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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 3, 2009Matt KucharVERONA, NEW YORK MARK WILLIAMS: Okay. I'd like to welcome Matt Kuchar to the interview room. Matt shot a 67 and is currently tied for the lead at -14. If you'd take us through your bogey-free round today and then we'll take some questions. MATT KUCHAR: Okay. If you look at conditions like these, you'd be really disappointed to make bogeys out there. I feel like you can fire at most greens, you miss the green, you're going to tee the ball up in the rough and have a pretty easy chip, or good enough lie to make it feel like a pretty easy chip. So I got off to a good start with a birdie on 2, kind of got hot there in the mid part of the round, birdied 6, 8, 10 and 12 and then cooled off the final six holes and had a few opportunities, was bummed to particularly miss a birdie on the last. But felt awfully pleased with the round of golf I played today. MARK WILLIAMS: Okay. Questions? Q. You're leading the tournament in putts, and what's been working for you with your putter this week? MATT KUCHAR: I was putting good the previous couple tournaments. I just really started putting well. I can't tell you. I feel like I'm a good putter. I feel like that's one of my strengths. You know, I'd tell you Scott Piercy, who I'm paired with, his strength is how far he hits. He can just kind of overpower a golf course. I'm not that way. My strength is getting it, you know, around the greens and getting up-and-down, taking advantage inside 15 feet. That's kind of where I score and where I'm able to take advantage. Q. Matt, what's the plan tomorrow? MATT KUCHAR: Same as today. It'll certainly depend on some of the weather, but I know there's a lot of good players up there close to the top, and this course, if it plays anything like it did today, it's going to take another 5 or 6-under par to win, so you kind of have to keep the gas pedal down, just go after some birdies. Q. You haven't had a bogey in the tournament. It looked like the longest putt you had today was maybe on was it 16 you had the kind of long putt to save par and do you remember that putt and what happened there? MATT KUCHAR: I think 17 had an 8-footer. I know yesterday I bogeyed 17, and I might have had a bogey -- I think I did have a bogey on Thursday. I think round 2 -- I had two bogeys yesterday, 17 and 9. But yeah, I converted pretty well. I know today on 3 I made about an 8-footer for par, and then 17, made an 8-footer again for par. Those are great to make. It was kind of disappointing chips I hit to leave myself with eight-footers for par, but I feel really good over the ball inside 10 feet. I feel like I'm going to give it a good chance. You know, a lot of them are going in this week. Q. Matt, how is it different knowing you have to make a lot of birdies on a day? I mean today you're walking up to the tee you probably you have to shoot a certain number. Do you have a certain number in mind or is it just going at every pin? MATT KUCHAR: I'm not much of a number guy. I never put a number to a round. I think that kind of limits you. And there's so much adjusting that has to be done with the game of golf. I know some guys asked me when you're playing average and Friday you may go off late and you see the cut line's gone down a good bit and you know you have to shoot 3 or 4-under to make the cut, it's a tough thing. Here, you just know there are going to be a lot of birdies, and I don't know how it affects a person's mind frame. I go out, and each hole I kind of play to my strength. I kind of dissect it. You know, I look at -- gosh, we'll take the last hole, for instance. The last hole I'm not going to reach in two. The guy I played with today, Leif Olson, he can reach it in two. He's going to smash it over the bunker. I've gotta play off to the right. I've gotta hit an approach shot as far as I can knowing the ball is going to spin a lot if I take a full wedge in there. So I get the ball up as close as I can and from there try to take some spin off a wedge and drive one in and hope to get it within 10 feet. And that's kind of my game plan. Other guys go at it differently. I'm the guy that each hole is just kind of -- each hole I just apply to my strength and really don't pay attention to a number or score per hole. I would walk off a couple holes disappointed with par. Today I walked off the fifth hole was pretty disappointed to make a par. I think that hole was my endowed land. Most guys are reaching it pretty easily with irons, par-5s. Other than that, I don't see a whole lot of like must-make birdies. I think 5 and 12 are kind of must-make birdies, but other than that, you just kind of take what the course gives you. Q. Starting the final round tied for the lead with a million dollars on the line, do you have to temper your emotions at all or do you just go out and play? MATT KUCHAR: Just go out and play. I imagine tomorrow if it gets late in the round and there's a battle going on, it'll be a little more nerves, a little more jitters, but that's the fun part about the game is just to see how you can handle it. I've had a couple chances in the past month or so playing some pretty good golf, but it's been late on Sundays and it's been a lot of fun to be late on Sundays. Looking forward to being in the last group tomorrow. It's been a while since I've been in the final group on Sunday, so should be fun, but it's another round of golf. It counts the same as Round 1 counts. That's just the way I look at it. Q. Matt, you haven't won in a while, but can you take something -- can you remember what it was like and what you had to go through to get that win? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah. It has been a while. It's been since 2002 on the PGA TOUR. I won the Honda Classic in '02, won the Nationwide in '05, but either one of those is a long way back from '09. However, I feel like my game's gotten better every year. I feel like I've really made improvements. Particularly the last three or four years has been a steady improvement in my game. So I feel like I've put the time in and I feel like I've improved as a golfer and ready to be in the position I'm in right now. Q. Could you get any better conditions than you had today to play for scoring? MATT KUCHAR: Had the ball rolled more on the fairway, probably would have been better for scoring, but no, the greens were receptive. Placing the ball in the rough is a huge bonus. I really don't see scores -- a day that was much easier, although it blew pretty good middle of the day. It must have been blowing a club, club and a half, so you had to think your way around adjusting for the wind. But as blue as the skies were and as good as these greens are and playing with the ball in your hand, it sure does make for some low scores. Q. Matt, do you have roots here in central New York or is that not so? MATT KUCHAR: My father graduated from Watertown High School, so that's kind of Upstate New York. Q. 90 miles north. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah. That's as close as I have. Q. Any family still there or no? MATT KUCHAR: No. MARK WILLIAMS: All right, Matt. Thank you very much and good luck tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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