Media Center Interviews

March 29, 2022

Pre-Tournament Interview with Abraham Ancer

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Abraham Ancer into the interview room here at the Valero Texas Open.

Abraham, San Antonio resident, just talk to us a little bit about how much this tournament means to you and how much you love this area.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Absolutely. This is the golf course that kind of prepared me to where I am now. When I first moved to San Antonio, I made this my home course. I live just down the road and practice here every single day for at least four years and this is a place that is special to me. A lot of my family and friends come to this event and I always have some people obviously that come out to this event and cheer me on. It's always fun to play in front of them. So it definitely feels like home now, for sure.

JOHN BUSH: And it's your fifth start at this event, T-23 last year was your best finish. Do you find that you put a little bit more pressure on yourself here?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Maybe. I can't figure it out, I come out here and play, I'm like, man, I love this place, it should fit my game. During the tournament I just haven't been able to put four rounds together. But I like that, I like the challenge. I like that it's a tough course around the greens, too. If you miss the green, you have to have a really good short game, which I enjoy that. Maybe this is the year.

JOHN BUSH: All right. Then let's talk a little bit about your season before we open it up to questions. You finished, made it to the quarterfinals last week, played really well at Match Play. Just talk a little bit about the confidence you have and now going forward with your goals.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, it's been kind of a little bit of a slow start to the year. I played decent in some events, but like I said, I haven't been able to play as solid as I was probably last year or the year before. But I feel good or even better than last year, I just haven't been able to kind of get some momentum, but I'm being patient. I know that golf, it's up and down like that. It's not like I've played horrible, but yeah, I'm just being patient. I'm working on the stuff that I believe I need to be working on, and last week was something that you can see some of that kind of meshing together and coming into play in a tournament. I felt really, really good. Ran a little bit out of mojo there in the last match against a great competitor like Corey Conners. But yeah, happy to get a good tournament under my belt coming into this week and obviously the Masters next week.

Q. What do you make of the course this week? Is there anything that jumps out asvyou've gotten a chance to take a look at it?

ABRAHAM ANCER: I think, yeah, it's going to be challenging. The course looks in great shape. It's going to be maybe a little bit windy, which I enjoy. It's definitely going to be a challenge of keeping the ball in play, which that's another thing that I enjoy, trying to hit a lot of fairways. And even this golf course, if it's not windy but if it's firm, it can play really tough. I think it will be a good mix. You just have to be a ball-striker this week to have a good result and obviously convert your putts. It's definitely a ball-striker's kind of place.

Q. Jordan was telling us I guess the wind plays different directionally on different holes. Being from around the area and playing this course, are you kind of used to that or can you sort of describe what that's like?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I've definitely played this course with almost all kind of weather. If you get a little bit of wind, it just gets that much tougher, so it doesn't really matter if it's south or north, it makes it that much more challenging.

I don't think there's one wind -- well, maybe north wind makes it a little bit tougher than south, but you're going to get some holes that are going to play a little bit easier and others that are going to play really, really tough. It's just you've just got to be on.

Q. And this year's the 100th anniversary of this event. Obviously having some ties to the area as well, does this mean anything to you as a player, or what's the significance of that milestone?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Like I said, I moved to San Antonio mid 2014, so it's been almost eight years now. Definitely feel like I'm at home, I'm close. I'm four hours away to where I grew up in Reynosa, Mexico, so this is a city that I traveled to and always liked since I was a little kid vacationing here.

So it's nice to have also a lot of people and friends that are not involved in golf that I have that live here. So when I come and I hang out with them, it's not all about just golf, golf, golf, right? It feels like being in a little community.

Yeah, being the 100th year is obviously super important for this event. I know they're going big with the event. Saturday's going to be a huge concert, which is going to be a lot of fun. You can see just the grandstands also, they went all out. It's set up to be an absolutely great event. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Q. Do you see anything that gives this tournament an identity or kind of sets it apart to kind of other events on the tour that you play through the year?

ABRAHAM ANCER: That's a great question. I think it's just a great tournament all around. The golf course, the community, the people, the volunteers, everybody's so into this event. And saying that this is the 100th year, not a lot of tournaments can say that. So I have a lot of respect for a tournament that can say that it's been around for 100 years.

JOHN BUSH: Abraham, we appreciate your time. Best of luck this week.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Thank you.