HONDA CLASSIC

February 24, 2022

Chris Kirk

PGA National Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. Overall assessment on your round today?

CHRIS KIRK: Sure. It was a lot of fun. I made a bunch of putts today, which was a blast, and I hit plenty of good shots. Wouldn't say it was my top ball-striking day of my life or anything, but yeah, I was able to get away with a few pretty great short game shots and made a bunch of nice putts, which always makes golf a lot of fun.

Q. Always an up-and-down day for most guys here. You finished with two birdies at the end. Talk us through those last two holes.

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, you've certainly got to take the good with the bad on this course. You're not going to have days very often where everything just kind of cruises along and make six birdies, no bogeys. That doesn't happen too often out here. Yeah, definitely fought hard on the back nine trying to hang in there and tried to get a few more, and hit a pretty good 9-iron on 17 to 15 feet or so and hit a really nice putt there, and then was trying to get a little extra on my drive on 18 and just hit it right off the bottom, but thankfully it went down the middle and I was able to step on a 3-wood pretty good. I had 261 front and was able to get it on the front edge of the green and I hit a great lag putt from who knows how long up there to tap in.

Q. You're leading the field in strokes gained putting. Anything you can attribute you saw on the golf course today in that category?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, definitely. At Pebble Beach I was really struggling with my putting, feeling a little bit lost. I spent three really good days in Phoenix with Ramon Bescansa who's my putting coach, works with me and a handful of other players out here. Just had three really good sessions and I had a good week there and a couple more really good sessions here on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Nothing earth shattering, but just kind of getting back to basics and really letting my kind of natural instincts take over, and it paid off today for sure.

Q. Looking at the draw tomorrow and conditions in the morning wave, does that change your game plan at all for this course?

CHRIS KIRK: Not really, no. I mean, it's usually pretty windy all day here. I'm sure we'll get a little bit calmer at the beginning of the day tomorrow, but I don't care what the conditions are, this course is never easy. You've just got to get ready, get out there and try to just stack up as many good swings and as many good putts as you can and see where it leads you.