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THE 147TH OPEN

July 19, 2018

Sung Kang

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. How was it out there today?
SUNG KANG: The wind wasn't blowing that much, so it wasn't really as hard on the front nine. The back nine, the wind started picking up a little bit. Obviously, the first four or five holes was pretty tough. It was pretty tough the last four or five holes.

Q. After the last difficult couple of weeks, how good is it to be back out here and shoot a good score?
SUNG KANG: When I got here, the course really fair for everyone. You've got to hit it straight. You got to know where to miss it. I think I did okay today. Just happy with that.

Q. What did you make of the backlash from the incident that happened at the Quicken Loans?
SUNG KANG: What did you say?

Q. What did you make of the backlash of what happened at Quicken Loans?
SUNG KANG: Everything is official. I follow the rules. I think I did the right thing. No further comment from there, I guess. Everything is pretty good from there.

Q. Were you able to forget all about it? Are you able to just put it to the back of your mind, or does it creep into it?
SUNG KANG: First few days, it was hard. I really got mad. But if I talk about it more and more and more, it gets worse and worse and worse, and it's not really going to help in my golf game at all. I got to think about playing golf. So we decided not to say anything about it. As I said, I follow the rules by the rules official. He's over there for the ruling. So I think I did the right thing.

From now on, I'm not really trying to think about it at all. I almost forgot about it. And then actually, I was joking with friends about that. It's all good now. Now I have a couple more important tournaments coming up in the playoffs, so I'll just focus more on those events.

Q. Have you talked to Joel since?
SUNG KANG: I tried to. I really tried to, but it didn't work out. We could have met -- I actually met him just before we teed off. Probably will talk to him later on, but could have seen him after.

Q. What about other players? What's been the reaction of other players with you?
SUNG KANG: Not too many actually asking me about that. As I said, I don't want to say anything more about that.

Q. Does the way you played today help you move things on in your mind?
SUNG KANG: Being out here on this major is really trying to have fun and enjoy it. I try to enjoy the golf course. The weather was really nice today. Not to pressure, but to just play whatever comes. I really didn't think about the outcome. I played good, and I was happy with it today.

Q. Will you take a different approach on rulings in the future?
SUNG KANG: No. I didn't -- I mean, why? I did the right thing. There's no point in changing it.

Q. Do you feel comfortable with how everything -- the process worked out when you were in Washington?
SUNG KANG: In Washington, yes. After I finished, because nothing was happening at that. Nobody was complaining about that, and nothing was happening. I went to sign the card, and it was all done. I didn't know until next probably noonish, and it just popped up. And I was like what is going on? That was it.

Q. How did you find out?
SUNG KANG: The Tour actually e-mailed me and going onto golf.com. The writer from golf.com actually e-mailed me about that, and I didn't really know what he was saying. And I just Googled what happened, and then I found out.

Q. So you had signed your card, correct?
SUNG KANG: Yeah. I mean, nothing was going on.

A lot of things about it, the truth of what happened, but no comment because I'm not going to say anything.

Q. Well, I'm trying to understand. We're looking at you and putting you under a microscope for what people are considering to be actions that a golfer shouldn't take. So if you've got something to say, why wouldn't you just say it?
SUNG KANG: Because it's kind of -- I mean, whatever I say, some people's going to trust it, and some people's not going to trust it, and I've got to be thinking about it more and more and more. It's not going to help. Just focus on my golf game. I interviewed about it in my home country once, and I think that was enough. I actually depend on myself and South Koreans. I told them exactly what happened, what the situation was, but I didn't want to say anything bad about Joel because there can be different opinions. But the way he just said it on Twitter was not right, I think, but there can be different opinions. It was a difference of opinions.

And also it was made the decision by the rules official by the rules, so nothing was wrong.

Q. So do you wish he would have came to you first instead of going on Twitter?
SUNG KANG: No, basically what happened was probably one of his buddies or something probably just asked him what happened on that hole because the group behind went through. And probably he just wrote something down before he was thinking about it or whatever, I don't know.

Q. So you tried to talk to him at the John Deere?
SUNG KANG: Yeah, I met him actually on Thursday just before we teed off. But it was before tee-off, so I couldn't really talk about it with him. I didn't want to, because I wanted to focus on my game, and I didn't want to bother him there because he's got to play his own game.

Q. So he didn't say much to you?
SUNG KANG: I just said hello, and I said, "Okay, we're going to have a talk after this." We couldn't have much time to do that.

Q. Do you think that talk will come sometime next time you see each other?
SUNG KANG: It's been 20 days or so already. It may not.

Q. Clearly, you don't feel like you have to defend yourself, but do you feel like you might have a stigma now on the tour?
SUNG KANG: I really wanted to say something about that, but I feel I made a right decision. Tour had a statement for me. I really wanted to defend on my side and say something about that, but I think I made the right decision because I asked a lot of advice to the veterans and the other guys on the Tour saying, "Don't even ever respond to it and it will just go away." Basically, it just went away. So I feel -- even if I say something, I feel people still kind of think that I did something wrong. Whoever the players or the people who believe in me, they're not going to trust what Joel says.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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