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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 12, 2016

Sung Kang

Pebble Beach, California

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Sung Kang to the interview room here at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The new course record holder at Monterrey Peninsula, as well as the tournament record. When you got on a roll like that, what's the key to keeping a round going.

SUNG KANG: You know, I was having a good round, so I didn't really force it to make birdies. So I was thinking just, it just felt like it was going to happen no matter what. So do it, it's going to happen. Just putt, it's going to go in, just hit it and it just went in most of the time today.

THE MODERATOR: Did you feel like had you a round like that coming this week?

SUNG KANG: Actually, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I was hitting it really good. I feel like I played a little better.

And then yesterday I hit it kind of really bad and ground it out. Shot even par. After we finished we're were like, well, we survived today. Let's go low the next few rounds and we'll be right there. And it just happened today. And we're right there.

THE MODERATOR: What does that do for your confidence when you see the ball go in the hole and you see everything go right like it did today?

SUNG KANG: I had a day like that day yesterday. No matter what I do it's going to go to the wrong way.

Today it felt like it's going to go to the right way, it's going to go to the hole, it's going to go to the fairway, it's going to go right next to the hole no matter what. So I just hit it and trusted on what I needed to do.

THE MODERATOR: Your caddie, Fluff Cowan, has had success all around the world for several different players. What does he bring to you and how does he help your game?

SUNG KANG: He definitely clear my head a lot. I don't have to think too much. He just tell me where to hit and what number, what type of shot, and I just hit it there, and it worked out great.

He told me, yeah, you were listening to me very well today, and you didn't listen to me at all yesterday. So I did fine today.

Q. Your pro-am partner, Ray Romano. What has it been like playing with him?
SUNG KANG: I think he's very nice. So he's been playing this tournament for almost 15 years, so he knows, he knows exactly what he needs to do to play this way like we are.

And then, yeah, to be honest with you guys, I mean I grew up in Korea, so I didn't really know who he was, first of all, then one of my buddies came up to me "Oh, you're playing with Ray Romano." I don't even know what his name is, I guess.

So he said Ray, so, I'm like, "Oh, who is that?", is he pretty famous? If he's famous, he's not supposed to be paired with me, because I'm not a one of the top players out here. So, okay, and then I have some research done, and then he had some like great TV show for like six, seven years. And then, I mean, yeah, he gets a lot of money for that, too, I'm like, oh, this guy has got to be really famous.

And then whenever we actually finish the holes and everybody wants his autograph and trying to take pictures and then I really realized, oh, yeah, he's got to be really famous. And he's a nice guy, we're having fun.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. When did you start? How old were you when you started and when did you come to the U.S.? You speak beautiful English. Some of the guys need translators, you must obviously have been here for awhile.
SUNG KANG: Oh, I came to the States first time in 2002. So, like 14 years ago. But I actually wasn't living in here, I was kind of back and forth because my dad wanted me to learn some golf from the States.

In wintertime, obviously, the weather is too cold back in Korea, so he sent me to the States, and then I have some golf in wintertime. And summertime, I play some like junior golf out here, like Junior Amateurs and U.S. Amateurs and things like that.

And then I started really living in Dallas from like 2011, since I got on the PGA TOUR first time. So it's been just five years living in the States.

Q. I don't know if it's been asked, you had three missed cuts coming in and you took last week off. What clicked today? Did you work on anything last week? And when did 59 enter your mind, if it did?
SUNG KANG: The first of all, we didn't even know what the par was. Even after we finished the hole. So I thought I shot 61.

And then Ray came up, actually Ray asked me after nine holes, because I was 6-under par. He asked me "What's your career low?" I shot 61 couple times.

And then after we finished he was like "Hey, you beat your career round," and I said, "No I didn't. I shot 61."

"No", he said, "You shot 60."

And we looked at the score and couldn't still figure it out, like four or five minutes with Fluff. And then we counted it again "Oh, shoot, we shot 60." What was my career round? And I told him, "Yeah, it is very honored to have my career round with you and then it was just wonderful."

And last three weeks, like first week in Hawaii, I wasn't really hitting very good. But after that, I found my game a little bit but I was putting too much pressure on myself. So I'm like I was trying too hard. So now I'm just going -- yeah, I don't have any pressure, even if I miss a shot or if I hit it bad or if I make it or not, my family is still going to love me. I mean nobody's going to hate me. They might like me better if I play bad.

So, yeah, so it doesn't really matter whatever I do. It's just do whatever I really need to do to make it happen. So I'm just focusing on what I need to do instead of like, shoot something like win the tournament. I'm trying not to really think about the result.

So just work on the -- concentrate on the processing and then it will just happen automatically. That's what the difference was, this week and last few weeks.

Q. How did you hook up with Fluff?
SUNG KANG: Oh, yeah, I had some hard time with my old caddie, so after the Farmers Insurance Open we split up. And then I asked one of my buddies named Steve Hulka. Steve told me Mike might be available because Jim just had a surgery, he might be off for couple months.

So I'm like, yeah, I want to try Fluff. I might be able to learn something because he's been doing this for like 40 years. So, and then, so, Steve actually called Mike and then Mike said okay. Okay, that's it, we're going. It was pretty simple.

Q. This field has, as you probably know, six of the top-10 players in the world and a lots of veteran players. Does that also make it less of a week for -- less pressure for you because you expected those guys maybe to be leading the tournament?
SUNG KANG: Oh, you know what? I'm just here to have fun. I'm just excited to play with Ray, and then having Mike on my bag, I mean, that's just good enough for me already this week.

So we'll just try to have fun next few rounds. I don't really pay attention to it.

Q. So just to be clear, 59 never entered your mind at all because you didn't, you weren't --
SUNG KANG: Yeah, because I'm like, I don't have enough holes to shoot 59. And then coming in like 7, 8, 9 are tough holes just trying to make pars and ended up making two birdies on the last three holes.

But, yeah, I didn't really think about it at all. I didn't even know I shot 60. I just know that then I asked Mike, if I, if I birdie the last hole, then I shot 59? I didn't even know it.

Q. Do you think because you didn't know it kind of alleviated some of the pressure at all?
SUNG KANG: Oh, what happened to us, like during the practice round, the hole No. 16, the par-5, Mike told me, it used to be a par-4, now it's playing as par-5. So that's why we thought it used to be 71, might be 72 now because it is par-5 now. So, I didn't -- I still didn't know it was par 71.

Q. Obviously this is your low score, do you think this is the best you've ever played at any time in your life?
SUNG KANG: Yeah, I shot 61 couple times in the tournament and this is my career low round the today, yeah.

Q. How is Fluff as a caddie been so influential to you as a caddie that's caddied for more than a decade with the likes of Tiger Woods? As a caddie, how is he giving that same sort of inspiration to you and that same sort of things that a caddie does?
SUNG KANG: He's been doing this for a long time. He knows what he's doing, so I just trust him more, definitely, because he had a great career so far. So I definitely have some more trust on himself, and then he's not putting any pressure on me. He's like, just try to have fun. And then we're just doing it -- also and I kind of tend to get a little bit hurried, but he is all -- he can't walk fast, so I'm trying to walk with him, which kind of makes me calm down a little bit. He doesn't really push me too hard. I think it's working great this week. I'm definitely having fun with him.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thanks for coming in and good luck this weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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