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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2015

Chris Kirk

Norton, Massachusetts

JOHN BUSH: We'll get started. We'd like to welcome the defending champion of the Deutsche Bank Championship, Chris Kirk, into the interview room. Before we talk about this week, take us back to last year and this tournament, what it meant for your season.

CHRIS KIRK: It meant a lot for my season. Obviously moving me to at the time No. 1 in the FedExCup rankings. And it was a great way to cap off a really good year and I played really well at the TOUR Championship, also.

This has been one of my favorite tournaments of the year in Boston. I've always loved the golf course and the people here that run the tournament are great, from all the people in the dining room area in there and the locker room, it's always the same staff, they remember me and they remember my kids and my wife. Everybody has been really, accommodating here, it's a great family environment at this tournament. I've always loved it.

JOHN BUSH: You come into the week 39th in the FedExCup standings, comments a little bit about your season up to this point?

CHRIS KIRK: A little bit of an interesting season for me. Got off to a pretty good start. And win earlier this year at Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial was huge for me. That's always been my No. 1 favorite tournament of the year, to win there was really, really special for me.

Unfortunately had an accident playing in the yard with my kids and was out for a few months. And Barclays was my first week back last week. I didn't play as well as I would have liked, but it was nice just getting back out there and knocking a little bit of rust off. And most importantly my hand felt great. It didn't hurt at all, wasn't uncomfortable at all to play. That was great for me. And now I come back into a place where I'm very comfortable and I can get it back going for a little bit better play.

JOHN BUSH: So completely healthy? You're good?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, hundred percent feeling good.

Q. Can you talk a little bit more about the hand injury, and what you broke and then how long it took you before you could hit balls again?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, sure. I was chasing my kids around in the yard. My feet basically went out from under me and kind of reaching my hand back a little bit, just landed not very good on it and cracked the last metacarpal about midway on my right hand.

It wasn't a real bad break or anything like that, it wasn't displaced or anything. I started physical therapy on it probably a week and a half after it happened. And it just progressed and worked with the doctors at the orthopedic clinic, and also all the physical therapy people at University of Georgia, which were really great and helped me out a ton to get me back a little faster.

It felt, to be honest with you, a couple of weeks before the Barclays, it felt fine to do pretty much anything. I stopped wearing my splint. I was back chasing my kids around the yard again.

But with it being on the outside of my right hand, the way my interlock grip kind of puts some torque on that joint where -- my finger wasn't broken, but it's all connected there, obviously.

So it was a couple of weeks there where I was fine to do anything but play golf. So I got cleared by the doctor a week and a half probably before Barclays, probably two weeks before Barclays, to do whatever I wanted to.

But it really came down to I just decided I would rather stay at home for a little bit longer than go play golf, where every shot hurts to hit. So I just waited until it felt fine to hit balls and was ready to go last week.

Q. The timing of it knowing that more majors were coming up and then the FedExCup run, how did you deal with the frustration of that?
CHRIS KIRK: That first week that I was out, the British Open, I was definitely pretty bummed not being able to go to St. Andrews. I was really looking forward to that trip. But to be honest with you after that I really actually enjoyed it. I mean it was great.

I was thinking back and I probably haven't had nine weeks off in the middle of summer since I was maybe ten years old. And even in middle school, high school, that's when the busy part of your year is during the summer. To be able to spend all that time at home with my two young sons and my wife, we had a blast, to be honest with you.

But my three year old was very sad when I finally went to the airport to go to the Barclays, he thought I was just staying home with him forever. But we had a really great time, to be honest with you.

Q. What was something that you were able to do in those nine weeks that you look back at and really appreciate that you wouldn't have been able to do?
CHRIS KIRK: Really all the time spent with my kids, just every day being able to hang out with them and enjoy our property in Athens where we live now. And we went on a few vacations. Went down to St. Simons, Sea Island area for a week to see some old friends and hang out. My wife and I went up to Asheville for a few days, just the two of us, just to have a little get away. We spent a little time at Lake Burton up in north Georgia where my wife's dad and stepmom spend a little time up there. We got to go see them. And just having a few months of no schedule and being able to just kind of do whatever you want.

I wouldn't give up my life on the Tour for I go in, I absolutely love what I do. But having sort of no responsibilities and just being able to have fun with my family for a little while there was really great.

Q. Did you have to go over a mental hurdle with the hand, was there a shot that you couldn't hit, you couldn't pull off with the injury, but now you feel pretty good about?
CHRIS KIRK: No, I waited long enough where it didn't hurt for me to hit balls. The first day or two coming back hitting balls on the range there is a little bit of just getting yourself to trust it and go ahead and swing full, through down into the ground, and trust that it's not going to hurt.

But I knew that it was fully healed back, I knew that it wasn't going to hurt anything or damage anything. I kind of took it easy those first few days and started hitting iron shots off the tee and stuff like that, maybe not going at it as hard as I could.

And then every day when I was out hitting balls, I would kind of progressively hit more and more. And after two or three days I was -- I felt like I was basically back to normal. A little rusty, maybe, but I felt like I could hit the ball like normal.

Q. Were you able to putt with the splint on your hand?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, yeah. Well, I could always take the splint off. And like I say, it wasn't -- the bone was never displaced. After like two weeks after it happened I was cleared to go putt and do whatever I want. You wouldn't have been able to tell by my putting stats the first round of Barclays last week. But, yeah, I was fine to go do a practice and hit little chip shots and stuff like that.

Q. Last year, I think when you came here you were kind of in the thick of a hunt for one of the Ryder Cup picks. And then this year I think you're 10th in The Presidents Cup. Can you talk a little bit about how much you want to make that team and any pressure you might be feeling?
CHRIS KIRK: I don't really put too much pressure on myself, to be honest with you. I really, really would love to make the team. I've been in communication with Jay Haas over the last few months, with the injuries he kind of checked in with me here and there. I've always gotten along great with him and his son, Bill, hung around them a little bit. It would be a huge honor for me to make the team and be able to represent my country. But it's not really -- it's not like I can go out and hit balls on the range this afternoon and like I'm going to hit an extra bucket of balls so I can make The Presidents Cup team. You just go and play and try to play as best you can, and see how it works out.

Q. Did coming so close to making the Ryder Cup team, did that change the way you either viewed trying to make the team or maybe your motivation for making the team?
CHRIS KIRK: Not really, no. Like I said, I mean I see that as a huge honor making those teams. And it means that you've really played well for the last few years. It's definitely a goal of mine. But I'm not really big on goals anyway.

I'm more -- I like to just sort of work on my process every day and not really worry about -- I'm not going out to the range to try to win tournaments. Obviously I want to win tournaments. But I know how you win tournaments is you practice and you prepare as well as you can, and you work on the little things and you go each day, each shot, each hole, each shot you try to do as well as you can. And the things all add up if you just do as well as you can in each moment. That may sound clichÃ© or like a sports psychologist is talking to you or something, but that's really just the -- it makes life a lot more simple for me, I think is what it is. I'm just able to go and try to do as well as I can every day and just sort of see what happens.

JOHN BUSH: Chris Kirk. Thank you, sir.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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