THE ANNIKA DRIVEN BY GAINBRIDGE AT PELICAN

November 15, 2024

Auston Kim

Pelican Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Auston Kim after her second round here at Pelican Golf Club. Really solid 6-under. Moved well into the cut line. How happy are you with your round today.

AUSTON KIM: I'm pretty happy. It was a lot of solid shots. Hit a couple bad ones, but I was able to rebound. Made a really good par save on the last hole.

Overall, like I just came out here to play some golf today after yesterday, and I'm pretty happy with how I handled myself today.

Q. What was maybe the main difference between today and yesterday for you?

AUSTON KIM: I think it was a little less up and down. Yesterday was just a little messy; bit of a psycho scorecard as they call it.

I just felt a lot steadier today mentally and physically. I was able to capitalize and made a lot of good putts today. Gave myself a lot of good opportunities and played some good golf.

Q. Yeah, no one has gone bogey-free yet. At least no one did yesterday; don't know about today. First one. How hard is it to do on this golf course?

AUSTON KIM: It's pretty tough. Yeah, I mean, I honestly thought I was going to make bogey on the last after getting into that bunker. Chunked my shot out of the bunker; got sand all over my face; and then I hit a pretty good pitch in and made a 12-footer for par.

Pretty happy how it turned out. There were a couple close calls today, but I accepted the fact that mistakes would happen today, and thankfully I was able to recover from all of them.

Pretty happy how I handled myself.

Q. I know 64 here on the Race to the CME Globe. How big of a goal is it for you to get into that CME Group Tour Championship, and have you been thinking about that at all this week?

AUSTON KIM: Yeah, of course I've been thinking about it. It's my rookie year. I just keep telling myself to manage my expectations and be as realistic as possible.

Of course I have pretty lofty goals, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself. All I can do every single day is just try my best and keep telling myself I'm capable of playing good golf; not being afraid of playing that good golf.

I feel like I'm on the right track. Doing a lot better mentally and game-wise. Again, I am happy with how today turned out.

Q. You talked a lot about self-belief last week. After yesterday, I'm sure it took a lot of self-belief to flip it around. What switched with you mentally? What did you lock in today to pull that out?

AUSTON KIM: Yeah, I think yesterday, again, just messy. The biggest thing that I told myself yesterday was that those bad shots and those bad rounds, they don't define me as a person.

I know that I'm a good golfer. I know that I can hit a lot of good shots. Yesterday the bad shots just outnumbered the good ones unfortunately.

I just told myself not to take it to heart; laughed it off. Couple months ago that probably would've been a lot harder to do.

I relied a lot on the golf that I played last week and I knew that I was capable of doing a lot better.

Today was an opportunity to excel and do better than yesterday, so I'm pretty proud of what happened today and how I behaved.

Q. For you, obviously this tournament last year was a different start to your life.

AUSTON KIM: Yeah.

Q. You're here a year later; what can you reflect on? You talked about it last week. At times it's been a really challenging season and at times a really awesome season. What have you seen from yourself in terms of growth over the past year?

AUSTON KIM: I've seen a lot of improvement in my game all across the board. I know it's only been a year, but feels like I've gotten ten years older. I'm pretty stoked about the amount of experience I've gotten this year, all the rounds that I played, all the pressure that I felt, including today.

I'm really thankful that I got the opportunity to play here last year and get that experience as well, getting my feet wet.

But compared to last year, I mean, the game just feels completely different. I feel like a whole new golfer. So that's actually really cool to experience.

Again, I'm just focusing on what I'm capable of. I think that's been a big key for me, especially if I think back to last year. I know I was coming off a really high point in my career after the Epson Championship, but I think the self-talk and self-belief that I got to foster and grow the past few weeks has been instrumental and very helpful for me.

Q. How do you build going into the next 36 holes?

AUSTON KIM: I think focusing on the improvement that I had since yesterday. That's definitely a first step. Just reinforcing everything take keep telling myself, things that are going well.

There are definitely things to work on. The job is not done. Going to keep chasing and doing the best that I can.