	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

September 22, 2010

Matt Kuchar

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

JOHN BUSH: Matt Kuchar joins us in the interview room at the TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, current FedExCup points leader. I know you're excited on many levels, first of all making your first appearance here at the TOUR Championship here in Atlanta. Just comment on being here for the first time.
MATT KUCHAR: It's been a goal of mine for years to qualify for the TOUR Championship. It's hard to believe this year I come in as the No. 1 seed. This is an event I was just looking to crack the top 30, and pretty amazing to come here as the 1 seed. It's a treat, and quite an exciting position to be in.
JOHN BUSH: Just a phenomenal season, leading the TOUR with top 10 finishes. Just look back on the year for us and what it took to get here.
MATT KUCHAR: The year has been an amazing year for me, certainly my best ever, and kind of the year that I've always wanted to have as a golfer. I never wanted to be a guy whose name popped up on the leaderboard once or twice a year; I wanted to be a guy who found his name up on the leaderboard consistently week in and week out, and it's been that year. It's pretty amazing to lead the TOUR in top 10s this year. It's something I'm proud of and real pleased with the performance this year.

Q. If you were to win $10 million, what would you do with it?
MATT KUCHAR: I really don't know. I'd hope I could turn it into a lot more. That would probably be my thought. But there's nothing really that I need. There's nothing that I really want. We're moving into a new house. I bought a house six months ago. I'm very excited to be moving. Maybe pay off the house. But it's certainly not that kind of house.

Q. Last week was supposed to be rest and whatnot for most guys. Apparently it wasn't for you. Did the movers show up and did you get all your stuff out, and the plan is to put it into storage until after the Ryder Cup?
MATT KUCHAR: It's all moving down to the new house. We bought a house on St. Simons. We had fortunately a lot of good things that came together to help us. Neighbors took our dining room table and chairs; my sister took a lot of our furniture. So we tried to -- basically last week was a week of getting rid of everything we didn't want to travel with down to St. Simons. And movers came Monday and Tuesday of this week, but last week was just a million runs to a Goodwill donation site, a couple runs to the First Tee down here at the Charlie Yates program, and then trying to find friends and family that would take anything that we did not want to travel with. It was not quite the week off I was looking for, but it actually could have been a good thing in that all I was focused on was trying to pack up and get rid of it. It could have been a week of sitting around relaxing and doing nothing but thinking about the FedExCup, and it certainly was not that for me.

Q. So you've still got to fill a whole house full of new furniture now in addition to moving?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, we did the furniture shopping months and months ago. Believe it or not, the two sets of furniture, the stuff at -- our stuff and the stuff we did at Furnitureland South up in High Point I think is all arriving today and yesterday at the new house.
So when we get back from the Ryder Cup, it should look like a completely new place. I'm even kind of excited it's working out that way.

Q. People have said and people have written that because you're playing at home that you're one of the favorites this week. I just wonder if you see yourself as a favorite this week, and what's that like, because Phil and Tiger are used to it, but what's it like to have people writing and saying Matt Kuchar is the favorite for this week?
MATT KUCHAR: It's great to have support. There's nothing like people cheering you on. It's a fantastic feeling. It's a lot more fun playing in front of people that want to see you do well than the other way around. I've been pretty lucky in my years as far as having a lot of support wherever I've been. People have been very kind to me and very supportive of me.
I think here being a local kid, there may be a few more of those. It's exciting. I think we all love home games, and in golf you don't get too many home games, so it's a great spot to be, and I'm glad to be in this position.

Q. Do you consider yourself a favorite this week?
MATT KUCHAR: I'll leave that to you guys. I don't do much considering, I just go out and play.

Q. Ten days down the road here you're going to be on the first tee at Celtic Manor. And I don't know if you've seen pictures of the tee box there, but they've got about 3,000 or 4,000 seats around it, looks like a minor league baseball stadium. Can you try to imagine what it would be like --
MATT KUCHAR: It's funny, the Ryder Cup still seems so far away. We've had a lot on our plate with the Playoffs going right up into the Ryder Cup. But there's been so much on our plate that the Ryder Cup seems distant. I know it's next week, I know it's soon, but I really haven't put a whole lot of thought into it.

Q. Can you clear something up? Did you get to play here at all when you were in college, or how many at-bats have you had on this course and what's your familiarity level here?
MATT KUCHAR: I want to say we bought a membership, Georgia Tech bought a corporate membership, and I want to say that happened junior year. The way it works is you get to designate maybe two full-time members, and then I want to say there are eight secondary members, and the next eight still have to pay some sort of greens fee. Our first couple years, my junior year and my senior year, we didn't really know how to use it. It was awkward just because you wanted to have guys come out with you, but they weren't one of the designated two guys.
And I think in the years past, or subsequent years, Bruce Hefke just was going ahead and hosting a lot more qualifying matches, tournaments out here and brought the whole team out, and that seems to be the best way to use the membership. When I was in school, I probably played two or three times a year, and out of school I probably averaged three or four times a year coming out to play.

Q. I understand you did something interesting and unusual Sunday at the Falcons game. Can you tell us about that experience?
MATT KUCHAR: I got an invite from Arthur Blank to sit in the owner's suite with him. That was a real treat. I've met Arthur a handful of times but haven't gotten to spend a whole lot of time with him. He was very gracious for all the things he had going on that day, we were able to spend a lot of time and just really had a nice time with him.
Then they figured out a way to bring me down on the field and recognize kind of the TOUR Championship going on and myself leading the points race. It was a fun and awkward experience to stand on the field during a break and just continue to wave. I'm used to, I think, being inside the ropes or on the field and having work to do and having something to do other than to be paraded. But it was a nice event, but I enjoy kind of sitting up in the box more than anything with Arthur Blank.

Q. When did you switch caddies from your dad to a professional?
MATT KUCHAR: I think that was when I started playing for money. I think he said it was going to be a weekly thing, and he said that I didn't pay him enough to afford him.

Q. Looking ahead to next week, do you think it's possible that a first-year Ryder Cup player can sort of become a team leader, and have you thought about sort of the approach that you might take, sort of sit and take everything in, or might you be vocal --
MATT KUCHAR: I have to go back to I really haven't done any thinking about it. It still seems distant to me. I think I'll start thinking about it the plane ride over.
We're so used to playing every week that when I was at the BMW, I certainly wasn't thinking about the TOUR Championship; I was focused on Chicago and playing well there. And I think the Ryder Cup is a major thing, and there are a lot of other things going on, distributing of tickets, doing all the extra stuff. There is extra stuff, but they've been minor details that have taken time, and that's about the only consideration I've really given the Ryder Cup at this point.

Q. How about in general terms? Do you think a first-year player can turn into a team leader?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah. There are a lot of guys with potential. I think Rickie Fowler can be a great guy. He's real young, a rookie and a first-time Ryder Cupper, and he could end up being a really strong player for the U.S. and a guy that people are just excited to be around and be on the same team with.

Q. You mentioned earlier that you wanted to be a guy that was not up on the leaderboard once or twice a year but every week, the consistency being the elusive thing, I suppose, out here. What did you find in the last couple years that has gotten you to that point?
MATT KUCHAR: In 2006, I started working with a guy Chris O'Connell. He teaches the one-plane swing method, and since then, 2006, I've finished 10th on the Nationwide Tour Money List, earned my way back on the PGA TOUR, had a successful year in 2007, retained my card, had an even better year in '08. Every year it's gotten better, and that's what we strive to do. You want to play better the next year.
At the end of the year, you'll be figuring out what to do to get better. And every year working with Chris, we've found a way to get better. It's just been little things, and he's turned me into the player I've wanted to be.
You saw Tiger Woods in years past that would be a guy up there, seemed like, winning or finishing second. Now you see a guy like Steve Stricker; every name you see his week up there. That's the kind of guy that I wanted to be. It's fun to have that going for me right now.

Q. How many people do you have to secure passes for this week? And are you actually staying in a hotel since you're out of Buckhead apparently?
MATT KUCHAR: Staying with friends, so we're in a house, but not in our own house.

Q. You're freeloading?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, just a normal week for us. My caddie and instructor arrived together. They came out to the course together. Registration, which normally takes me about five to ten minutes, took me about 30 minutes to get through the ticket requests, the signing requests and all the extra stuff. It seemed like they were waiting on me for a long time, what happened to you. I said the ticket requests and registration was a little bit bigger process than I'm used to.

Q. What do you recall about the way that you were celebrated here at Tech from your U.S. Amateur win?
MATT KUCHAR: I remember a lot more from the Masters. It seems like coming back from the Masters there was a lot more fan fair. I remember classrooms standing up and applauding. I can remember teachers coming up and congratulating me. The Masters was kind of what seemed like the real significant event to folks from Georgia, folks from Georgia Tech.
The U.S. Amateur, I think probably the neatest story was I brought the Havemeyer trophy back to Atlanta, and they have pictures of Bobby Jones bringing the trophy back to Atlanta, and he did back then by train. He arrived, and I can't remember where the train came from, but when he arrived back in Atlanta, a big group of Atlantans and dignitaries came to meet him and welcome him home. And the same group that was there from the picture that was prior, there was probably five or six guys in the immediate picture, that same group was put together when I brought the trophy back, and we did another kind of mock photo shoot.
And walking around with some of the older guys, Charley Yates was one in particular which was telling me stories about past U.S. Amateurs, past British amateurs. And I've got the U.S. Amateur trophy in my hand, and he's telling me years, courses, who won, and I go, let me just double check a little bit. And right on, every time. I mean, '36, all these, '20s, '30s, '40s, he had every one. It was just amazing. I remember Coach Heppler -- Charlie and Danny Yates were brothers, and I didn't see it, but he said Coach Heppler saw the guys with tears in their eyes to see the trophy come back to Atlanta and with a Georgia Tech kid. It was a very touching moment and kind of realized how big of a deal it was then.

Q. Was there ever a question at all that you were going to turn pro eventually, or did you have to think about that?
MATT KUCHAR: I did think about it. As a kid, whatever I did as a kid I wanted to be playing on TV doing it. I wanted to be Boris Becker when I was a kid. I wanted to be Magic Johnson when I was a kid. You name it, I wanted it, and I did everything I could. I wanted to make that jump and be playing professionally.
And then golf, I wanted to be Phil Mickelson as a kid. He was the guy that was the generation before me. He was the guy that did all the coolest things. He'd win all the junior events and in dramatic fashion, and that was the guy I wanted to be.
So when it came to golf, yeah, I wanted to be a professional golfer. But after the Amateur, after the Masters, after the things I had done in amateur golf, a guy came to me with the opportunity to chase the amateur dream. He said, nobody has really done it since Bobby Jones. It's a great opportunity. There's plenty of money to be made in the business world. It's not that you have to turn professional to make money. And he encouraged me to still stay competitive as an amateur.
He said a lot of times in the business world guys do business with who they want to do business with; it's more of a relationship thing. And he said the doors that will open for you will be amazing, and the better you do in golf, if you keep playing Masters tournaments, if you keep playing well in Amateurs, it's only going to continue to open more doors. So it was a neat opportunity I pursued for about a year after school.
But it was the Texas Open -- I was still an amateur working at the time, took an exemption. I was encouraged to play and compete, and I missed the cut by a shot, and it just burned me so much. I wanted to play the very next week. I wanted nothing more than to get in the tournament next week and try to prove to myself that I was better than that. And it was then that I knew I needed to really go week in and week out to see how good I could be.

Q. And lastly, and thanks for tolerating this, but you fast forwarded a decade or so to being close to the ties in Atlanta for your amateur career and here you are again with a chance to win $10 million, a little different. I was wondering if you could talk about that progression for being celebrated for your amateur stuff and now a shot at the No. 1 seed for a lot of money.
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, it's definitely been a neat progression. I think I was definitely well celebrated as an amateur, one of the top amateurs in the country, and it's fun to take the steps forward. I like to see the guys that I played junior golf with and collegiate golf and see who are the guys that continue to make the steps forward in golf. It's tough to know who's going to make those steps and who's not. I have a hard time just predicting myself when we were in college. Some guys on other teams were a shoe-in to make it out here, and they're not. And some other guys that were not are playing great are out here. But to make those steps, it's a very rewarding feeling.
I told you guys earlier that the TOUR Championship is such a big goal. Atlanta has been such a great town for me. It really does feel like home. And to have done what I did at Georgia Tech and now as a professional, to have gotten to this point, to having a No. 1 seed in the FedExCup and to have it here at East Lake is a great dream. It's a great position to be in.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the opening hole. Could you take us sort of tee to green, tell us about club selection, is it a scoring opportunity, how do you attack that hole?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, for me it's a driver. It's a straight-away hole. It drops down off the tee, you're hitting downhill. You're hitting to kind of a low point on the golf course, and then hit back up to the first green. But for me it was a driver, and I had 130 yards today to a front pin. So it's definitely a scoring opportunity when you have a short iron in your hand. But if you miss the fairway, there's not a whole lot of rough. But the Bermuda rough that there is, it's difficult to judge. Pretty much most balls are going to come out jumping without spin, going to be hard to stop on the greens because the greens are so firm and fast. I think putting it in the fairway is key.

Q. And then what about the finishing hole, No. 18? Is that one where you're just trying to get it on and two-putt and take your par?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, 100 percent. I don't think anybody from 230 to 240 yards is looking to do a whole lot more than that.

Q. What is it about being a scientist on the golf course, being a left-hander among other things, what is it that Chris O'Connell did for your golf swing that you had not been doing before?
MATT KUCHAR: It's hard to explain. You'd have to talk probably more to Chris. I'm not a scientist; I don't ever claim to know the swing. I'll tell you that -- my father will try to get me to help him every chance I get, and I tell him I don't have the knowledge or the swing to really help him.
I know that Chris breaks it down very simply to me. The one-plane theory or model sounds complicated, but to me it's very easy. I take it back around my body. From there I want my arms behind my body, and all I do is turn as hard as I can from there, then the club squares itself up and the ball goes well.

Q. Is it physical or what?
MATT KUCHAR: There's a theory to it. I mean, there's definitely -- it's not an exact model. There's parameters, and if you get within the parameters, you're good. Jim Hardy is the kind of mastermind behind it, and he said, don't be looking to perfect this; this isn't a thing to perfect. You want to just get it within these parameters and then play golf. And I think you see some guys try to perfect the golf swing, and that's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to get things that work. And they know what works together and what doesn't work together. They make it very easy for me to understand, and it's easy to put in play when you have success with it straightaway.
I think their theory is, listen, if within 10 golf balls you're not hitting it better with whatever they've told you to do, that's not the right ingredient. If they plug in the right ingredient, it may feel awkward at first, but when the golf ball is hitting the center of the club and it's going to where you want it to go, you go, I can do that. It's pretty easy for me to make that change and make that start feeling good.
JOHN BUSH: Matt, thanks for joining us, and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297