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SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPEN

October 25, 2015

Smylie Kaufman

Las Vegas, Nevada

AMANDA HERRINGTON: Congratulations to Smylie Kaufman, our Shriners Hospitals For Children Open champion. A lot of emotions out there. This is a big day for you; not only an incredible round of golf but coming out in your rookie season and getting your first career TOUR win. Tell us what's going on in your head right now.

SMYLIE KAUFMAN: It hasn't all sunk in yet, but I've got friends and family here. I've got my girlfriend, my grand parents here, so kind of just had a moment with them and celebrated with them. So for the most part it really hasn't sunk in yet. But talking to my family, you know, I did the best I could today, and if it wasn't good enough, then I can hang my head high. I left it all out there and posted a number, and luckily it held up.

Q. As you were waiting, what's going through your mind, because it really was a long, long wait between when you signed your card and the time you picked up that crystal.
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, it was an extremely, extremely long wait. I couldn't do anything about like what they were doing. I just did my best to try to prepare for a playoff. Walking down 16, I talked to my caddie Aaron, and he was -- I was thinking we needed to birdie 16. 16-under we felt like could be the number that might hold up or get in a playoff. We didn't think 15 was good enough, and so we kind of got in a mindset on 18 fairway that we need to birdie. Luckily made an awesome putt, and here I am.

Q. What's Aaron's last name?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Alpern.

Q. Talk a little bit about this 11-hole stretch you had. You went 9-under par over that stretch. What's going through your mind as you're kind of going through there? That's kind of an unheard-of number.
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah. If you would have watched me play the first nine holes, I mean, I could have done something on those holes, as well. That's how good I was hitting it. I think the key moment in the round was No. 8. It's a really tough par-3, and hit a 6-iron from about 200 to about eight feet and made the putt. Finally saw the ball go in the hole, and I knew the back nine was gettable. You just had to -- you needed a good number going into the back nine to get some momentum going, and I just played awesome on the back nine.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: Certainly would like to ask you about playing on the Web.com TOUR. We saw this with Emiliano last week with his win. Talk about playing last season, the success you had there, and how it's prepared you for what you've done.

SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, it's tough to say, because the Web.com for me was perfect because it taught me how to travel, how to prepare, how to make a cut, how to handle rounds that were not going the right direction and how to turn those things around. As a 21, 22 year old, I don't think I was quite ready to handle those type of emotions, and a full year on the Web.com really kind of matured me in a way and made it to where I was able to be smarter in those situations and not get ahead of myself. That was kind of the mindset I had today; on that back nine I just made sure I just stayed in every moment and committed to every shot and understood that I was going to have thoughts about looking forward, but overall, I think I handled everything pretty well and stayed committed to most every one of my golf shots.

Q. You're the second straight winner now to start the season. You're a rookie; Emiliano is a rookie. What do you think that says about this new group of 20-somethings coming up, about just your talent level?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, I'm one of the few guys from 2010. Everyone talks about 2011, so I guess I'll start the 2010 class, I guess. I've been playing with these guys since I was a junior and college golf. Most of the time they beat the crap out of me when I was a junior and an amateur. I just kind of figured everything out my senior year in college. I always knew what the potential there was for me because I putted well and drove it a long way, and once I got everything organized into a plan for my golf game, then I was able to take care of it.

Q. And the obvious question is this gets you into the Masters.
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about just how you're feeling? It's your first win, but with the Masters invite coming, too.
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: I can't even -- I mean, it's unbelievable. To be playing like -- if you would have told me I had a round at the Masters, if somebody was going to take me out and not completely with the Masters, just to play Augusta National, I would have freaked out. But now that I'm playing the Masters, it's a joke. It's unbelievable.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: And finally, you've got your first win now; looking forward to the rest of the season, what goals do you have for yourself?

SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Well, the goal was to win Rookie of the Year, and then last week I finished up, I was like, crap, Emiliano won first so he's going to make things difficult. So now winning this week, that doesn't hurt things, so that's kind of my goal. My goal was Rookie of the Year and to make the TOUR Championship. Those were my goals.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: Thank you for joining us, and congratulations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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