THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2021

Chris Kirk

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Do you look at stats for other things, ball-striking, short game, off the tee and approach?

CHRIS KIRK: I look at it. I wouldn't say I analyze it.

Q. You don't look at strokes gained putting?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I look at it. I look at it on my phone and I see, but I just don't like -- I don't live and die by it, that's for sure.

Q. You've made the effort that I'm not going to let this number dictate and tell me if I'm a good putter or bad putter?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel like you have very little control over whether the ball actually goes in or not. I think that it's helped me a lot. I work with Ramon Bescansa and started working with him in the fall, and he's made a huge, huge difference in my putting. He's really helped me be able to kind of see it for what it is and not be so hard on myself when I don't make a whole lot of putts and continue to have confidence no matter what happens.

Like I said, if I went out there and was hitting pulls and pushes and leaving putts way short and blowing them way by, then whatever, that's bad putting. But these greens are really difficult, and they're tough to read. The speed down grain versus into the grain is wildly different, and I felt like I hit a lot of putts on line today, and my speed was very good. Beyond that, I'm not really worried about which ones went in, which ones didn't.

Q. What was your caddie's name and how long has he been on the bag?

CHRIS KIRK: Michael Cromie. He's been with me off and on since Colonial last year. He played golf at Georgia, was All-American there, still plays mini tours, tries Monday qualifying and all that kind of stuff. He'll come out -- he caddied for me at Sony and Palm Springs, took a month off or so and now he was back at Bay Hill last week, this week, and I think he'll be back in another month and a half, something like that.

Q. When you look back at this event in 2015, taking the lead in the final round, is there anything that you can build on from that or learn from or is it just -- six years is a long time and a lot has changed?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, a lot has changed since 2015. I try to mostly just remember that I had a one-shot lead going into Sunday and I didn't play very well, but I won the next week at Colonial, so I mostly just remember that.

Yeah, it's just -- I remember that Sunday playing with Kis and he obviously played great and had a very good chance to win. It was just one of those days where I just didn't really have it. I wouldn't say that -- I didn't really feel that nervous. I didn't feel like anything was wrong, I just didn't really play very well from start to finish.

But thankfully it was just one day, and I've played really well on a lot of Sundays since. I'd say the main thing that I take away from it is that this is a golf course that sets up really well for me, and I've played a lot -- had some really solid weeks here, and look forward to hopefully keeping it going and playing two really good rounds over the weekend.

Q. You were top 20 in the world back then, made a Presidents Cup team, contended here, obviously, great run in the FedExCup Playoffs. Was there ever a moment during your kind of off-the-course issues stuff that you felt you could never get back to that point, and do you feel like you still can get back to that point?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, there were months of moments where I felt like that. There were months where I didn't think that I really had any interest in playing golf at all again, much less competitive golf. But yeah, thankfully my mindset has changed a lot now in numerous ways, and I'm back to really truly enjoying playing and really enjoying competing, and I love being out here and playing against the best players in the world and kind of seeing what I can do. Days like today are a lot of fun. That's for sure.

Yeah, I'm just enjoying playing, and I don't know whatever -- I have no idea what I can get to in the World Ranking or if I can win a bunch of more tournaments or not or -- I have no idea, and I'm not really worried about it. I'm just really enjoying playing golf, and that's plenty enough for me.

Q. Is golf always fun now?

CHRIS KIRK: No. I mean, I certainly have my highs and lows still, like anybody, but my perspective is so different now that a bad day or a bad week is just not really going to bother me. No, I mean, it's not -- if I go shoot 75, no, I wouldn't call that fun, but I wouldn't say -- I wouldn't say that's fun, but when I walk off the golf course, that's it. It doesn't matter anymore.

Q. Those type of days would bother you in the past?

CHRIS KIRK: Very much so. Very much so, yeah.