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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 1, 2017

Sung Kang

Humble, Texas

ROYCE THOMPSON: Sung, great playing out there. I know the conditions were a little tougher today. If you could, just some thoughts about your 3rd round.

SUNG KANG: I was playing very hard today. The wind was murder. The greens got a lot firmer because we played in the afternoon. The greens got a lot faster. Fortunately, I started with some birdies today and it did help me out a lot to finish 1-under par today.

ROYCE THOMPSON: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. How conscious were you of how well Rickie was playing? Obviously you can't avoid looking at the leaderboard. Two runs, 3 birdies, and all of a sudden, boom.
SUNG KANG: Didn't know exactly what was going on. I heard a lot of clapping in front of us. I didn't know who was making birdies. On 15, 16 I looked at the leaderboard, and all of a sudden Rickie was at like 8-under par for today. It was real impressive. Playing really hard. Unfortunately, he putted poorly on the last hole.

Q. How hard is it for you not to focus on what he's doing and keep focusing on what you're doing?
SUNG KANG: I still was playing okay. I just tried to play my game. Still hard because I heard a lot of claps in front of us. I know something is going on over there.

Q. How have you felt being the guy with the target on your back today and then going into tomorrow? Does that change?
SUNG KANG: Can you say that again?

Q. How has it changed for you being the leader, the guy with the target on your back, the guy people are chasing?
SUNG KANG: I'll play my game. I don't care. I don't really care what they do. I play my game. The weather is going to be even worse tomorrow. Today I tried to play way safer, like try to hit the fairway and try to hit the middle of the green instead of going for the flag even on the putting. The wind was blowing so hard. Didn't go very aggressive because I didn't want to have like 3, 4-foot with the wind today. Even though I make it, I try to hit it near the hole and try to 2-putt most of them, and if it goes in, it goes in. I'll have the same plan tomorrow.

Q. Rickie said it's almost like a Match Play situation now between the two of you based on how the leaderboard is. Do you view it that way or how do you view it?
SUNG KANG: I think I'm still being a little more defensive because I still have a 3-stroke lead. Trying to start out good tomorrow like today because first five holes there's some birdie holes. Hopefully, I can make a couple birdies early, and then that will gain the lead a little bit more and it will be a little bit -- we'll see. I really don't know what's going to happen. I'll do my best tomorrow.

Q. Have you led going into a final round on the PGA TOUR?
SUNG KANG: Not on PGA TOUR.

Q. It will be a little bit strange because normally if you tee off at 9:15 on Sunday, you're in contention.
SUNG KANG: I have a few times, I have a few wins in Asia and couple events I had few leads going into the final round, and actually I did it really good. I actually finished early like five, six holes and birdied the first five holes and was done. I'm going to try to play maybe more aggressively the first few holes. A couple of them are short. Those -- I'm going to try to make some birdies and see what happens after that.

Q. You think less pressure on you by teeing off at 9:15 instead of having to think about it until what would normally be a 1:00 tee off?
SUNG KANG: Doesn't really matter. I'm so tired today.

Q. What have you been doing in Houston? Have you had any time to do anything fun, or have you at least found any restaurants that you like?
SUNG KANG: It's Texas. There isn't anything here? Just like Dallas, there isn't anything, really. There's some good restaurants. We're Korean, so we go to Korea Town out there, like 30 minutes away like southwest of Downtown Houston. Went there last night and had some good dinner and just came back.

Q. Have you been hitting that every night?
SUNG KANG: Not every night. I mean -- we like to go to Asian restaurants, so couple times went to Vietnamese, like Thai, Korean, Japanese, things like that.

Q. How did you become a Lakers fan?
SUNG KANG: I was big fan of Kobe Bryant. We were playing with Shaq when they won the trophies. All of a sudden, there's this collapsing and I'm not paying attention.

Q. Is it difficult to not think about what a win tomorrow might bring in terms of the exemption of the Masters?
SUNG KANG: You know what, I mean, if I can think about it and if I can do it, I'll think about it. But even I think about it, it's going to happen or not. Why do I want to think about that? I'm so tired right now. I have no power to think about anything.

Q. Has your friend talked to you about the putter? What's the latest on the magic putter?
SUNG KANG: He didn't say anything. Stroke, 4.5, 4.5, and I didn't want to respond anything.

Q. Where is he physically right now?
SUNG KANG: Me?

Q. Shawn.
SUNG KANG: He's in Toronto.

Q. What's his last name?
A Shawn Mullin.

Q. Can you spell it?
SUNG KANG: M-U-L-L-I-N, or something like that. Shawn, S-H-A-W-N.

Q. You actually haven't spoken to him?
SUNG KANG: He's Canadian. He's a little different.

Q. Little strange? Haven't actually spoken to him, just texted a little bit?
SUNG KANG: Little bit last night. That was it.

ROYCE THOMPSON: Any more questions? Thanks, Kang.

SUNG KANG: Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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