PNC CHAMPIONSHIP

December 16, 2023

Matt Kuchar

Cameron Kuchar

The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. Talk about the day, the highlights maybe and how well you guys gelled together.

MATT KUCHAR: I think it was nice. We started on the 10th hole and the 10th hole is a really challenging green to hit. We're able to drive it up close and even from a short distance, we had two practice rounds, two Pro-Ams and I remember in both of my Pro-Ams, just trying to get a 40-yard shot on the green was tough. Pin was back, and Cam hit a nice chip but rolled literally 15 feet past the hole and was best we could do from just short of the green. Cam just missed his putt and I was so grateful to see mine go in.

So to get off to a good start was an awfully good feeling and then we kept it going. I think between, you know, his great play, his great putting, and we kind of just really ham-and-egged it really well out there today.

Q. Your first time here?

CAMERON KUCHAR: Third.

Q. Is it getting any easier?

CAMERON KUCHAR: A little bit. I'm still nervous on the first tee but that's about it.

MATT KUCHAR: Cam had a run, must have been first or second time.

CAMERON KUCHAR: First time.

MATT KUCHAR: He had caddied for me at Shark Shootout and Harris English and I had won the Shark Shootout and we came here and he put on a show the first day and was making putts everywhere. We ended up finishing third that year.

So he was thinking, this golf thing is really easy, this will be a breeze. It's fun to get him back because to see his progression has just gotten so much better. It seems like every day but you play it out over the months and years, and he's playing some really good golf.

Q. I talked to you at the Honda, whatever it is now, and saying Cam is your playing partner. Talking about that progression, where has he progressed the most, and how much do you play with him during the year?

MATT KUCHAR: It's been great fun for me to have Cam around and we are out training every day at the Bear's Club. It's actually been fun the last few days. We've had Justin Thomas and Mike out there playing, and Justin Leonard and Luke out there practicing. We have three father/sons ramping up for this pen championship. It's been a cool place to train.

I know growing up, I used to get dropped off after school at the golf course and I hit balls until dad would get done and we would go play nine holes most evenings. It's not too dissimilar.

Cam finished his school and we get out, do a little practice and see if we can get nine holes most evenings in. It's really been fun for me to be alongside of him, to try to help and to watch the progression.

I mean, his fundamentals are good, whether it's asking me for advice or my coach, Chris O'Connell, just doing our best to point him in the right direction and let him go from there. Clearly has great speed, amazing technique.

Like I think back to when I was 16 years old, it's just leaps and bounds ahead of where I was, just as a quality golfer. Feels like day-in and day-out, he's going to play some pretty good golf and he's got a great network of friends that now he goes and practices, plays with and plays tournaments with. He sees Charlie Woods down there a lot, a bunch of other guys down in Jupiter.

It's been a fun deal and his progression has just kind of been everywhere. You watch the whole game get better, whether it's off the tee, he has an advantage with length and irons are great. I think anybody that sees him with a wedge in his happened comes away impressed. He's got a great short game.

Q. Moving down there benefits you and your brother in your respective sports. Just talk about where that benefit has been the most and how it's different for you since moving down to South Florida?

CAMERON KUCHAR: It's been nice. We live on the golf course; so I can take the golf cart straight to the range after school every day. It's a two-minute golf cart ride and it's way easier, and I have a lot more buddies now that play golf than I did back in Georgia, so I can go out and have a game almost every day if I want.

Q. What's the weather challenge? It's pretty nasty. Do you play if --

CAMERON KUCHAR: I like playing in bad weather.

Q. Why?

CAMERON KUCHAR: Because no one else likes it.

Q. What is the challenge? You're still kind of new to it and your dad is obviously a veteran, like keeping everything dry.

CAMERON KUCHAR: You just have to figure out how to keep everything dry.

MATT KUCHAR: We had a funny experience, Cam went over and caddied for me at the Dunhill Links and the Andalucía Masters and we had two terrible weeks of weather. That is when a caddie really has to work hard.

First week at Dunhill, started raining and put the top on the bag and making sure everything is dry and covered and about the third hole, it had really been raining and I asked for some help with the towel and I said hey, can you hand me the towel.

He said, I don't know where it is.

I said, that is not a good sign, but thankfully we keep a couple spares in the bag, a little Ziploc bag, made sure to get through. But I think he learned his lesson quickly of keeping the towel on person when you're playing in the rain.

Q. Can you talk about what the eagle putt did for you guys and what other highlights from the round do you point to?

CAMERON KUCHAR: That eagle putt was big. After I made it, I was talking to my brother in the cart, and I was like, oh, wow, we are 10- or 11-under through 12, this is pretty cool. That was a good one. We had a good chuckle there. I hit a great 3-wood in, and as I hit it, I knew it was really good.

I joked that -- his brother's name is Carson and I said, "That's for you, Carson." It turned out really good and we made the putt and joked from there on, "Do it for Carson."

We kept making birdies and Carson is out there, he's he excited, like come on guys, do it for me. It was fun.

Q. How surprised are you that you finished one shot off the tournament 18-hole record in weather like this?

MATT KUCHAR: We got pretty lucky. This weather right now is worse than we played in. We had a light drizzle. I brought an umbrella out for all of two minutes. Having a cart, extra bonus, but it was a light drizzle with kind of light wind early. That 7:30 tee time, first off, wind wasn't bad so conditions were fairly soft. I think we got lucky with the best of it.

Q. And attitude has to help as well?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, that we love it, yeah. I think as difficult as this is, I think everybody is going to come in and still talk about what a good time they had out there.

Q. Curious when you first fell in love with golf and started to take it seriously, and then what are your big dreams for the game?

CAMERON KUCHAR: I've always loved golf. It's always been my favourite sport. I really just got -- wouldn't you say, I really started taking it serious, when I was 12?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, he played a lot early. We have pictures of him in a diaper in the back of the range at Vegas, basically looks like he's showing me how to hit a shot. From a young age, he's been tagging along with a golf club in hand.

But continued to see the interest grow and grow, and I don't know if like there was a time where you got more serious but it just seemed like that love continued to grow. It was already there from the age of two and just has kind of kept going.

As far as wanting to play tournaments, probably at 12, said yeah, I want to go play some tournaments.

Q. What are your big dreams?

CAMERON KUCHAR: Play on the PGA TOUR. Yes, Masters Champion.

Q. One big picture question. You won Memorial in '13 and I don't know how many times you've played Bay Hill. What do you think of these signature events going to no cut, reduced field?

MATT KUCHAR: The ones you're mentioning I think are cut events. There's a couple of these Invitationals, definitely Memorial, I think it's Bay Hill --

Q. Just reducing fields and no cuts. Reducing fields just in general.

MATT KUCHAR: I think what's going on with the LIV Tour is pushing the PGA TOUR to make some changes. I think some are for the good. I'm interested to see, this is one, you kind of have to let it play out and see. I think everybody loved this year. Listen, if you were a player on TOUR this year, you had full-field events with giant purses. This was kind of a great year to be on TOUR. This coming year, if you're inside that Top-50, it looks like it stands to be an incredible year.

I don't see this being the final rendition of what the PGA TOUR looks like. I think we will tweak it kind of like we've the weekend the FedExCup a lot. But I think the LIV Tour is forcing the TOUR to make some good adjustments.