I think my golf would say that, as well. I've been very consistent this year with every part of the game. I knew if I just had the right mindset coming into today, I could still play well.
Q. What did you work on in the off-season to get your game to this point that you're at?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, I've changed a couple things with my putting setup with my coach, and I really focused this off-season and just hitting the ball further. I don't know exactly what the numbers are, but I'm definitely hitting it quite a bit further which has made it super useful on the par-5s and even having shorter irons into the par-4s. Just been working on that.
Q. You mentioned a couple days of sulking. What does sulking entail for you?
LEE HODGES: Not doing much, not talking a lot, watching a lot of TV, laying in bed. No, it sucked. It's probably one of the worst things I've ever done in professional golf. It's tough to make a 9 on your last hole at Pebble Beach. It really sucked, but it's a learning experience, and now I've got that in my back pocket. Coming back today was a big thing for me, a good mental hurdle for me to get over knowing that we're right back on a good week.
Q. Sometimes those little adversity can be a good thing, a silver lining, and give you a little bit of a chip?
LEE HODGES: Yeah, for sure. I have a great team around me, and they knew how disappointed I was, not only for me but for them. That's a big -- they don't just give out 120 FedExCup points every week or whatever I lost on the last hole. If there's anything everybody out here knows, it's how valuable those points are.
That's what hurt the most is just knowing where I could have been on the list versus where I was after the 15 minutes it took me to play that hole. Yeah, but I'm just super proud of the way I came back today.
Q. Did you practice less on Tuesday or was it the same?
LEE HODGES: Well, I didn't do anything on Monday. I didn't touch a club. Tuesday -- no, we were right back on it on Tuesday. Tuesday is when I was like, all right, it's time to get back to work, and my caddie Andrew did a great job of -- we had a talk before we even started on Tuesday, kind of like yeah, it sucked, but we're here, and we're playing great golf. Let's just keep doing what we're doing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports