MODERATOR: Evening, everyone. We would like to welcome the 2024 Worldwide Technology Championship winner, Austin Eckroat.

Austin, congratulations on capturing your second PGA TOUR victory and second of the season. Start off, what is it like to hear your name as a two-time PGA Tour Champion?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, it's just really special. You get that first win and you make the joke that maybe this will open the floodgates and they're going to start flying. You know, I think that second win kind of solidifies that you can win on the PGA TOUR. There's times you can't just say it was luck this time, I've done it twice. Pretty cool.

MODERATOR: Started the day only one stroke back but shot a 63. What was it like with this round just kind of being on lock?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, it was crazy. I shot 9 under par today, and did Carson end up making his birdie putt on the last?

It was tight until the end and I was lights out today, I couldn't miss. For it to still be tight, it was tough to win out there, so I was very fortunate for it to go my way. Yeah, very happy.

MODERATOR: You mentioned earlier this is your (inaudible) rounds. Where does this kind of compare in your career?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, if you think on just the PGA TOUR career, I would have to put the win at Cognizant as being -- that final round, similar day to where the ball's going where I wanted it to go, making the putts I needed to make. Those will probably be one and two. Surprising, the other one would be in the Dominican Republic, I was 8 under through nine holes. That was about as good as I could do, yeah.

MODERATOR: How much did you use from your previous win, the experience there on maintaining nerves and being in contention in the lead?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Honestly, I was never nervous today, which was really weird. Not until the very end when I chunked the chip on the 18th hole, that's when the nerves started to come in and the shakes started to happen. Today was really, from start to finish I really wasn't too nervous. I think I can draw back to the last time I won, I've already done it and it was comforting. I was expecting to be nervous when I woke up this morning and I just wasn't.

MODERATOR: Back in 2019 you had an amateur win here and now you've added professional. What is about the golf game here in Cabo that fits you?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Man, I don't know. I don't know if it's -- I guess I just love the area. I do love the area, this is one of my favorite places in the world, if not my favorite. And now to have two wins, I think that might solidify it as the new favorite for me. Yeah, to have two wins in Cabo, I don't know if anywhere else besides Oklahoma has more than one win for me.

MODERATOR: Do you still have that trophy?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Oh, yeah, I still have that trophy, yeah. If you knew BA, she'd kill me if I didn't still have that trophy.

Q. First, congratulations on your victory. On your PGA TOUR bio it says that one of your first memories is watching Tiger Woods in Oklahoma. So what does it mean to you to win here on a design by Tiger Woods?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, it's really cool. Tiger definitely was my favorite player growing up, no doubt about it. Yeah, I got to watch him play at Southern Hills, I think it was the 2007 PGA Championship, so I was 8 years old.

I remember watching him hit the putt at Torrey Pines. Actually, I didn't watch that, I had my head tucked in the couch because I couldn't watch it, I was so nervous.

To win at a place that he built, that's just pretty cool. It's awesome. He's my idol, for sure.

Q. Talk a little bit about that other amateur win you had here in Los Cabos, what it was like, the tournament. And that opening first nine holes you had like seven birdies in the first eight, something like that. Can you speak a little bit about both, please?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah. So in 2019 it was the Cabo collegiate golf tournament, it's at Querencia. It was always one of our favorite trips of the year to go somewhere fun and come a couple days early. From start to finish I played great and ending up beating one of my teammates by two. We finished first and second, so it was pretty cool, and we won as a team as well.

But to think about today, just to get off to the start that I had, was it seven birdies through nine holes? I was on fire I guess what you could call it. Outside of the bogey on the third hole, every hole I had a good birdie look and I made it. It was special, it was cool.

Q. You said 11 birdies, two bogeys and only five pars. Is this the craziest scorecard you ever signed?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Definitely the craziest because I had the most birdies. I've had five pars before in a round, but it wasn't nine under par at the end of the total. I remember making par on, I made par on hole 5 today, might have been the first par. I went to my caddie and I said pars are overrated. Then the trend kept the same for the rest of the round.

Q. As a Tour winner, you guys are an inspiration to fans, to new generations. I would like to have your thoughts for a new generation, inspire them to follow in your footsteps and stuff like that.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, I think a great -- you know, the best thing about golf is that it doesn't -- you can get started at such a young age and it's something you can do for the rest of your life. There's so many benefits to playing the game of golf. Obviously even if you don't make it to the top level, it's something to do with your friends on the weekends, something to do with your kids some day, you can do it for your whole life. To get involved in the game of golf, all my buddies that I have now that didn't play growing up wished they played now. Yeah, if I can be someone that encourages people to play golf, I would love to be that guy and happy to be that guy.

Q. We would like to know about your thoughts on the wind this week. It was pretty significant the first day. How about the rest of the week? And your thoughts on the golf course?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Thoughts on the wind?

Q. Yeah.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: For that first day we had an extremely windy day. Honestly, outside of today, that was probably the second best round I played this week. To shoot 4 under on a day like that was really good.

Then it was just kind of we had a similar wind direction every day and you could kind of get comfortable with certain tee balls with the wind direction. After Thursday the wind was pretty consistent on the amount until late yesterday, whenever we were playing hole 15 with 20-, 25-mile-an-hour gusts on the hardest hole on the golf course. For the most part it was consistent and I think it was a fair wave. Guys complain about that sometimes, but I think for the most part it was pretty fair.

Q. Your shot of the day, Austin? Which one?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Shot of the day would probably be either the putt on 17, that kind of gave me a little cushion going into 18, or the chip on 14, the par 5. I was in the sandy area and it was just a shot you don't practice very often. I was hitting a 9-iron from just off the green from underneath a tree. I hit it to four feet. Either that one or the putt on 17 I would say were the biggest shots of the day.

Q. After your two wins in 2024, what are your next goals for 2025? What's the next thing that you would like to accomplish early in 2025 or a little bit beyond?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, to think of some long-term goals would obviously be a major champion. That's probably the biggest next step would be to win a major.

Obviously on top of that, making the Ryder Cup next season would be a huge goal of mine. I still haven't made it to the Tour Championship on the PGA TOUR, so making it to East Lake would be an awesome cherry on top to a great season. Those are probably the three main goals going into next season.

Q. So where are you planning on spending the prize money?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: I'll let Sally take care of that one.

I don't know, we made a joke earlier this week, we just moved into a new house and we don't have -- we don't have a pergola in the backyard and I said if I top-10, we can get a pergola. So I guess we're going to get a pergola in our backyard.

MODERATOR: Sticking with the theme, Sally, how important is it to have her here when you're winning and she's a long beside you?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, I'm very lucky to have Sally travel with me as often as she does. It's a lonely lifestyle if you don't, hotels and traveling all over the place, getting on airplanes. To have someone to share these moments with is really special.

She's been here for both my wins now and she's been with me for several missed cuts as well, so she's there through the thick and thin. I love her so much and I'm really happy to share these moments with her.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about what it's like playing here at Diamante?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, this place is incredible. Diamante, from the moment you get inside the gates, you can tell it's a special place. It's really cool. We get to -- we stay down at Nobu, I'm not sure if that's entirely the same family, but the golf course is incredible. We joke around about how easy we could change our lives, go move in one of those houses on 14 if it was easy to do that.

Yeah, the golf courses are great. I haven't really got to play the other one, the Dunes course, but my caddie has and he says it's fantastic as well. The staff, the wait staff, the restaurants, everything's great.

Q. Could you just talk about, did I hear correctly that you made a switch with your putter, and if so, can you just talk about that decision?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, that's a week-to-week thing. I switch putters about every week. Yeah, this is actually my first win since I was 13 years old without the same exact putter. I've used the same Ping putter. I switch away from it, but every time I've won has been with that putter. This is my first win since I was 13 years old with a different putter, which is kind of crazy.

Q. Safe to say you're going to keep it in the rotation?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: It's definitely in the rotation. It's not safe yet, there's a good chance

next time I play golf there'll be a different one in, but it felt very good this week.

Q. Austin, congratulations.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Thank you.

Q. In the Masters next April, what will you think of that?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, I got to play my first Masters this season, this last season. I didn't do too well, so I'm looking for revenge on Augusta National. It's always, it's such a cool week. I had such high expectations going into it last year and I really kind of let myself down. I was really hoping that wasn't the last time I ever got to do it, so glad I get to do it again and get some revenge.

MODERATOR: You had a crazy stretch in your beginning after the first win to maybe not have the most time to celebrate. What does the celebration look like tonight?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, very different than last time I won. Last time I drove three hours to Orlando and started playing golf the next day. I've got a little time off and I'm sure it's going to get a little crazy. I'm excited to actually have some time to celebrate this win, for sure.

Q. We all make jokes about the houses next to 14.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: What did you say?

Q. We all make the same jokes about the houses next to 14.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: They're incredible, aren't they?

MODERATOR: Looks like all the questions we have. Austin, thank you for taking the time and again, congratulations.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Thank you so much.