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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 2, 2010Matt KucharNORTON, MASSACHUSETTS MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Matt Kuchar to the interview room. Matt, you've made seven appearances here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. You're coming off a win at the Barclays, which moved you to the No. 1 spot in the FedExCup standings. If you will just kind of talk about the win and what it's been like the last couple days getting here, and then we'll take some questions. MATT KUCHAR: It's been great. It's an exciting run. I'm really excited about the TOUR Championship, getting to play at East Lake, my hometown of Atlanta. But I know that there's still a lot of golf left. This week the Deutsche Bank Championship, next week the BMW Championship. There are a lot of points out there and still a lot of movement that can be made. So I'd like to retain that position going into the TOUR Championship, and still looking to play some good golf and keep it going. But I had some fun after the win, went and did an event for Marquise Jet at Winged Foot on Monday. They kind of had a celebratory dinner Sunday night for all the players, and it just was great that I happened to win, and it kind of felt like a celebratory dinner for me. Had a miserable time going to sleep Sunday night. I felt like no problem, I must crash after all the interviews and all the extra things that go on with the win, and I think I just had too much excitement and too much energy to get much of a night's sleep. I was glad to know that this tournament didn't start until Friday, glad to know that I had an extra day to kind of catch up on rest and relaxation and make sure I was ready to go. So I think that was a bit of a bonus. We had a great time in New York City, spent Monday and Tuesday night in the city, did some shopping for my wife's Ryder Cup outfits, and we caught the show "Wicked." So that was about the extent of my couple days in New York. Q. Are you at liberty to say how much you spent shopping for your wife's outfits? MATT KUCHAR: I'd better not, but we exceeded our budget as far as the Ryder Cup gives us a stipend to spend on her outfits and we exceeded it, but certainly well worth it. You've got to look after the wife and make sure that she's happy, and it's not often we do really nice things. So to do some nice things for her to get ready for the Ryder Cup, she's anxious and excited and really not sure what to expect. It was just a fun experience for the two of us to be able to have a good time shopping in New York City. Q. This has been something of a breakthrough year for you. What's been the difference in your mind with your better play and being atop the FedExCup points and the Money List? MATT KUCHAR: I just feel like I've made a steady improvement, and it's amazing how a little bit goes a long way out here. The margins of who makes it big, who makes it, who just misses it, those are small margins. So it's not a huge jump, but I've made small jumps the last four years. I mean, I've got to say it starts with Chris O'Connell. 2006 we started working together. I was on the Nationwide Tour then. I graduated from the Nationwide onto the PGA TOUR, and then steadily climbed up, up the Money List and up the FedExCup list. And last year was my best year to date, had the win at Turning Stone, had a lot of solid performances, and this year has been even a better year. I think it's just those little jumps that go a long way out here. Q. This is kind of a philosophical question. Guys talk about they'd much rather be consistent than have that one big week. You've had both this year with ten top 10s and now you've got the victory. But would this had been a successful season had you not gotten the victory? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, absolutely. It's been a great year. Wins are tough to come by. Wins are very tough to come by, and wins take some luck, as well. The thing I've worked some with Gio Valiante, I had gotten off to a great start of the year; everything was going really well. Kind of midway through the year, I said, well, Gio, it seems like kind of now would be the time that the next step is to win a golf tournament. Let's say I take that as my focus for the next week, that that's my goal, that I want to win that week's tournaments. Let's say I don't; let's say I finish eighth place; is that a good result or a bad result? How do I take that? And he said, "It's an awesome question." He said, "I think the best way and the healthiest way to approach a week is to try to get yourself in contention, have a chance Sunday, and if you get some breaks and if you get some luck, you'll find yourself in the winner's circle. If not, you've gotten yourself in contention, and that experience counts for a lot, and you've just got to keep plugging away." So that was kind of my mentality once I got off to such a good start this year, that I wanted to get myself in contention, and if a win came, great. But I think that was the way we decided to look at the year. Q. I'll throw a couple at you here. I don't know how you are about counting chickens and eggs and all that, but just your thoughts on whether you can get your head around $10 million. And then the second question would be going back to Sunday, the Player of the Year issue is incredibly unsettled. There's, I think, five guys with two wins and then you're in the mix and probably Phil in the mix if he was to do something late, and I'm wondering whether that excites you at all. MATT KUCHAR: No, no. I completely put the Player of the Year thing out of my head. It's not even a goal of mine. It would be a great award, but it's not something that I shoot for. That falls under the category of I'm going to go out and try to play good golf this week and good golf next week and good golf at the TOUR Championship, and then if when awards get passed out my name is called, then I'll be thrilled, but that's not a goal. $10 million (shaking head) -- Q. Aren't you building a house? MATT KUCHAR: We bought a house. It was built. We bought a house. I really have no idea. I know that this year has been an incredible year already to date having earned $4 million plus. I had somebody call up, one of my friends just call up jokingly saying, "What recession? This is the best economy for you ever. You've got to love Obama. He's a fantastic president." (Laughter.) I have to agree. This year I'm grateful to have a job, and the job that I have I love, and it's paying me a ton of money. The $10 million would feel like I must have fulfilled a dream to be a basketball player or a baseball player or some completely other sport. It would be just kind of a crazy figure that I'd have no idea what to do with. I'd probably just tuck it away and try not to look at it. Q. You touched on this a little bit, but I was just wondering, now you kind of find yourself at center stage. Has your mental approach changed all that much now that you find greater pressure? MATT KUCHAR: No, no, I'm still kind of going about the daily routine the same, the mental routine the same. Having wins and having solid play like I've had all year is definitely a thing to build some confidence on. There's nothing better than -- nothing better for your confidence than winning a golf tournament. That definitely helps. There are a lot of things that I'll take as positives. I know last week, Saturday, I got off to an ordinary start and then midway through the round really ran into some trouble. I went like bogey-double bogey or something and got to 3-over or 2-over for the day and then ran off four straight birdies, 14, 15, 16, 17. And I kind of knew it wasn't going to be a bad day even when I had had the bogey-double bogey, got to 2-over for the day. I knew that my game was steady enough, I was solid enough that it was not going to rock my boat, that I was going to bounce back from that, and to make four straight birdies and turn it into a good day where I was still in contention and in the hunt was a great thing, and I think I'll be able to look back on that in other situations that are similar and fall back and take a lot of pride and a lot of confidence from those situations and those experiences. Q. Would you walk us through how you play the 16th, the par-3, and the par-5 18th holes here? MATT KUCHAR: The par-3, 16th, I think it was about 162 yards. The pin was about in the middle. I hit an 8-iron. It landed about pin high on the upper shelf and rolled down to the lower section, but had a tough putt that kind of had to go up and down and sideways along that shelf. I ended up three-putting that hole. But I felt like I hit all good shots, just the ball started going further. I teed off at 6:50 this morning and the ball wasn't going very far, and by the time I got to around the 14th, 15th, 16th holes the ball started carrying and the 8-iron went further than I thought it would. No. 18 I tried to be more aggressive off the tee, and I ended up in that right fairway bunker, had 210 front and hit a hybrid onto the front edge of the green and two-putted for birdie. Q. First of all, have you seen the footage of your incredible shot in the playoff and maybe just talk us through what you thought the first time you saw it. MATT KUCHAR: I have not. I have not seen it. I've been busy with kids and hanging out in the city, and I have not really watched any TV. Q. And second one, how excited are you for the Ryder Cup? MATT KUCHAR: Very excited. Ryder Cup, gosh, really was something that I thought was outside of my realm for a couple years. I really didn't think -- I didn't even see the Ryder Cup as being a reasonable goal for me. I was a guy that only a year or two ago was trying to make sure I kept my card and then trying to get inside the top 70 so I'd be exempt into the invitationals and then trying to get inside the top 30 so I could be exempt into the majors. And then to be a top-8 American was kind of a step or two ahead of where I even foresaw myself. So to have qualified for the team, anytime you can put the American flag on and represent your country, it's an awesome thrill. I did it at the Walker Cup, did it at the World Amateur team, played in a couple Palmer Cup teams. It's a great feeling. We had a dinner last night, got the eight guys together with the assistant captains, and just to hear some of the stories about how nervous people get but how much fun it is at the same time, to have the team camaraderie and to have the nerves so bad you can't hit the shot on the first tee that you have to say, "You hit it; I can't do it" is exciting, to be put in that situation and see how you handle it. Q. Going back to the playoff on Sunday, I think it was a 6-iron you hit out of the rough, were you playing for a flier? Kind of a two-part question. MATT KUCHAR: No, it was a 7-iron. I had a good lie. I had 162 yards to the front of the green. I knew I didn't want to carry it all the way to the front of the green. I knew I wanted to land it short. I had some tree limbs that were in play that I needed to keep the ball under, so I took a 7 and kind of played it a little back in my stance, played my hands a little forward, was trying to chase one low and just run it up on the green. I remember I caught Martin's drive, I saw on the 72nd hole, he hit it in the left rough, and it looked like it still was not a bad place to be. When I first saw the drive I thought he was in trouble, and when I saw his second shot, he chased up onto the green and to the back edge. When I was kind of in the same position in the playoff, I knew that that was going to be okay, that I could chase the ball up onto the green. So I played a 7 and was not playing for a flier, but I knew out of the rough the ball was going to roll out. So it came out great and turned out even better than I could have expected. Q. If we can go back in time, your early career and struggles that you had, now that you have sustained consistent success, do you think you appreciate it more because of where you've been, coming off the very high expectations of winning at the U.S. Amateur in '97? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I think there's the old saying, to appreciate sunshine you've got to go through rainy days. And I think it holds true with just about everything in life. I think if all you know is playing great golf, it just -- I don't think you appreciate it near as much as the guy that's kind of seen some of it all, had ups and downs, and it kind of makes the good times all that extra special. Q. Kind of along those lines, I was wondering, when you look back three or four years ago, can you believe you're in this position right now? Can you just talk about that? MATT KUCHAR: I think all of us that are out here envision themselves in this situation. I think there's not a professional golfer, not a guy playing this week that doesn't envision himself in this position, with a shot to win tournaments, with a shot to win the FedExCup, with a shot to be the No. 1 guy. So yeah, this is kind of where I wanted to be. It's just taken a road that -- I never knew, never really planned what the road would be like. But this is certainly where I wanted to be. Q. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about the guys who are looking to make the Ryder Cup this weekend, those guys that are in the mix. Obviously you're well in, but who would you like to see on this team? I know that you're not the captain, but if you were, who would be your captain's picks? MATT KUCHAR: I am not sure, and I think I'm going to leave that one alone. (Laughter.) There are a lot of good players, and you hate to leave anybody out, so I'm going to leave that one alone. MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Matt, good answer and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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