|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
FRYS.COM OPENOctober 8, 2014Matt KucharNAPA, CALIFORNIA DOUG MILNE: Matt Kuchar, thanks for joining us for a few minutes prior to the start of the Frys.com Open. It's been a busy year, but obviously a very successful one for you, a win in South Carolina, 11 top‑10 finishes, making your first start in the event here, and with that just turn it over to you for some comments on being here this week. MATT KUCHAR: What a cool place. I'm really excited to be here. I know it's a quick turnaround. I kind of shake my head a little bit about how fast we play Ryder Cup, a week off, and then the year starts. It doesn't quite seem natural. That being said, I feel like I'm still somewhat sharp as far as my game goes. I think the guys that maybe are here and didn't play as many FedEx events could be five weeks off and then kind of come out, more of an off‑season, may not be quite as sharp, may be fresh and rested but not as sharp. I feel like I have some competitive sharpness still, so excited to be here. The course is cool. I got in yesterday afternoon and played the back nine and just kind of loved every hole on the back side, thought it was an awesome treat and got to see the rest of the course this morning in a pro‑am. It's a cool way to start the year. DOUG MILNE: You mentioned you have the whole family here and the kids probably won't even see daycare. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, we're staying with friends, got a great setup for the kids. It's a week I think most guys are kind of told my the wives that, yes, they're playing. This is a fun week for wives, but my situation, a fun week for kids, staying with some friends and a fun setup, so this is a work week for me but a fun week, as well. Q. As much golf as you play around the world, does this golf course remind you of anything that you've played before in terms of an old‑style course? MATT KUCHAR: The only difference maybe is the typical old‑style courses don't have as slopey a greens. Typical old‑style courses tend to have smaller, flatter greens. You think Colonial, you think Hilton Head, not a whole lot of severity in the slopes of the greens. These greens have a lot of slope, and I think that's the main defense here. It's certainly a tight golf course. You've got to drive it fairly accurately. But a lot of wedge holes that you can see guys taking advantage, and then the course seems to really‑‑ its defense seems to be the slopes in the greens. Q. You mentioned wedges. How many wedges have you put in your bag this week on this golf course? MATT KUCHAR: I don't change. The only time I ever change any equipment, a British Open I may take out a hybrid and add a 3‑iron into the bag, but other than that, my equipment stays the same every week of the year. I switched to a four‑wedge system when we switched to the new groove rules, and ever since we switched over to the new groove rules, I've stuck with the four‑wedge system. Q. From a European standpoint, Lee said it was kind of disappointing to see a lot of dirty laundry aired publicly on the fallout from the Ryder Cup. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what's kind of gone down over the last week. MATT KUCHAR: I think you've asked the wrong guy because I am being completely out of it. I played the Ryder Cup and then haven't turned on the TV since I was home. I've watched some football games and some baseball games, but I don't look online to see anything. Q. Do you want me to go over it? MATT KUCHAR: You can inform me if you'd like to. I am completely unaware. I heard a lot of people ask in the press conference what happened, and I said, nothing really. I mean, Phil answered a question. It didn't seem like it was at all a shot at Tom Watson at all to me. It seemed like there was just‑‑ Phil was asked 2008 was the last time the U.S. won, they had a pod system under Paul Azinger, why do you think they went away from the system, did you prefer the system. Phil said, yeah, I thought it was a great system and I felt invested in it. And with that, I guess it opened up a can of worms. But you've got to remember Phil being asked a second question, and he said, listen, don't take it that way. This is not a shot at Tom. So whatever aired out was‑‑ I'm sure it's blown out of proportion. Q. There has been a week of back and forth, Watson talking, the PGA of America talking, etcetera. But with all that, don't you think it gets down to guys making four‑footers? MATT KUCHAR: I'd say 20‑footers. I don't know about four‑footers. I don't think four‑footers was the issue. But yeah, I look back, and we were four points down going into singles, which is not an insurmountable lead. It does seem to be one of the cool things about the Ryder Cup is about the biggest lead you can get is four points, and that's not an insurmountable lead. You take the team matches and you flip two matches from the European side to the American side, it's all square. It's just a two‑match differential is equal to four points. That being said, four points is a big lead, but it's only the difference in two matches swinging the other way. It's fairly tight, and it's nice that there's still so much excitement on Sunday with the possibility of the singles‑‑ singles is the ultimate decider. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR: I had three partners at Gleneagles. I'm trying to think Wales if it was just Stewart or if I partnered with somebody else. I can't remember. It was just Stewart? I was certainly aware in the practice rounds that I was kind of a guy that knew that I had to be open to a couple different guys. I thought initially I was going to be with Jordan Spieth, but he and Patrick Reed made a great team, and I got moved over with Furyk, then it was Bubba Watson, then it was Zach Johnson. I was very open. I'm good to play with anybody. It was certainly not expected, but I was very okay and very open in all my discussions that, listen, there's not a guy you can't pair with me. I'm happy to play with anybody. When my final‑‑ when I was told after my morning, Saturday morning, I was playing with Bubba, told after the match that I'd be playing in the afternoon with Zach, I was excited. I thought, great, I love playing with Zach. I know it was my third guy, but that was an exciting pairing for me. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR:  Still impressive. The guys like Phil and Jim that have played on nine, ten Ryder Cups is mindboggling. I've played three straight and that's six years of really good golf. To think nine or ten great, 20 years of really good golf is quite amazing. Q. What else do you have planned the rest of the year? Vegas, McGladrey, CIMB? MATT KUCHAR: No, I go to the Broadmoor next week for vacation on my way home, which I've never been to, and then home to Sea Island for the McGladrey, and then off until Tiger's World Challenge and the Shark Shootout are the rest of my year. Q. Is the Argentina thing still happening? MATT KUCHAR: Doug says it is, I say it's not. Q. I hope it is because I'm going. MATT KUCHAR: He says it's happening, I say it's off. At least it's off for me, it's off for Tiger. As far as I knew, the event wasn't happening. Doug says he's going. He may be going in a different session than I thought it was. Q. I think you mentioned this briefly, but how strange does it feel starting the so‑called new season? Does this feel like a fresh start, or does this feel more like a continuation? MATT KUCHAR: You know, it does, just with all the new faces. One, it's a brand new golf course, so we're all new in that sense. And then all the new faces, you certainly feel like it's a new year. I think we all know now that the TOUR ends with the TOUR Championship, that our season ends then. It's just so quick to restart after the Ryder Cup. It doesn't feel like there's any break. A one‑week break is not a break. I still am pushing to put these three events, Frys, Vegas, McGladrey, after the Wyndham Championship, before the Playoffs, have these part of the real season, have an Asia restart. I know there's an issue with they want the FedExCup to not compete with football, but it competes with week three or four of football, why not compete with week seven of football. I see week seven as being less attentive for football watchers than week one, two and three. I'd love to see there be a proper break and then maybe an Asia restart come November. That's how I think the TOUR should work, but again, I'm not asked all that often how I think the TOUR should work. It's just I'm suggesting it. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, not real accommodating. But I'll keep suggesting. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR: No, no. I will not‑‑ the hardest part of the schedule for me is just that British Open through TOUR Championship. That's the one that I have a hard time trying to make sure I'm still playing good golf for the TOUR Championship. It's a difficult run of golf to then still be trying to truly be competitive for the FedExCup. Other than that, my schedule stays pretty much the same. Q. Of your fellow Americans in the Ryder Cup, did anybody surprise you on the ping‑pong table that week? MATT KUCHAR: You know, we played mostly doubles. I think Jordan Spieth was the one guy that challenged me to singles, and he got what he knew he was going to get. But it was a lot of fun just to‑‑ with the amount of doubles happening because there's, again, the team atmosphere of it, and there's so many more people involved, so we had a lot of fun. Bubba Watson has claimed me every year as his partner, and it works out really well. Bubba is an average player with zero backhand, only a forehand, and we take on kind of the best, and Bubba and I blend well and have competitive matches, and then for our short stint I took Phil and Phil was so excited to have me as his partner. But that was fun playing with Phil. But no, no surprises. Jordan is good, Zach is good, Phil is good. They're kind of the next three guys. Q. Obviously your first Ryder Cup was back at Celtic Manor, to see a young player like Patrick Reed play as well as he did, what was your assessment of that? MATT KUCHAR: It was great to see. Patrick was not on any sort of great form going into Ryder Cup. He sort of had a pretty ordinary run in the Playoffs, but amazing to see how certain guys rise up in occasions like the Ryder Cup, and Patrick seems made for that sort of golf. He's kind of a fiery, feisty guy, and it melds well with his game playing in a Ryder Cup. I thought that was awesome to see. He and Jordan, I think most people thought, boy, that seems like an odd pairing to have two rookies go out together, and then they were our strongest team. It was really cool to see that work out so well. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR: Well, right now I've tweaked my schedule just a little bit. I love what happened last year, and I had a great year and I'd like to continue that. I try to skip around and play some different events. I think I'm going to play the first four events this year. I think I'm going to play Kapalua, Sony, Humana and Waste Management, and then try to take a break from there. Yeah, so trying to continue to rotate other events that I want to be part of the schedule and then try to figure out‑‑ we don't get a proper off‑season anymore. You kind of have to schedule mini‑off‑seasons during the year, and a good learning curve now is to where to make that happen. Last year I played the first two in Hawai'i and skipped the next four. This year I think I'm going to play the first four‑‑ not for sure, but it looks like what I'm going to do, and then take a break after that. That makes it awkward as far as that's not part of the West Coast anymore, so kind of the break will be a little different when Match Play moves. Q. (Inaudible.) MATT KUCHAR: I think guys will try to figure out how to work in mini‑breaks. How that affects the West Coast I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't think we have any Greg Normans that will start at Doral, but I really don't see fields being hurt necessarily by the schedule never ending and guys needing to take breaks. Q. You mentioned a lot of these young Web.com TOUR players, guys that are grinding out here, qualifiers. When you open up the TOUR season and see a lot of these new young faces, how competitive and grueling is it out here to make that cut, to cash a check, and to play well and feel good about yourself when you see a whole new lineup of these young kids coming out here each week? MATT KUCHAR: Playing golf for a living is an amazing way to make a living but a really difficult way to make a living.  You're trying to beat the best of the best. Every year you've got a whole new crop of young kids that are ready to take your place. I realize that every year I've got 1,000 people that would love to replace me. It's certainly not easy. It's very competitive. But I think that's what guys out here love about it is the challenge that you're out here playing the very best competition the game has to offer. It's exciting every year. You kind of can't wait to see who can make it, who doesn't make it, and to challenge yourself against the best of the newcomers. DOUG MILNE: Matt, we appreciate your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|