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AT&T CLASSIC

May 19, 2007

Matt Kuchar

DULUTH, GEORGIA

DOUG MILNE: Matt, great third round, 8-under 64, just a couple general comments on your play today and we'll take any questions.
MATT KUCHAR: Watching Troy's round of 64 yesterday, I was looking at it on the leaderboard going, gosh, I just didn't see an 8-under round on this golf course. The greens being this firm, it's so hard to get a ball close to the pin.
For me to come out and do it today, I'm awfully pleased. I've been playing good golf, so it's not totally unexpected, but on this course, I was thinking 4-under would be a nice round of golf, and to come through at 8-under was just -- I'm awfully pleased to be in here at 8-under today.

Q. Your best round since when?
MATT KUCHAR: I don't know, I've been playing some good golf. I don't keep up with stats; I don't remember the numbers all that well. I've played some awfully good rounds even in competition, definitely great rounds at home. But I'm not good at remembering, unfortunately, the previous good numbers.

Q. You had a good finish at Pebble Beach. What did that do to -- not validate how you felt about yourself or what you could --
MATT KUCHAR: Pebble Beach was a good start to the year. I seemed to have gotten off to slow starts in the past. The West Coast has never been all that kind to me. So it was great to get off to a good start. Initially you want to go ahead and get that 125 out of the way, hopefully lock up that number for the year's end.
And having that good finish at Pebble made me feel like, all right, I'm well on my way, just keep going. And since I've played some pretty good golf, haven't had the good result that I did at Pebble, but a lot of cuts made, a lot of just trying to keep adding the numbers up to hopefully get that 125 taken care of and keep going from there.

Q. The inevitable question, I'm sure you've answered it a million times, but having started the way you did in college, The Masters, the U.S. Open, and then you get down to missing cuts and whatnot, now you're -- I guess it's kind of back. What was that like? Was it in a sense too fast for you and that sort of thing?
MATT KUCHAR: Golf is just a funny game in that nature. You never seem to control it; you never seem to own it. It was funny to listen to Rory Sabbatini's comments last week at THE PLAYERS where he was calling out Tiger Woods after his first round, and then I think had just pretty poor, from I bet his standards, rounds the next couple rounds, and it just seems like you make comments like the game is easy, and all of a sudden it bites you in the butt (smiling).
For me I had such a great start with winning the U.S. Amateur and continued it on with great Masters and Opens; I was on the fast track. But golf is just a funny game, and you learn a lot of lessons the hard way. You know, it's a humbling game.
The track I've been on I don't regret at all. It's, I think, been great for me, and I think in the long run it's probably going to make me a better player. You've got to go through the highs and lows, and going through the lows really makes you enjoy the good times out there.

Q. No injuries to speak of during --
MATT KUCHAR: No, no injuries. I've been very healthy, yeah.

Q. You said earlier in the year about working on your consistency and really that's been the key to getting you back here. How did you work on that? And this round would seem to typify that. You hit almost every fairway and green out there.
MATT KUCHAR: When I look back at stats from years past, I remember everybody always used to ask, kind of what is it, what's holding you back, and I couldn't ever say anything. My stats in years past, if I finished 140th on the Money List, it seemed like everything was about 140th in the stats category.
I'm not one to follow the stats, but I knew there was no one thing. It wasn't the putts weren't falling or I'm just not driving it well enough. There was no one piece of the equation. It was just a need to slightly elevate every facet of my game.
I've worked with a bunch of different instructors over the past year, had a lot of great help, and I don't know if I'm more experienced, more dedicated. I think that playing well on TOUR has a learning curve. I think you need five years out here to kind of find your place, figure out how things work. It's hard to jump right out of college, right out of high school, whatever you do, onto the TOUR and have success. It seems to be a pretty slow learning curving out here, and I seem to feel comfortable now and be comfortable with my game and understand the courses I like and the towns I like, and I think I'm starting to learn my way around the PGA TOUR.

Q. When did you move back and what brought you back?
MATT KUCHAR: To Atlanta?

Q. Yeah.
MATT KUCHAR: I keep a residence here and in Florida, so I've had a residence here for a while, since '02, I think.

Q. Do you still list this as your primary one?
MATT KUCHAR: Florida.

Q. Would you take us through your round and also tell us if there were any par saves that were particularly beneficial for you?
MATT KUCHAR: Started on the 1st hole with a birdie, which was a fantastic birdie. I don't imagine there being many there because of the difficulty of the pin being back left, and getting it close there is a tough shot. I hit a drive and an 8-iron. I forget the distance, but we were discussing between an 8 and a 9, and I decided to go with a high soft 8 that landed just on the top shelf and made about a 12-footer for birdie there, which was a great way to start my round.
The par 5, 4th, I finally hit driver on that tee. I've hit my hybrid club off that tee the first two days. It's such a demanding tee shot and there's so much trouble to be found there that I played it as a three-shot hole the first two days. I hit a fantastic drive, had I think 234 to the hole, pulled a rescue into the creek. It bounced out, and I was able to make an easy up-and-down from where it bounced out to. So that was another fortunate break.
Par 5, 6th, I knocked it on in two. That's, I think, my first time ever in this tournament being on that green in two. It's playing so much different this year being as firm and fast as it is. I only had like 230 to the hole there, and I hit the hybrid on the green just to 20 feet and two-putted.
10, the par 5, I had to lay up there. I think I've gone for it the first two days, but laid up today to a good wedge number, and the pin was front left. I had a 60-degree wedge that I knew I had to land short of the green. Because of the greens being so hard, I landed it a foot from the fringe, bounced up to like ten feet and made the putt.
Then 11, I hit a 6-iron, we had 189 to the hole, landed a 6-iron in the middle of the green, just shy of the back fringe, and made about a 15-footer down the hill.
13, it's a fun, drivable par 4, hit my best drive of the week probably two yards short of the green and decided to putt from where I was, thinking I just wanted to trickle it over the fringe. There's still 20 feet of green between the fringe and the pin, and I rolled it 12 feet by and made that putt.
16, the par 3, I hit a 9-iron, landed -- hit a high, soft 9-iron that landed pin high, went bounding over to the back fringe, and was just looking, again, to trickle that one on the green, and it rolled in the hole.
And then 18, drove it down to -- we had, again, I think it was about 234 to the pin, downhill, downwind, and the pin was just over the water, and I figured if I laid it up, it would be awfully difficult to get a wedge close. My wedges just aren't backing up; they're jumping forward 20 feet. So I decided that back bunker would be a good place to be. I hit it just like I wanted to, right over the pin, and it landed middle of the back of the green and jumped into the bunker but jumped further than I thought.
I thought if it just rolled into the bunker then it would be on the upslope with a lot of green to work with. But as it was, it was not as easy and pretty scary looking down at the water with the yellow hazard line. I even debated about hitting it out to the right of the pin. I knew if my bunker shot came out at all fluffy that it wouldn't have any spot to land and trickle right into the water. I went ahead and made an aggressive bunker shot and it almost went in, just to two and a half feet.

Q. What would it mean to win in your adopted hometown?
MATT KUCHAR: It would be awesome to win here. I love Atlanta. This does feel like home to me. To have all the support, all the fans out, whether they're -- I get a lot of Georgia folks saying, We'll cheer for you, we're from Georgia but we like cheering for you, as well. And then a bunch of Georgia Tech fans out here. I love Atlanta, and for me to win here would be great. I think we'd do some serious partying if I did win this week.

Q. I heard you say out there about -- talking to one of the TV guys about staying positive, just keep plugging and things will happen. Has that always been your attitude? Has it been difficult to maintain that?
MATT KUCHAR: For the most part. I would say digging myself out of the Nationwide Tour and out of the struggles I've had, the kind of way I did it was changing my attitude, was going back to having just a very positive attitude.
It's hard to develop confidence when things aren't going well, and I think the way to do it is you've got to almost trick yourself into having confidence, into believing that things are going well. And the more positive self-talk you can give to yourself, I think the better your results and more confidence will grow from there.

Q. Does it kind of get to a grand view scheme where you're kind of looking at your life and saying, Well, after all, I am getting paid to play golf for a living?
MATT KUCHAR: It wasn't that -- I realized, even in the lows, my life is great. I get paid to play golf. Things are great. I was never down on that.
But on the golf course, it's easy to beat yourself up. You just have so many more bad things happen than good things happen it seems. Just to get a win, win every 100 tournaments, would be great. Your winning percentage, you just don't get that much success out here. It's hard; it beats you up. But if you do stay positive, good things do happen.

Q. So the smile came easily and naturally today then?
MATT KUCHAR: Oh, yeah (smiling), it was a lot of fun out there today. Even though this course feels U.S. Open-like with greens like this. All they need is some thicker rough and you'd really feel like you were playing a U.S. Open. So it's intense, but I was having a lot of fun out there.

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