MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 13, 2024

Tom Kim

Quick Quotes

Q. Just talk about today, how much easier the conditions were compared to Thursday and Friday.

TOM KIM: Not a single difference. It's hard out there. They tucked some pins where I've never seen them, they've never put it before.

Yeah, the wind is down, but it's still swirling. They definitely challenged us with the wind down. They tucked some pins.

I didn't really feel like it was any easier.

Q. What was the hardest pin?

TOM KIM: Like 7 was really, really weird. 17 again, like with the hole being downwind. You just -- like Jake hit the perfect tee shot on the fairway, and all he could do was hit it to 30 feet, and he had an 8-footer coming back.

I hit it in the right rough, but I still had a shot to the green. I'm chipping, like I'm accepting a 20-footer past the hole when normally you'd never see a pin there because literally after it goes up, it goes straight downhill. It's pretty surprising how penalizing it is right now.

Q. Talk about living in Dallas. A lot of the Texas guys say the wind is similar to what they face here at Augusta. Do you see that?

TOM KIM: Yeah, strength-wise, it's very, very similar. We do have a lot of winds back home. Again, it's just different here because you've got all these trees. Augusta does a great job like they want to penalize you with the swirling winds, and they definitely do it.

Q. I know you're close to Scottie. Talk about your expectations for him this afternoon.

TOM KIM: He's been playing really well. Obviously he's No. 1 in the world, and he's been doing great things. It's a golf course where he's won before. I know he's in a really good mental state right now.

He's definitely on, playing a lot of golf. Every time we get weeks off, we play a lot of golf, at least a few times a week at home.

It's not like he goes home and he doesn't play that well and he comes out and plays well. He's playing well every single day. Every single time he comes out, he might take five days off, and he might still play and be striking the golf ball. It's definitely not World No. 1 structure all the time, but if it's not, it's World No. 2 structure all the time. So he's definitely not that far off.

He's a good buddy of mine, so I hope he does well because obviously I'm not near the lead at all. Hope he can have a good finish.

Q. You all really play a couple times a week?

TOM KIM: Yeah, we'll play.

Q. At Dallas National or?

TOM KIM: He plays more events than I do. When he's back at home and I'm back at home, we'll get together and play once or twice weekly.