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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 29, 2016

Chris Kirk

Jackson, Mississippi

Q. You were the 2011 champion here, again playing well at the Sanderson Farms Championship. All of your top 10s were at Annandale. This is your first time around the Country Club of Jackson. What has allowed your play to transfer down from Madison here to Jackson?
CHRIS KIRK: I definitely enjoy the golf course here, as well. It's in absolutely perfect shape. Putting on these fast Bermuda greens is definitely my favorite surface that we play on for sure, and just enjoying my time here in Jackson.

Q. For you what is the key to being able to post three such good scores here this week?
CHRIS KIRK: You've got to play pretty solid all around here I would say. It's not a short golf course by any means, so you've got to drive it well with how difficult the Bermuda rough is to play out of. Then the greens are definitely tricky to read, and they're quick. But I felt like my speed has been pretty good so far this week. That's definitely a huge key out here.

Q. The other players around you, not as much success on the PGA TOUR. How much will the winning pedigree be able to help you on the final day?
CHRIS KIRK: I hope it does. You never know. Once you get out there on Sundays, it's anybody's game for sure, but yeah, hopefully maybe I'll be a little bit more comfortable out there, but I'll be just as nervous as everybody, I'm sure.

Q. Solid playing out there, 7-under par 65, in great position again at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
CHRIS KIRK: Thanks, yeah. It felt great all day today. I hit a couple loose swings on the back nine that I thankfully got away with, so hopefully I'll be able to tighten that up a little bit tomorrow and continue hitting mostly good shots and making some putts.

Q. You had a great up-and-down there at 18; how difficult was that one?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, that was a tough one. I hit that bunker shot, clipped it as good as I could have, but my ball was on just a tiny bit of a downslope there in that bunker, and I obviously had no room to work with. That definitely felt good after playing so well all day to hit a great shot and make that putt. That definitely makes you feel a lot better.

Q. Obviously you went to Georgia, played in a lot of Bermudagrass. This golf course is really dry compared to the way it's been in the past. How different is it for the players out there, and how tough is it getting?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, it's definitely getting tougher. You know, it's surprising for me to see the scores as good as they are, I guess, with four par-5s and a reachable par-4. That's really the key. But yeah, the dry Bermuda rough, the ball can go forever out of there if you get just the right lie. You can get some crazy fliers, and the greens are getting slicker every day.

It's definitely grass that I'm very comfortable on and love playing in the South, that's for sure.

Q. Just comments on your round.
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, it was a good day. I definitely got off to a good start, and after a mistake on No. 5, I believe it was, it felt great to birdie 7, 8 and 9 going into the turn, had a really solid front nine. And then was relatively -- my scorecard looked like I was steady on the back nine, but there was a couple tee shots that weren't great that I got away with, thankfully, and then not a great iron shot into 18 there, but thankfully I was able to save par.

Q. You were over there on one of them on 14 and obviously got a good drop, got some relief. But can you talk about the rough condition here and playing out of it?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, it's that perfect length Bermuda, around two and a half inches, where the ball generally sits right to the bottom. Sometimes it doesn't, so it's all about reading the lies is the important thing here. You've got some lies where you're got a jumper and it's going to go an extra 20, 30 yards maybe if it's just right, and then some places the ball is just going to go nowhere, and a lot of variations in between. Growing up in the South and playing on Bermudagrass, having the experience of reading those lies and being able to tell what the ball is going to do, or make an educated guess anyway, definitely helps.

Q. You've won four times on TOUR. How does that give you confidence going into tomorrow being in contention?
CHRIS KIRK: It helps a little bit, I guess, but it doesn't make it any easier. Winning out here is extremely difficult. You have to play incredibly well, and you have to get some good breaks along the way. I'm happy to have a chance, and I'm going to go give it my best shot and just see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. You said over there that you're maybe a little bit surprised about some of these scores because the course is playing harder. Can you elaborate on that a little bit, and why is it playing harder? What's more difficult?
CHRIS KIRK: I mean, it's just a long golf course, and the greens are really, really fast, and the rough is quite penal. I mean, even though I'm one of the guys shooting the low scores, I'm not quite sure how, I guess. It seems like the scores shouldn't be quite as low as they are, but I guess if you're swinging the club well and hitting good shots and finding fairways, you can hit a lot of greens out here for sure.

I guess the one thing that could be -- if the greens were a little bit firmer, which not that they're soft by any means, but they're kind of that perfect firmness where the ball pretty much just holds, especially with shorter clubs in, and you don't have to worry about spinning it back or hopping it way forward because the ball is pretty much going to stay where it pitches with your wedges. That gives you some opportunities on the holes that you have wedges in to hit it really close.

Q. What are you expecting tomorrow? Several guys said earlier in the week that the winner has to get to 20-under. You're at 14, there might be someone coming in at 15 here, right around 14, 15. What do you expect tomorrow?
CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, that's tough to say. I don't know, I've never been very -- I've tried to predict scores before, and I've never done a very good job of it, so I've kind of quit. I'm just going to go out, and I'll stay very aggressive tomorrow, and I'll try to just make as many birdies as I can, that's for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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