SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 15, 2023

Matt Kuchar

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

MATT KUCHAR:

Q. Matt, first of all, started off three birdies on the first four holes. Talk about the hot start today.

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, yeah, I was really excited about getting off to that start. I thought, this could be my day. Let's keep it going.

Unfortunately didn't keep going, but still a really solid day. I think today played almost as difficult as any day of the week. Had the wind blowing, had some difficult pins. This place gets tricky when you get this much wind.

To shoot 4-under was a good rounds. I was thinking after 3-under through 4 I was going to try to go for 8- or 9-under, and 4-under was all I could manage.

Q. Started off this tournament with three bogeys. Talk about overcoming that and recovering.

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, my caddie reminded me of that. Brian said, great tournament considering you bogeyed the first three holes of the week.

I looked at him after the first hole, bogeyed the 10th hole on Thursday and I said, son of a gun. I knew I was playing really good golf and made a bogey from nowhere, and bogeyed the next two.

I thought, this is crazy. I've been playing as good as I can remember. I've been out training on the Big Island at Kohanaiki and playing some rally good golf.

So very much looking forward to the week. To get off to that start was a head scratcher. He did a great job. He said this is a 72-hole tournament. Don't worry about it. This is just three holes.

It was a nice reminder that it's 72 holes and not a three-hole or nine-hole tournament. So did a good job righting the ship for me.

Q. Talk about the routine you have coming to Hawaii? You mentioned you played on the Big Island, but what do you normally do in preparation for this week?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I love Hawaii. Kind of everything about it. Just love it over here. My family loves it. We stay active. Do as many activities as you can cram into day and try to do the same thing over and over again.

We have fallen in love with the facility, Kohanaiki on the Big Island, and come over as soon as we can. Played the father-son tournament, day after we caught a flight out to the Big Island and been there about three weeks before Sony.

So having a great time. Got two more weeks after this before I head back to the mainland. Pebble is my next tournament.

Yeah, we try to spend as much time as we can here. Love it.

Q. 5 total weeks then?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah.

Q. Talk about Parker McLachlin.

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, so Parker and I've been friends since college days. I remember the first time I met him was at Waikoloa on the Big Island. Played a college tournament there. We were paired, same group, and been friendly since.

Kept up over the years. Kind of played a lot of golf together. And then when we're off the golf course, play some tennis, play some ping-pong, play some basketball. Parker is a great athlete. Comes from a great, great family we've stayed really good friends.

Q. You guys ever get really intense even though it's just basketball or pickleball or whatever?

MATT KUCHAR: I don't know, I think both of us have a pretty easygoing personality. Certainly competitors, but pretty easygoing. I think the competition may not getting really managed, let's do it again, play that again, play that again, play that again. If you lose, you kind of want to keep going.

Q. There are a lot of new names on the top of the leaderboard. Talk about the new guys getting their shot and playing well in this tournament.

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, listen, the TOUR has got a fantastic system of kind of bringing new guys in and trying to keep your job is a tough thing out here. Every year there's a whole crop of new guys that are competing for everybody's job. I know my job, I know it's certainly -- there's a thousand guys lined up to take my spot.

It's always nice. It takes a while to learn everybody. I feel like I get until kind of at least through the West Coast before I feel mostly familiar with getting the names right and the faces right. It's exciting to see kind of the new crop every year come up and try to figure out which of the guys are going to be here to stay and which of the guys are going to maybe not stay on top of the TOUR.

Q. Five weeks total you stay on the Big Island?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah.

Q. Kona?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah.