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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 15, 2018Michael KimSilvis, Illinois THE MODERATOR: Like to welcome our 2018 John Deere Classic champion, Michael Kim. Michael, a great week, a record-breaking week for you. You also move to number 56 in the FedExCup Playoffs, so you accomplished a lot of things this week. Talk about your thoughts coming into this week and going forward what you've accomplished here. MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, it's been relatively tough, stressful year coming into the week. I think I was like 160 coming into the week FedExCup, and to be honest, I was just trying to fight for a job for next year and hopefully just get into that first playoff event. But, you know, to come out here, get 500 points, it sets me really nice for the FedExCup Playoffs. Just super excited for the rest of the season and rest of my career really. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Also, yesterday was your birthday. You couldn't come up with your best birthday present ever, but outside seeing your parents at the final hole, what was your previous best birthday present, and what did it mean to see them there at the end? MICHAEL KIM: I don't know. Probably maybe like a Game Boy or something probably before this. Yeah, to see my parents here, they didn't tell me. I saw them on the big screen on 18. You know, made me even more nervous. That was probably -- I actually felt pretty good start the day. The first tee jitters weren't even that bad realistically. Just super happy to finish with a two-putt and a par. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. What does it mean to validate this career path that you chosen? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, I started playing when I was eight years old; watching Tiger win all those tournaments. You know, you say you dream about playing on the PGA TOUR, winning on the PGA TOUR, but as a kid you don't really know how hard that is, how much work that takes. But to be sitting here with the trophy, I don't know, I'm just at a loss for words. I think I made the right career choice. Q. What was it like sleeping on a lead? Were you stressed? MICHAEL KIM: Not that great. On Friday night probably got three hours of sleep; Saturday night probably got four hours of sleep. Kind of woke up at 4:00 in the morning and couldn't really go back to sleep. On a course like this with the heat and how hard it is to walk, especially that first six holes -- I mean, it's a tough walk -- was just running on fumes the entire day. You know, I was literally just counting down the holes I had left. Just beat and super happy to be standing here with the trophy. Q. We were talking earlier in the week about the class of 2011. Some of those guys had achieved some of the things you dreamed of. You said you thought you were as good as them. Does this help you validate that? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, absolutely. I played against them in college; beat a lot of them in college. I had really, really good career at Cal. But, you know, starting as a pro, relatively smooth. Just a couple years on the Web and third year on the PGA TOUR. Fairly smooth I think relatively. But you compare it to some of the guys from that 2011 class, Jordan, Justin, Berger, Xander, you can't help but feel like you're being left behind. It was just more motivation than anything. You know, without them doing so well I might not beholding this trophy right now. Q. (Regarding coaching change.) MICHAEL KIM: You know, that's a little tough for me to comment on. I worked with the same swing instructor for eight years and it was tough making the change. I'm glad things have worked out with John, but it wasn't just John, if that's okay, if that makes sense. A lot of work came in before that and with John, and it's as much of a win with James as it is with John. Q. We spoke with Zach Johnson and he mentioned that coaching change you talked about. MICHAEL KIM: Uh-huh. Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Zach? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, Zach and I are part of the same kind of agency umbrella; through my agent I've tried to get to know him. We play similar games. I mean, his career speaks for itself. Every since rookie year he's been great to me. Even last night he sent me a nice note. Yeah, he's been awesome. I played his foundation event last couple years and he runs an incredible foundation event. You know, that's one of the reasons I -- probably how won, you know, just all the things that he said. I was probably kind of going through my head the entire day. Yeah, just to be able to feel as comfortable as I did off the tee and hit it as good as I did feels pretty good. Q. Last couple of sleepless nights did you let yourself think ahead to what this all means if you win? Masters, two-year exemption, all the good stuff that come with the trophy? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah. I mean, I probably ran through a million different scenarios of how this day was going to pan out, starting from birding right out of the gate to losing the five-stroke lead after four or five holes. It wasn't all confidence with the season that I've had. I think it would be weird if I felt 100% confident that I was going to come out with the trophy this week. I just wanted to get to the golf course this morning. Yesterday I felt way better as soon as I started warming up; today was the same. I was talking to my agent last night, and I just thought, You know, just need to get some sleep, please some sleep, and just get through the night, get through the morning, just get to the golf course about two hours before when I usually get here, and get started on my routine. I knew it would start feeling a lot better, and as soon as I saw my physio, Troy, did my warmup, headed to the range, from there I felt a lot calmer, a lot better. Q. Was there even more relief when you made the first three birdies? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah. You know, I think the second one -- I mean, the first two -- the third one was a bit of a bonus obviously, but you need to -- I felt like you really needed to birdie at least one of the first two, especially 2 being a reachable par-5. You know, I expected a lot of the guys, like Harold and Francesco and Matt and Bronson, I feel like they weren't going to just let me ease my way into the trophy. I was going to have to make birdies. That's the mindset I had. I felt like I needed to make birdies at least in the front nine just to show that I'm still playing well and they don't kind of get that glimmer of hope or anything like that. And seeing the ball drop on 1 for birdie was great; and then I had to lay up on 2. Hit it really good third shot. Just I felt really comfortable with the read I had on 2 all week really. To see that drop really, really calmed me down and set me up for the day. On 3, I don't know. As soon as I lined it up I felt like it was going to go in. Looked good right from the beginning and just kept it going on. Q. Where did your family travel from to be here today and how surprised were you and how much have they meant to you getting to where you are? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, you know, they came from San Diego. Actually, one of the million scenarios I had I thought they might come. But you know, I'm not superstitious on a lot of things, but if they asked me I probably would've said, Don't come. That just sounds like a terrible idea from a superstitious standpoint. But I didn't see them until 18 green. Kind of saw them on the big board and I was just super surprised obviously. Kind of looked around and didn't take long to find them. Made that two-putt on 18 that much harder, but just super happy that they're here. I think they're going to go to Carnoustie with me, too. It's going to be an awesome week. Q. Kind of a two-part question here: You said you didn't get any sleep last night. What time did you get rolling this morning? What did you do to fill the time between waking up and getting to the course? And also, did that in any strange way help you focus even more on just one shot at a time trying to conserve your energy, get the job down out there, and keep your focus because you might have been a little bit on the tired side? MICHAEL KIM: It definitely did not help me waking up that early. Luckily Wimbledon was on; World Cup was on. I woke up at I think 4:30 this morning. Looked at my phone. You know, knew I wasn't going to go back to sleep in -- at least in an hour or so until I got a little more tired. Tried to go back to sleep until at least 8:00, but that wasn't happening. It was a tough night. I was nervous the entire night. I was just trying to get my heartbeat to slow down. Kind of just looking up on the Internet how to slow your heart rate down. All it tells you is to take deep breaths. Well, I've been taking deep breaths for like 30 minutes and it ain't slowing down (laughing.) I was just -- and actually a part of me was afraid that I would wake up and I wasn't holding the lead and it was just a dream. Like I said, it was just, Get me to the golf course. Just let the time go. For moments watching the World Cup, you know, watching Wimbledon, kind of helped take my mind off what was going to happen or what was going to go on today. Yeah, just tried my best not to think about it, but to no avail. Q. When did you get here? MICHAEL KIM: Tee'd off at 12:30, so 10:15-ish, something like that. I didn't want to get out here any earlier than what I normally do. You know, once I got to 8:00 then I was much better just because, like I said, Wimbledon and World Cup was on and I was just kind of able to focus on that and not much more. But those three and a half, four hours this morning wasn't to pretty. Q. You mention in your PGA TOUR bio bucket list is playing in the Masters, playing with Tiger woods, and going to an NBA final or Super Bowl. You got one off the bucket list. MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, you know, honestly, I wanted to look up if this tournament was going to get me into the Masters so bad, but I just tried my best not to look into it. I didn't look at the FedExCup projected at all. I tried not to, even though the big screen on the golf course is blaringly says, Projected 56. Yeah, like I said, just try to keep my mind off of it. Glad I got to check one off. I was talking with Bronson about playing with Tiger because he played with Tiger at Quicken Loans, you know, in contention. Talking about how nothing felt quite like it. Hopefully he'll be out here for a few more years and hopefully I'll be able to get a good round with him; hopefully on Sunday near the lead, because that would be awesome. Q. On 18, after the tee shot, you and Bronson had a little bit of a moment. He said he told you to stop it. MICHAEL KIM: Yeah. Q. He said you need to take a moment to kind of soak it all the in. At what point did you really soak it all in? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, with regards to Bronson, I just don't like that tee shot at all. I got it in play and I kind of gave it a couple fist pumps, and he just said, Will you quit fist pumping already. You got a 40-stroke lead. You're fine. I couldn't help but laugh. I'm sorry, what was the second part? Oh, to soak it all in, yeah. I told myself I wasn't going to look at the leaderboard at least until 12, at least until 12, 13. I felt like the tee shot on 11, that is kind of a nervy one for me with trouble on both sides. I felt like whether I got off to a good or bad start, just going to play the golf course, and after I play 11, from that point on, really the only hole you can make a big number is probably 15. I've hit awesome drives on that hole the last few days, so I felt comfortable there. Walking up 9, the pin was on the far right and I accidentally just took a peek. I saw Bronson was -- it just had me and Bronson, what place we were in, and I was in first obviously and he was tied for second. I was like, Well that just shows how much of a lead I had. I think it was like an eight- or nine-shot lead at that point. But then I realized even that didn't feel enough and I felt still nervy. Probably got even more nervous at least until probably 10 through 14, 15. I was just in survival mode basically trying to make as many par putts as I can. Q. Like a Happy Gilmore moment on 16? MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, I don't really know what that was. Yeah, I don't know. Did Patrick Reed do something similar at the Ryder Cup? I think maybe. Yeah, that's right. I don't know. Maybe I got it from him. At that point I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on the tournament. Like I said, I feel like once I got past 15, then I can kind of do whatever for the last three holes and get away with the trophy still. I think I got a little excited when I made birdie on 16. THE MODERATOR: I think The Rock used to do that too, maybe. MICHAEL KIM: (Laughter.) Q. You mentioned you got a note from Zach. Did you hear from anybody else? MICHAEL KIM: Zach and just a lot of notes from my friends, a lot of support back home, Dallas and San Diego, which was great. Obviously the encouragement is great, but not really helping the cause. I'm trying to get my mind off golf and focus on something else. Obviously Zach, no offense to my friends, but his meant the most. Yeah -- just yeah. Q. Zach used about five or six "verys" when talking about how very impressed he was with your performance today. You broke one of the longest-standing records for this tournament. You think about a prolific golfer like Steve Stricker and that record lasted eight years, going 27-under par, when you came into this tournament, (indiscernible.) MICHAEL KIM: You know, after -- I wasn't really thinking too much about the total score. Even today I tried not to think about it. You know, after the second round I was 15 under, I think. THE MODERATOR: Yeah. MICHAEL KIM: At that point, you know, when you have seven hours to kill because you couldn't get any sleep you go through, Okay, what I do need to shoot on the weekend to get the win. I didn't know any of the records. I was just looking at all the other scores on the leaderboard. With the weather coming in, soft greens, I felt like I need to at least still get -- still stay aggressive at least Saturday and Sunday. I think if I had shot even par on Saturday I would've lost the lead by one or two I think. You know, these guys are amazing golfers. I don't know how. I shot 27-under. It was a lot of the hard work. Super excited about it, and I hope that answers your question. THE MODERATOR: Well thank you for your time. Best of luck. (Applause). MICHAEL KIM: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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