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THE McGLADREY CLASSICOctober 22, 2014Chris KirkSEA ISLAND, GEORGIA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome our defending champion of the McGladrey Classic, Chris Kirk. Chris, last year you got off to a great start here for the season and ended it on a high note, also, in the FedExCup Playoffs. Kind of talk about what this win did for your year and your thoughts coming into this week. CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, winning here last year was a huge boost for me. I was coming off a pretty solid season the year before that but just didn't quite give myself any real legitimate chances to win a tournament, and so to put myself in that position, especially here at Sea Island, a place that's so important to me, and Davis's tournament, who has been my biggest mentor out here on the TOUR, was pretty amazing. And then was able to keep the momentum for most of the season after that. Q. How much did winning that early free you up for the rest of the season? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, knowing you had that two‑year exemption under your belt and are right there at the top or close to the top in the FedExCup standings, feeling like you really just kind of had a head‑start on everybody, and yeah, definitely takes a lot of pressure off you. Q. What does the next level mean to you? CHRIS KIRK: From where I am now? I think contending and possibly winning majors is where I'd like to go. I mean, but I think just to maintain the level of play I've had over the last year would be a pretty good accomplishment in itself, too. I've really had a great year last year, and it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of good breaks to do that. I'm hoping to play as much good golf as I can and hoping if I can just improve a little bit here and there that my game will translate well and my comfort level in majors will increase and hopefully play some good golf there. Q. Were you more impressed with yourself last year for winning or maintaining? It was a pretty steady year, wasn't it? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I'd say maintaining, just proving that it wasn't a fluke to win. I mean, everybody wants to win out here, and a lot of guys are able to accomplish that, but I think the respect of your peers comes from being able to back it up time and time again. Q. You talked at media day, when you came out of college you were Player of the Year. Were there a lot of expectations outside on you or were the expectations more on yourself and did that make it tougher to not get to this level quicker? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I'd say there were probably more expectations from myself than from outside. Some from outside, but now that I'm out here and have been out here for a little while, you sort of realize how the guys that are out here playing and playing well every week don't care who's playing good in college. It doesn't matter. I thought that it mattered a lot more then when I was doing it myself, and so I think I had a lot more expectations on myself than I probably should have and didn't realize how far I had to go at that time in my career to be out here now. Q. Did you get a nice break from the end of the Playoffs to here, and what did you do over the break? CHRIS KIRK: I did, yeah. I didn't do a whole lot, just really enjoyed being at home with my family and had to do a few couple‑day trips here and there to just take care of some sponsor obligations and that type of thing. But for the most part, just‑‑ yeah, just hung out with my two little boys at home and chased them around. That was more than plenty to keep me busy. Q. If you had to be left off a Ryder Cup team, was this a good one to be left off of? CHRIS KIRK: I think so, yeah. It didn't look like a whole lot of fun over there, did it? Q. How was the Georgia‑Tennessee game? CHRIS KIRK: It was a lot of fun (laughing). Q. Can I tap on your local knowledge? Right now it's in play that you could use the Plantation course out here as a second course, and I was wondering what your thoughts are on having a two‑course rotation here and how the Plantation would play into that rotation? CHRIS KIRK: I think it would play great. The Plantation course score‑wise would be just as tough if not tougher, depending if they set it up how they definitely can. So we'll see. I'd say I'm just kind of riding the fence on whether I think it's a great idea or not to be honest with you. I just‑‑ the Plantation course is a great golf course, but seaside is a really, really, really great golf course, I think. Q. What's your outlook on the fall? Obviously you're here, and so that's kind of an easy one for you, but I'd be curious, A, what your outlook is, and B, I think just about everybody who won last year started 20th or better going into the Playoffs. Is that just a coincidence? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I think that‑‑ I don't know that that's a coincidence necessarily. I mean, like we were saying earlier, winning early definitely takes some pressure off you the rest of the year and sets you up for the year, gets you‑‑ if you weren't already exempt into a lot of the majors and World Golf Championships and that type of thing, well, it sort of helps you set your schedule a little bit easier and gets you going on the right foot, obviously. But I'm here this week. Obviously I'm going to play the next two weeks in Shanghai, the BMW Masters next week and then the HSBC tournament week after that right down the road, and then we'll have a little bit of time off until I play a few events in December. Q. Why Shanghai instead of Malaysia? CHRIS KIRK: It was just something that I was interested in doing. I had talked to a few guys and heard that it was a great tournament and just wanted to mix it up a little bit, and it would make my travel a little bit easier, obviously. I think they're about 15 miles apart, the two different tournaments. Q. As good as last year was, it seems like TOUR players are always striving to improve. Where in your game do you see maybe the most room for improvement, and what's the plan to get there with that? CHRIS KIRK: You know, statistically the only thing that I wasn't overly happy with last year was some of my iron play. I made some changes a little over a year ago when I started working with Scott Hamilton, who's my teacher now, and really improved my driving so much, and that was a big reason why I had such a good year. It's interesting, you don't see very many players out here that are great drivers of the ball and great iron players. The two things require very different golf swings, so I felt like I was a very, very good iron player early on in my career on the TOUR and a very bad driver of the ball. And now I've become a very good driver of the ball, and so I didn't have a horrible year iron play‑wise, but it just wasn't quite as good as it was before. That's something that Scott and I are working on, just trying to figure out the right balance there between making sure my driver swing stays as good as it was last year and try to sharpen up my irons just a little bit. Q. Was there one trend, distance control, or one trend with the irons? CHRIS KIRK: No, not that I noticed anyway, but I'm not really a stats guy. Q. You had a fairly decent year in the majors, PLAYERS, top 20s in a few of them, I think. What does that do for your confidence going into another season where you're eligible for all of them and getting another crack at them? Do you feel like you're close to that top level and can contend? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I feel that I have the game to contend. I think in those tournaments it's all about your comfort level. You see guys that win the majors are the ones that can really handle it mentally, and you know, I felt like I had a decent season in the majors and played decent, pretty well at THE PLAYERS. But it is a little bit of a different feel, and it's just another little step in the learning curve trying to learn how to play well in those tournaments, and I haven't been in contention to win one yet, and I'm sure that'll feel just a little bit different. Coming down the stretch in Boston, winning a playoff event for the FedExCup, felt just a little bit different than my previous wins before that, and so I'm hoping that once I can get myself into that position in a major that I'll hopefully be able to handle it then and be able to get one done at some point. Q. Do you feel any different going into the tournament this week, being the defending champion? CHRIS KIRK: I feel a little bit rusty kind of. I hit the ball okay today, which was better than bad the last few days. Yeah, I have relatively low expectations, I guess, but I think that just kind of comes from not playing tournament golf for five weeks. I don't feel like‑‑ there's not anything that I'm going to go rush off and work on on the range right now. My swing feels fine. Everything in my game feels fine. It's just we'll see whether it clicks back in tomorrow or not. Q. You've got a really beautiful little pause at the top of your swing. How long have you had that and what's its purpose? CHRIS KIRK: That's just, I guess, kind of always been there. I have a pretty sort of slow kind of laid‑back temperament, and I think my swing kind of reflects that. MARK STEVENS: Thanks for your time, Chris. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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