THE SENTRY

January 5, 2024

Chris Kirk

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. Excellent round. For you and Brendon today. Talk about your round specifically and how both of you had it going.

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, two days in a row we both just kind of fed off each other a little bit. I played great today. I hit the ball really beautifully. To be honest, didn't really make a ton of putts to shoot 8-under, that sounds kind of crazy, but, yeah, it was a really solid day.

Q. Is this a typical Friday at Athens Country Club?

CHRIS KIRK: A few more birdies going around, but, yeah, pretty close, pretty close, yeah.

Q. How much do y'all actually play together when you're home together and play at Athens?

CHRIS KIRK: A pretty good bit. We've got kind of a group of five or six guys who will play a pretty decent amount. Spend a pretty good bit of time, if the weather's decent, out of the UGA practice facility. Brendon and I will do a lot of short game work together, and have since we were in college, kind of bounced ideas off each other and try to help each other out a little bit.

Q. What's it mean to be back here?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, I love it here. It's amazing just to be back in Maui and this golf course is just so fun to play, especially when it gets kind of firmer and faster like this and can't beat the weather, that's for sure.

Q. Strengths of your game through two rounds and what you're most proud of?

CHRIS KIRK: Short game was really good last few days. I didn't miss that many greens. Hit some really great short game shots, especially on the back nine today when I did. Yeah, ball striking has been overall really consistent, would love to see a few more putts go in over the weekend, but happy with how it's going.

Q. You said y'all do short game work together. Is one of you the better chipper or you're both really good chippers and two artists comparing their crafts?

CHRIS KIRK: Probably the latter. Yeah, I think we're both pretty good, so, but we have two very different styles of chipping, so it is good for us to kind of bounce ideas off each other sometimes of what are you feeling on this particular shot, there's certain shots that I may be a little bit better at, certain shots that he may be a little bit better at so, we can always learn a little bit from each other.

Q. I glanced at your card on Shot Link right before I came out, I think I'm getting this right, five in a row on the back.

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, three in a row on the front and five in a row on the back.

Q. How did that feel and just on that, what, 11 through 16, 12 through 16?

CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, it was a little bit frustrated around the turn, No. 9 I hit two really good shots and was just short of the green, I was in a divot and had to putt it with a shot that I would really love to be able to chip and chip close. But I didn't have really any access to the back of the ball, so I was just going to chunk it right in front of myself if I had tried that. Was able to get it up there and hit a really nice putt for birdie and just burned the edge.

Then a really nice shot in on 11. I left it like a ball short from like 10 feet, which is obviously very frustrating. I've done a good job so far and worked a lot on some mental stuff with Zach Sorenson, who is my sports psychologist at home, and just about how I feel about No. 9 and 11, it really doesn't make any difference, you know, so just keep plugging away and just show up for the next shot, and I think I was able to get on a run shortly there after.

Q. What's it going to take this weekend to stay in contention? Feels like we got a horse race brewing here, if it stays like this, benign conditions, what's it going to take this weekend, do you think?

CHRIS KIRK: Who knows. It's going to be, if it does stay like this it's going to be, yeah, pretty crazy amount under par. I know it wasn't necessarily forecasted to be this calm today, so who knows what we'll get. But, yeah, you definitely got to take advantage of it while you can.

Q. Should Georgia be playing for the national title tomorrow night?

CHRIS KIRK: No, I think that they were right to leave us out of the playoffs. I think we had our chance in the SEC championship. I do also think we're probably the best team in the country still, but we had our chance to win the SEC championship and get in and we didn't do it, so, but we'll be back next year.