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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 12, 2009

Matt Kuchar

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Matt Kuchar into the interview room after a 5-under par 66. That was quite a round, highlighted by five consecutive birdies on Nos. 12 through 16. Just a great day for you. Let's get some comments.
MATT KUCHAR: Hard to believe I could make five birdies in a row out here. To shoot 5-under in general out here is fantastic. To have five birdies was completely unexpected. I certainly appreciated it. There are a couple holes you just don't expect to make birdies on. No. 12 is a really difficult hole, particularly that back right pin position where it was today. I hit a beautiful 5-iron probably 15 feet, made a tricky kind of double-breaking putt.
13 was playing a little shorter today. Wind was helping, so I hit a 9-iron into the green to probably 18 feet.
14 is one you don't expect. The tees were back today. It was playing almost 230 yards. You don't expect to make birdie there. You're just trying to hit the middle of the green. But the beauty about hitting the middle of the green with these greens is they're firm, and I did just that; I hit the middle of the green and the ball trickled back to the back portion of the green and had only eight feet or so for birdie.
I think everybody is looking to take advantage of 15 today.
And then 16 I had a good drive and just had a perfect number for pitching wedge and I hit that in to about five or six feet. So making those string was a lot of fun and brought back some great memories of Cog Hill for me. I've got great memories here from the '97 U.S. Amateur, and they showed up today.

Q. Talk about the U.S. Amateur win. The course has changed a lot, but does it still give you good vibes? Can you see a lot of the similar old Cog Hill and new Cog Hill?
MATT KUCHAR: The whole experience has been good for me. I haven't been back much. I haven't played in many of the previous BMWs or Westerns. I think I've played only maybe one or two times since '97.
But this week I've had a number of people just working inside the clubhouse and I'm having breakfast, they still are here from '97 and remember dad and I having breakfast, dad and I coming through for lunch. So I've had a lot of great support from the staff inside.
And then the golf course itself still has the feeling I remember from '97, although it's changed a lot. It's a lot meaner than I remember. There are a lot of hard bunkers, a lot more penalizing than I remember it being in '97. I was walking around in the practice rounds just shaking my head thinking how hard of a golf course this has become. To shoot 5-under on a course that I think is extraordinarily hard, I'm awfully pleased with it.

Q. Are you still in Buckhead?
MATT KUCHAR: Yes.

Q. I imagine getting to Atlanta must have been a huge priority if not the No. 1 priority for the whole year for you.
MATT KUCHAR: That's pretty right on. That is one of my goals. I've struggled with a bit of goal setting, but I tried to do some and making the TOUR Championship is right about at No. 1 for me. It would mean an awful lot to play at East Lake, which is almost a home course for me, in front of Atlanta, the hometown friends, the hometown family. It's about No. 1. It's something I've set my goal the last couple years to make East Lake. I haven't been able to make it, and now I have an awfully good shot.
These Playoffs have been exciting for me. I don't know how they've treated all the other players, but it's given me a chance. I started, I think -- I can't remember where I started now, around 70th, I think. Around 70th started the Playoffs and knew I'd have to have a good couple stretches. I got off to a real good start at Barclays, ended up finishing, I think, 28th. Then had a nice week at Deutsche Bank, finishing 15th, and now here at Cog Hill at the BMW.
I knew it would take just another step in the right direction, one more better week than I had. Right now it's really looking that way. Hopefully I can continue tomorrow and make the TOUR Championship.

Q. Next week opens up a lot of things for the year after, too, with getting back into all the majors. I think it's been a while since you've played all four.
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Since you won the Honda, that year after.
MATT KUCHAR: I think this year was the most I've played with three. I didn't play The Masters. And having to go through qualifying is not the most enjoyable. That's not something I thought about with making the TOUR Championship was getting in all four. But I know my grandparents are every year just encouraging me, you've got to make that Masters one more time because we want to go to the Masters, I think, worse than anything else. That would be another great mark of making the TOUR Championship.

Q. Given that you won a USGA Championship here and now you say the course is meaner, is this a course mean enough do you think to host the U.S. Open? You know what those folks think.
MATT KUCHAR: I don't know that I know what they think. (Laughter.)

Q. Be very thankful for that.
MATT KUCHAR: I don't know if I know what the USGA look for in a course. I certainly think it's a hard enough test for a major championship. Gosh, I can't think of many courses I think are tougher. I think if the USGA comes in and wants to set it up, they could make this as hard as any course in the country I would think, if you get these greens really firm. You have to fly the ball onto every green. It seems like every green has bunkers in front of it, and you just cannot run a ball up. If you land a ball in the rough, you can't really play a recovery shot up onto the green. There are bunkers guarding every green.
If you make greens firm, with the way the setup is, you can almost make them unhittable. I heard there was some complaining about No. 2 yesterday, about how firm the green was and how so many good shots landed on the front of the green and nobody could hold it. I played it today and was surprised at how soft it was. I came up just short thinking I could land on the front edge and came up about two or three feet short from the bunker and played a bunker shot I expected to land firm and roll out like they normally do, and No. 2 was one of the softest greens on the course today.

Q. Did you know the exact scenarios as far as points, what it would take to get to East Lake, or do you just kind of figure if you have a good week it'll happen?
MATT KUCHAR: Does anybody know the exact points? I think it just keeps changing depending on how everybody else plays. I come into the week, and my approach to the game of golf is pretty simple; I keep my head down. I know that I need a good week to make it to the TOUR Championship. But I'm not going to play any different if I have to finish 10th or if I have to finish 5th. There's a way that I'm going to play around this golf course, and it's not going to be affected by how high I have to finish.
So I don't pay a whole lot of attention. I think they've done a pretty good job with the points this year. I've found it to be a little more understandable than years past, and I think it gives people some room to move, but it also rewards guys that have done well all year.

Q. Looks like Tiger is going to have a pretty good lead. Do you go out tomorrow thinking about trying to catch him, or do you not think about that at all or not worry about it?
MATT KUCHAR: I follow about the same game plan I just talked about. You know, there's a way for me to play this golf course, and I am not going to change a whole lot. There are certain pins I can go at. I'm not going to go at silly pins just because I'm a couple shots back of Tiger. I'm going to play the percentage shots, the shots that I know I can hit.
Gosh, hopefully I can have another day like today. If I do that, who knows what will happen. But I'll certainly be happy with the week's results if I play again like I did today.

Q. You're always happy.
MATT KUCHAR: Just about.

Q. 12 years ago, an amazing amount of things have happened to you in those 12 years. You stayed in school, took some heat for that, finally turned pro, won a tournament right out of the chute, got bounced back to the Nationwide, dug your way out of that, now here you're on a pretty steady trajectory these last couple years, getting back up there in the top echelon. Does 12 years seem like forever, or is it more like yesterday? I didn't even mention the two kids you had in two years.
MATT KUCHAR: I still feel like that kid from 12 years ago. I look in the mirror, and my hairline has gone back a significant amount since 12 years ago. I have this beard, and I see white in my beard. So there are a lot of things that have changed. But I still feel like that kid.
I was talking with Bill Haas, and I see Bill Haas still as a kid from Wake Forest. And he's older, and we were talking just kind of life and having two kids and the things now. He asked me if I had seen any movies lately, and I said, I've got two kids, it's not something I'm doing a whole lot of now.
So there are different responsibilities, but it's -- life still is a lot of fun to me. With two kids we've had some great comments, and I think the best one is some people thinking about kids going, the way you do it is how we want to do it because it doesn't seem to affect your lives. You still seem to do the fun stuff. We still take neat trips as a family; we still get away. My wife and I went through and did Chicago on Wednesday, spent the day in Chicago just doing the city, had the kids at day care. We're still young and enjoying ourselves, and I still could look back and be that 19-year-old kid that won the U.S. Amateur. I still feel like that.
But I hope that stays, because I'm really enjoying the way it's going.
JOHN BUSH: Matt, thanks for coming by. Play well tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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