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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 14, 2011

Matt Kuchar

HONOLULU, HAWAII

DOUG MILNE: Matt Kuchar, thanks for joining us for a few minutes after quite a successful opening round here at the Sony Open in Hawai'i. It's your second week here in Hawai'i, obviously a great way to start the season on the heels of what was a career season for you last year. Why don't we just start specifically with some highlights from the round today and we'll just open it up and take a few questions.
MATT KUCHAR: All right, it was a steady start. Our whole group was a little slow in making birdies. I think I made the first birdie of the day on the 7th hole and then was able to knock it on No. 9 in two and made a 30-footer for eagle. I think that really kick-started the round.
I birdied the 10th hole, missed a three-footer on 15 for par and then had a great shot into 17 from about four feet and got up-and-down from just short of the green on 18 for birdie. So there were -- it kind of seemed as simple as that, not a whole lot of excitement out there. The big excitement kind of came with the putt dropping in on the 9th hole for eagle.

Q. Conditions, I'm just curious --
MATT KUCHAR: Much better than I expected. I thought we'd struggle to tee off on time today. I thought there was little droppings of rain last night, and seeing what the course was yesterday, all the standing water, I was surprised to see the course playable first thing in the morning and what seemed to be in very good shape. It seemed like there was a couple places where balls got some run in the fairway, and I thought if anything they'd just plug every time. The fairways had a little bit of firmness to them, which was very surprising.

Q. Did you find anywhere to practice on the rain days, or how did you stay loose?
MATT KUCHAR: Actually on Wednesday I had the first tee time, the first pro-am tee time, so I got to the club about 6:00 for breakfast and was walking out to the tee as close to my tee time as possible at 6:50 and I heard there was a half hour delay, and at that point it was only lightly raining and I putted some, and then I heard there was a longer delay, and there was actually a break in the weather. So I hit some balls Wednesday morning. It was me and a couple amateurs hitting some balls.
I felt like I was probably the only guy that got some practice in Wednesday. I was fine not to practice at all yesterday. I played a lot and had a lot of golf coming up, so it was okay to take a break, so yesterday was completely an off day for me.

Q. What is the difference in your mind between the 1st hole, the 2nd hole and the last hole?
MATT KUCHAR: I hope nothing. Every shot counts the same out here. And generally I think strategy may change. I think the 1st hole, you do get a warm-up on the range, but I've never felt a warm-up is always that indicative of just how you're going to hit it. So my first couple holes that I play my strategy is fairly conservative. And depending on how much in control I am, I then may get more aggressive or more conservative, depending on how well I'm hitting the ball.
My mindset hopefully doesn't change but my strategy may change a little bit, just depending on how well I'm hitting the ball that day.

Q. As you played very well last week in Kapalua do you think that gave you an advantage, plus with the rain delay coming in here?
MATT KUCHAR: I definitely think the guys that played on Maui have an advantage, just starting the year with or without the rain delay. I think guys that have gotten a little bit of competition under their belt, you kind of never know how you're going to do, and just by practicing and hitting balls at home, it's different than actually grinding out three-, four-footers that actually mean something.
So the guys that played on Maui I think had an advantage, and then particularly with the rain delay, I think probably we're a little bit fresher than the guys that this is their first week.

Q. And a follow-up, what about the difference in the greens, last week, this week?
MATT KUCHAR: They seem -- the grasses seem similar, it's just severity of slope. Last week the slopes were just very severe, massive breaking putts. Here you don't seem to have to play a putt 10 or 15 feet of break. There's still some sizable five-foot breaking putts but not 15 feet worth of break.
I think that's the difference. And then there was a lot of wind. You could get the downwind, downgrain, downhill putts over at Kapalua that are frightening, and today without wind the greens aren't quite fast enough to ever be frightening. I felt nervous a few times last week just on two-foot putts that I knew could easily go ten feet by.

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