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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 9, 2010Matt KucharAUGUSTA, GEORGIA Q. How are the playing conditions today compared to yesterday? MATT KUCHAR: They seemed easier to me although I had a little tougher time out there. I thought it was a little tamer, I thought the only difference was some more difficult pins today. But it was probably the biggest difference in the course was the difficulty of the pin placements. Q. On No. 9 ever hit it in a guy's cup before? MATT KUCHAR: No, I've seen it before, I've never personally done it. I think last week in Houston somebody in my group did it. So I'm surprised they haven't, over the years, moved those back just 10 feet or so, because I would bet one guy in every group hits it right where I did. Q. What kind of cup was it? MATT KUCHAR: A soda cup. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: Yeah. Yeah. It was just right of the green and I think that proves my point, if you're going to miss there, you're going to miss right and it's a much easier chip. I hit it, I wasn't overly dissatisfied with it. I knew it was going to miss the green right, but I knew that was a decent place to be. Q. How was the ruling handled there? MATT KUCHAR: I think you mark the position and you get the ball and you drop it in the nearest as close as possible. Q. Have to use the same ball? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah. Q. A beer smelling ball? MATT KUCHAR: Well it was a Coke or some sort of soda, yeah. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: Probably three feet. Q. What about the putt on 4? MATT KUCHAR: Did I make it? Q. Yeah. MATT KUCHAR: That's right. That's right. It was probably 25 feet, 30 feet maybe. It was pretty well straight. I played it probably a cup left of the hole. It was just fast. It was one of those ones where you try to hit it about half speed and I hit it all the way down to the hole. Q. What about the experience. Everybody was asking you playing with Tiger. How did it turn out being for two days? MATT KUCHAR: It was good. It was a great experience. There was a lot of well wishing, a lot of energy. I think that if there was ever a place to be in this situation, it should be here at the Masters doing it. It was a great situation. I was glad to be in the situation. Q. What about your position in the tournament? You're going to make the cut. How do you feel going into the weekend? MATT KUCHAR: Excited. I'm still bummed about not birdieing the last. I hit it in there about eight feet and I had a great opportunity and I'm still a little bummed. I would have loved to have made that and shot even par today. I lost a couple shots that I felt where I was a little overly aggressive on 16 and I lost a shot there. And then 14, I got unlucky. I came up short and actually made a lucky bogey. But making the cut in decent position, I think that there are a number of great players obviously well ahead of me, but, no, I'm pleased to be here on form and looking forward to a great weekend. Q. I realize you're focused on your game, but how was Tiger, playing with him yesterday and how much was his presence on the leaderboard, how did it make it for him to be in the mix? MATT KUCHAR: Well, the odds makers got to like Tiger Woods, I think. He played solid golf. It was impressive. It wasn't -- it was just like yesterday. I thought he played very solid golf, there was no weaknesses. A few chip shots he looked like he could have been maybe a little rusty with some touch, but other than that, I mean his all-around game was great. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I thought he putted well yesterday. I think he would be a little upset to miss those ones on 16 and 17. I'm sure he would have liked to have made at least one of those. Q. Have you noticed a change in his demeanor at all friendlier, sweeter? MATT KUCHAR: Some guys thought -- I read a quote he had about just trying to be more level on the golf course and there were a few putts yesterday I expected maybe a little bit bigger reaction. I think he was going to try to not be as hard on himself and then not as, and not have the same highs as he would have the same lows, which surprised me. I think we all know Tiger from the big fist pumps and so Thursday he made some good putts, I kind of expected maybe a bigger fist pump, but again it's Thursday. It's not a place to be really big fist pumping on Thursday. Q. I meant actually with the interaction. MATT KUCHAR: No, I haven't played with Tiger since 2007, I don't see much of him at all. So I didn't notice. I only played two rounds of golf prior to this with him. Q. And what about the crowd reaction to him? MATT KUCHAR: It was fine. Q. In the past it was, can you compare it to before all this happened? MATT KUCHAR: I think when I played with him in '98 he was defending Masters champion and he was the most exciting guy in golf and people were excited to see him. Here it was a similar thing, more of a welcome back, kind of excited to see you again, welcome back feeling. Q. Can you talk about the chip on 11? MATT KUCHAR: Chip on 11? I hit a bad shot and then into a bad place and I had the big slope to contend with and I was a little scared of landing it on the down slope for fear that it could go too fast. And you just had to have good speed going down that green and it landed a foot short of the green and I was looking to land it kind of a flat spot anywhere between four feet and right on the green, so it was a small window. I hit it and it turned out perfect. That would take me 30 more balls to hit another shot like that. Q. When you have a shot like that on 9 when you come off the green and see where it landed, what goes through your mind and how do you kind of deal with that? MATT KUCHAR: Well it was fairly entertaining. It's pretty much a simple rule. You mark the position of the ball and you get it and you drop it as close to as close to possible as to position where it was found, but it's a pretty simple thing. It's just an odd thing to happen. I've seen it before, I've seen things in stranger places, in trash cans and popcorn cups and that. And it's not all that rare of an occurrence. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: It was almost empty, but I figured at 50 cents he could probably handle 50 cents for a Coke out here. I know they're not very expensive out here. Q. Maybe you could get a sponsorship deal out of it. MATT KUCHAR: That would be great. I always thought that would be good. An Atlanta boy like myself. Q. That never happened to you before where you hit it and it landed in a cup? MATT KUCHAR: Not that I can recall. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: No. No. It was in there in his cup and we asked him to retrieve it, I didn't want to dig my hands into his soda. So he retrieved it and fortunately it wasn't a whole lot, he wasn't going to miss out on a lot. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: If I was helping him with PR it was come back quick, you know. Make some statements and fix it. Let's get it done quickly. Now that he's back, who knows when the next tournament would be, but I think that it will kind of wear itself out. I see it passing by a little more, the more he plays, the less we have to talk about it, talk about his past. Q. What's it say that this guy's been out for 144 days, comes back in these conditions and he's 6-under par, having not played a competitive round? MATT KUCHAR: He's a hell of a player. I think that after he won the U.S. Open on one leg we all realized that he could pretty much do anything. And never would we really second guess his ability on the golf course. It's pretty amazing. I have no idea what his, of what he's been doing the last 144 days, there's no telling. It was pretty amazing how he could hide as well as he could, for so long. Q. (No microphone.) MATT KUCHAR: I was guessing, for his comeback, I guessed if he really wanted to play well at Augusta he would play Bay Hill, play Tavistock, do something just to kind of get some competitive practice in. But as tough as he mentally is, I mean it's amazing to be, I don't know what he's top-5, top something on the leaderboard. It's pretty impressive. End of FastScripts |
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