	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 27, 2016

Smylie Kaufman

Avondale, Louisiana

MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome Smylie Kaufman into the interview room at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. It's your first time at this tournament. It's kind of like a home game for you, being an LSU guy, a few miles up the road, but just talk about what your anticipation is coming into this tournament and what you're looking forward to the most here.

SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, definitely. This is definitely a home game for me. I've actually only played nine holes here, but it definitely feels like a home game from all the folks so far that have given me support, said "go Tigers," and support. It's been a fun week. But Zurich was a tournament early in the year that I circled on the calendar. Definitely it's a big event every year for me. This is one I always want to contend in, and this is definitely one I want to win one day, but yeah, look forward to it.

MARK WILLIAMS: You've had a really good season in your rookie year. You've won, had three top 10s. The experience a couple weeks ago at the Masters in the final group, what did you learn from that and what do you take from it?

SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, I think just getting in contention in a major, being in the final group, it was huge in my growth and development. I feel like if I keep putting myself and giving myself an opportunity to be in contention at a major, next time I'm there I'll be much better off and kind of have a better idea of what I need to do and how to handle my emotions. I think I'll be much better for sure.

Q. Justin Rose said yesterday that after the Masters it's kind of his favorite time to blow off steam. Would you agree with that, and if so, why?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Well, I think I definitely agree with it. I mean, obviously everybody knows Rickie, Justin and Jordan and I went on our spring break, and yeah, it's a great time with three great friends. We had an unbelievable time, decompress. Obviously the golf world kind of got to see everything we did, and it was really fun for us. It was good for me, got a lot of followers from it, but it's over now, and we're all just kind of looking forward to the rest of the year and just kind of looking forward to the early summer stretch we have in front of us. A lot of big golf tournaments, so a lot to look forward to.

Q. Did you feel like you needed that break?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: I wouldn't say I needed it. I think I would have been fine if I didn't get it, but it was fun for sure.

Q. Are you surprised how many people followed you?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Not really. Rickie has got a lot of followers.

Q. How familiar are you with this course and how many times have you played it?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: I played nine holes yesterday and playing the afternoon pro-am today. I've been out here once to watch the golf tournament. That's about it. I've watched it on TV. But played the front nine. It actually really fits my game really well. It reminds me a lot of University Club in Baton Rouge, where it kind of challenges you to hit towards the water, this time with a better angle, but you have to play from the right side. Typical Pete Dye. But out here it seems to be when you hit it towards a spot with a driver and give yourself an opportunity with an iron, just avoid the hazards off the tee, give yourself opportunities on the green, if you can hole some putts out here, you can shoot a really low score from what it seems like. Yeah, just the familiarity of -- it kind of reminds me of the course I played in Baton Rouge, University Club. I just feel comfortable, that's for sure.

Q. You seem to have taken the whole Masters experience as a learning experience. Do you take the whole thing as a positive?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a positive for me. Obviously I shot 81, but I didn't feel like I played bad. For some reason I couldn't get the ball in the hole that day. I just out-putted, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. But next time I know I'll be a lot better off. It was just a great learning experience. Just getting in the final group of a major, even the Masters, just makes it that much easier the next go-around. I definitely think I'll be there again. I didn't have my best stuff that whole week, but I was able to just grind out pars, make birdies where I could, eliminate double bogeys. That formula will work for major championships.

I've kind of proven that I can play good on hard golf courses, so next time -- that fourth round, I'll just flush it down the toilet, and I'll be ready next time.

Q. I'm wondering what you took away or what you learned during your years at LSU.
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: LSU was a great four years for me. Not many guys out here did four years of school like I did. I had a great four years. My first three years I kind of was kind of aspiring of what was my golf game, what I wanted to do with my golf swing, and then the Christmas break of my senior year I changed swing teachers to Tony Ruggiero down in Mobile, kind of developed a really good plan, and was able to work with that plan, worked really hard at it, and found some success early in the spring and had a great post season my senior year at LSU. It kind of propelled me to making the U.S. Open, gave me a lot of confidence, and once I got to the U.S. Open and kind of felt what it felt like, that taste of being in a major championship and seeing all the best players and all the grounds, and that motivated me to get back there one day.

I think it just kept me motivated to work hard, and I knew I had a long way to go when I got to the U.S. Open after seeing what I needed to do, but I knew my golf game was just as good as a lot of other players out there, it was just a matter of experience and keep working hard and keep developing my body and all aspects of my game golf.

Q. Some other guys would say, you've had a good career so far, but you changed your swing. Did you know you had more in your game?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, you know, my team around me, we just keep improving, whatever aspect it is. My short game, we keep putting in all this work, just keep improving on what we're trying to do. I said to Tony and my mental coach Robby, we just keep improving on whatever it is we need to improve on, and I don't see a reason to try to fix anything if it's not broken. I just keep improving on it, and I know if I keep working hard, it's just going to keep getting better. That's what I'm going to keep doing.

Q. There are a bunch of LSU guys in the field still in college. What's it like to see a lot of faces that you're familiar with?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, it's so cool to see. We always knew that we had so much talent at LSU, and it was just a matter of time before it all came out here. That's kudos to Chuck Winstead at LSU for bringing in guys that are very talented and motivated me to work harder. I think a lot of the other guys can say that they learned from the older guys above them to work hard and work smart, and the guys out here now -- Zach Wright is going to be out here one day. He'll be a First-Team All-American this year, and Ben Taylor is a heck of a player, and it's just a matter of time before they all get out here. And there's plenty of other guys, too, that are very good at LSU that I think will be out here one day, too.

Q. You mentioned you have a bunch more followers now. Do you think it's important for young players like yourself to kind of show the different side of yourself away from the golf course to fans?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, I think so. I mean, for me at this point, I guess a couple weeks ago, people just saw that I just wear my emotions on my sleeve on the golf course. I'm a very aggressive player and just put off my emotions. That's why I do my best just to control my emotions just because I'm a fiery player and very aggressive. So I think it was cool for all those people to see that I'm not just like a very emotional person, so they got to see my fun side, my Smylie side, I guess. On the golf course I'm all business, strict business, and I try to have fun out there. Some days it's not as fun like Sunday at Augusta, but there's always some fun to be had out there if you kind of keep a smile on your face.

Q. I'm curious, you said it would be better for your experience at the Masters -- players always say they learn something from, I'll use the word failure. I figure that's not a word you want to use. What do you take from it? What can you take from shooting the 81 and apply not only to the Masters and other majors but any other tournament?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, I hit a lot of real good golf shots that Sunday. Obviously I shot an 81, so it is what it is, but I think I had five three-putts. I don't even know if I had a three-putt the whole tournament going into that. I may have had one. But typically I would just have one, maybe two three-putts a tournament. That was just a fluke more than anything. I got to watch Jordan kind of handle the pressure and kind of see what it was like watching him hole putts and how I handled his emotions, kind of how he talked out there, how he walked. Just things like that that you don't see on TV. You just have to be there to experience the vibes and how loud it actually gets and how much you have to really dial in your focus, and I think that's the main thing I took out of it is how much you have to be dialed in focus-wise.

Q. Every shot?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Every shot, and I didn't do a very good job of that that day. I don't think it's fatigue. I just don't think I understood how dialed in you really had to be focused-wise, and that's what Jordan did an unbelievable job of that day. Really I was just trying to -- I was probably trying to talk as much as I could with my caddie just to deal with the nerves that way, but really I should have been much more tuned in and dialed in with my emotions and tended to what I was doing.

Q. What was the best piece of advice somebody gave you after the Masters that kind of picked you up?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: You know, I didn't need a whole lot. I got a lot of advice after, just the typical, it's not going to be your last one, or at least you got to the final round of the Masters. But I didn't need much. Just getting there was -- I just wanted to get there just to see what it felt like.

You know, it's tough to say, but I learned so much from it, and definitely going to move forward from it and feel like I'll be better next time.

Q. What are your goals going forward?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, that's a good question. My goals really have not changed. The main goal is to obviously make the TOUR Championship. I want to win again is really -- I love to win, so I think that's kind of the next goal is to go try to win again and get in contention in major championships. That was fun, so I want to try to do that again.

Q. Can you pinpoint where you felt things going south during that final round?
SMYLIE KAUFMAN: Yeah, I think a lot of people point to the first hole when I missed that little four-footer for birdie that maybe could have turned my emotions around just to see a ball go in that early. Even though I holed a putt on the second hole for birdie from about eight feet, I still was thinking about the missed putt at 1, which for me normally I do a really good job of post-reaction and kind of dealing with what happened on the previous putt or shot or whatever it is. I just didn't do a very good job that day of kind of letting it go and just moving on to the next shot. I think that's another key thing that I learned to apply to the next Sunday when I'm in contention. I would say probably more than maybe 9, when Jordan holed that 20-footer when I three-putted and missed that two-and-a-half-footer for par. Just stupid stuff. Yeah, going into the back nine, I was kind of deflated, and at that point I was just watching Jordan. I was trying to get back into contention. I did pick up five shots on Jordan on 12. When we walked to 13, I'm like, am I close to him? Am I close to him yet? No, we've got to keep -- I said, okay.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297