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THE BARCLAYSAugust 19, 2014Matt KucharPARAMUS, NEW JERSEY CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome our 2010 Champion, last time we were here at Ridgewood, No. 4 in the FedExCup standings. You come in in a good position heading into the Playoffs, but first I think just an update on your back. I know it caused you a little trouble at the PGA. How are you feeling? I know you're kind of ready to get this Playoff stretch started. MATT KUCHAR: Feeling good. Feeling strong. It was an odd thing. I've never had to pull out of a tournament before. I've never had an issue that came up that kept me from playing. It was particularly bad timing. There's never a good time to come down and have an injury and have something take you away where you wasn't play, but the PGA Championship was certainly a week that I was looking forward to. I had played a couple practice rounds at Valhalla and I was feeling pretty good my game. That was too bad. But had ten days now to try to get healthy and feel really good. I feel like I can do all the activities, I've hit balls, played holes. All feels pretty good. I'll get a couple rounds in before Thursday and certainly excited to be back at original wood. This is a place I've got fantastic memories from and a place that I knew when I played it the first time, it fit my eye and fit my game. I knew this was going to be a good track for me in 2010, I had a great result and really excited to be back. Q. Can you walk us through at the PGA Championship when it hit you; and how scary was it, since it was your first time you've ever dealt with something like that. MATT KUCHAR: I've had a back lock up but never more‑‑ if I had stretched it out or if I hit some balls, it would loosen up and give, so I've had it lock up but not to the point where it kept me out for an entire day. So I played Monday, played Tuesday. Went with the kids, we were having a party at the house, a bunch of people over, a bunch of kids over. I was in charge of hooking up the slip‑and‑slide for the kids. Walked around, all of Target, all of Wal‑Mart, couldn't find one. Sat in the car for about an hour fighting traffic and when I got back, I thought, boy, my back doesn't feel very good right now, so it felt good all day Tuesday, and then sat in the car for about an hour and with that, stepped out of the car and didn't notice anything until I stepped out. Said, gosh, I don't feel very good, hopefully I can loosen up by tomorrow. Went to the course and got some treatment and had not really loosened up. I took Wednesday off, and figured gosh, by the time Thursday comes around it will have loosened up. Got treatment, tried to hit balls. Figured I could warm up into it and just couldn't warm up into it. I guess I basically had gotten a little out of alignment. The muscles kind of locked up and with the help of chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist, got it straight again and feel good. They have given me a handful of little exercises to try to help strengthen the area and help prevent this from happening again. Q. Was it scary, especially with what Tiger is going through? MATT KUCHAR: It's interesting, whenever you're ill, injured, it crosses your mind that you may never be healthy again, and then now I'm healthy and I think, I'm never going to get injured again. I feel good. I feel like I'm 100 percent. It's funny how little setbacks can feel so different to you. I went from feeling like, gosh, I may never be able to really play well again to there's nothing stopping me now. Interesting just how different I felt and the mentality behind how feeling a certain way can just completely change your thought process. Q. What is it about Ridgewood that you really like? MATT KUCHAR: Old‑style golf, I think it's classic. Every hole is framed, whether it's by rough or trees or bunkers. You just have everything framed very well. I feel like I've had success on courses like this, and it's not a‑‑ I don't know if I can pinpoint it exactly other than I step up on a hole and I know exactly what I'm supposed to do when I tee off here. Some places, you don't have quite as good of eye line, some places just don't feel right and something about the framing of kind of tree‑lined fairways that just I love, whether it's Hilton Head, you see trees on each side of you. Here, same way. It just really gives you a good idea of what you're supposed to do and I feel like I drive the ball, it's one of my strengths is putting the ball in the fairway and I think here that's a premium. So always feel a little more comfortable on the difficult driving golf courses. Q. You seem to be a guy who is universally liked and respected by other players on the TOUR, and this is definitely a put‑you‑on‑the‑spot‑type question. But what do you think it is about the way you carry yourself that makes that so, and is it something you consciously do or something you've learned over time or just a natural way of behavior? MATT KUCHAR: The only thing I can point to is I enjoy life. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy being with people. I'm a glass‑half‑full guy. I think some of that's infectious. I think the other side can be infectious, too, but I think people enjoy being around guys that look at life on the bright side and then whatever the situation is, they are going to try to make the most out of it. I think that sort of energy or mentality is infectious and people enjoy being around that sort of idea. That's the only thing I can really point to as far as why guys may think I get along well with everybody. I try to look at everybody's got a good side, even if they are not known as great people, I figure there's a good person in there. Q. Have you always been that way? MATT KUCHAR: I've always been that way. CHRIS REIMER: I can't stand Matt, at all, yeah (laughter). Q. Speaking of glass half‑full, how do you think the team will react to being such being underdogs at The Ryder Cup? MATT KUCHAR: Pretty sure it will be a glass half‑full idea that take whatever your situation and try to make it an advantage. It certainly appears right now that the European Team is stacked, playing really well. Although the last few weeks, I would say the Americans, aside from Rory, Rory's been dominating, but it's one guy. Jim Furyk's played near dominating golf, as well. He's been up there every week. We've got a number of other guys playing well. It will be interesting, three picks, because I kind of think you've got a number of guys coming into some pretty good form outside the Top‑10 or outside the top nine. Fun to be an underdog. I mean, that's one of those things where you're in a position to do something great. You're as an underdog, you're expected to lose and great to have that as a little chip on your shoulder and try to prove everyone wrong. Q. Aside from the back injury being the first thing and only thing that could wipe that beautiful smile off your face, the no anchor ruling and the way you put with the putter anchored on the left arm, have you had a lot of guys come to you and ask you for help with that? MATT KUCHAR: There has been a lot more. Again, we're still a little ways away from 2016. Guys have got a full year‑plus before that really comes into effect. But, in the last year, a lot more guys are asking what I do, how I do it, what do I think about; a lot of interest. It's been fun to see other guys actually take it and put it into tournament play. I've seen a lot more guys, just most recently, Edoardo Molinari has played some good golf with the semi; he's cross‑handed but seeing him putt with the shaft of the putter up against his left forearm and looks like he's played some good golf that way. Fun to see. I'm seeing more guys experiment, seeing more guys ask about it and try to get the loft and lie right is a critical component. And I would say loft and lie, and setup position is a thing that guys tend to get when they first grab the putter, can sometimes get out of alignment. Just their left side kind of pulls under, and the right side pulls up and gets their upper body open. It's important to keep your upper body square to your line. So there are a few little things that I think are really important to putting the way I do. I've tried to help some guys that have come up and asked. Q. I know you don't get off your putting very often, but when you do, do you have more trouble with line or speed? MATT KUCHAR: If anything happens, I tend to just push putts. I tend to pull out of putts, because there's not much of a release the way I do it. When I get off, I come out of putts, open the blade up and miss putts to the right. So to me, I always know what causes that and how to correct that. So that does creep in but I have some fixes that I can go to, as well. Q. Even though it's been 23 months since Medinah, does it still sting what happened, and can you use that as a rallying cry at The Ryder Cup? And how often do you think back to what happened that day? MATT KUCHAR: Thankfully not often and thankfully golfing memories are short. The simple fact that you go out and you win a tournament, say you win this week, and by the time next Friday comes around and the Deutsche Bank is there, nobody cares anymore. Everybody starts from scratch. Everybody starts at even par and move forward. I'm very good at staying in the present and focusing on the task at hand. That Medinah stung. We had a couple weeks off to really mull over it, and the sting really set in. I think it was hard for everybody but there were a couple of us that are local guys on Sea Island, Georgia, that see Davis all the time that are very close to Davis that were so excited to make the team and play for him; and to lose it in the fashion we did really hurt. It will certainly be motivation. But I've not thought about it a whole lot since. I've kind of looked forward and certainly looked forward to the next Ryder Cup, looked forward to the next tournament I played in. My focus will be squarely on the FedExCup for the next four weeks and have that week off and really start focusing in on The Ryder Cup. Q. Do you get a sense in The Ryder Cup that the personalities on the U.S. Team are more diverse than ever; from you to Patrick Reed to Bubba Watson to Jimmy Watson, you almost run the gamut in some ways. Does that seem different than usual? MATT KUCHAR: It will be interesting. It's a lot of the same personalities from me to Jim Furyk to Phil Mickelson; we'll miss Tiger Woods this year. Bubba's been on a lot and Rickie's been on a couple. So we've got kind of a core nucleus and some new guys with Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker will be interesting. I can't imagine anybody being part of the team room and not being a good fit though. I think everybody rallies around a single cause and enjoys the team camaraderie part. So it's fun to see the rookies and how they do. I've been on two teams now; I'm certainly not a veteran, but love being a part of it, and I think that any new guy can't not love being a part of it, and having guys like Furyk around, having a guy like Stricker, whether he's just an assistant or playing assistant, it would be great to have. So it will be interesting but I don't think a whole lot different. You're always going to have a handful of rookies out there that make the team for the first time and as long as you've got those couple veterans to help out, it's a great atmosphere. Q. Talking about Rory and this run that Rory is on, do you think could we be seeing a new dominator on the TOUR? MATT KUCHAR: Certainly seems that way. He's been very impressive. I played with him the first two rounds at the Bridgestone Invitational, and I just played a practice round Wednesday with Tiger Woods. And Tiger has won there as much as anybody, you know, seems to know how to play that course really well, and Tiger is hitting irons and 3‑woods off of tees. Then I get up and play a completely different game than Tiger; I hit driver pretty much everywhere around Firestone. Rory McIlroy it driver everywhere, as well. There wasn't a hole‑‑ he just would throw it down the middle of the fairway. So when he does that, the game can look awfully easy and he can certainly make golf courses look very easy. CHRIS REIMER: Good luck this week, and will luck through the Playoffs. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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