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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BY COCA-COLASeptember 21, 2011Matt KucharATLANTA, GEORGIA LAURA HILL: We'd like to welcome Matt Kuchar to the interview room. Matt, a big week. You were kind of in a similar position last year with controlling your own destiny coming into the TOUR Championship. Talk about your positioning this week and this year and kind of what you're looking forward to. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, for years my goal has been to make the TOUR Championship, to get in the top 30, and that proved to be a difficult thing, being the 30 best guys on the PGA TOUR is not easy and took me many years to finally qualify. Last year, my first year qualifying, I got the No. 1 seed coming in, and it was a great place to be. I didn't have a great week at East Lake last year, ended up finishing second in the FedExCup. Still all in all a fantastic run. But looking back at the year, I realized that the tournament to win was not necessarily the first of the playoff events, it's the last of the playoff events that you really want to win. It's exciting for me to be back, still in the top 5, still knowing if I win the TOUR Championship I'll win the FedExCup. So exciting to have back-to-back years of being in the position you really want to be in, and that's being in the top 5 and having that opportunity to win that last event. This really is the one you want to play your best in. With 30 guys you've got a much better shot than with 120 guys, so this is a good week to qualify for. Q. The commissioner was in here yesterday talking about how he was pleased with how players have embraced the Playoffs, the FedExCup. Can you kind of rank it in terms of importance? Where would you rank winning the FedExCup as opposed to winning a major or money title or Player of the Year? MATT KUCHAR: I think that's a bad position to be in is trying to rank all that. Looking back, you hope -- in years gone by, looking back, thinking that the Playoffs was something that said you were one of the best of the year. It's a great thing to be able to say, not that you just had one great week, but you have a great year. So I think the Playoffs have become a great event. I think they've kind of gotten a formula that really works. I think there's so many different ways to look at it, and I was in a position last year where being the No. 1 seed, I had won one of the playoff events, I had had a great, very consistent year, I finished second. I realized that the Playoffs in any other sport, if you have an off week, you go home. Even if it's the first week, even if you've been the best team all year and you have a bad opening series, that's it; you're done. So I think what they've done with our Playoffs in golf is kind of a happy medium between giving the guy that's played well all year an advantage and also knowing that this time of year is what they're really putting emphasis on, and so having some movement, having five times the amount of points, so there's a lot of movement, yet there's still some weight towards having a good, consistent year. So I think the overall system is really a good system. Q. What has it been about your game that has clicked these last two years that kind of elevated you to this point being at the TOUR Championship with a chance to win the whole thing? MATT KUCHAR: It's really been small, incremental things getting better. It's funny, if you can improve a half a shot a day, that's two shots a tournament, that's a big deal. I started working with Chris O'Connell in 2006; I went back to the Nationwide in 2006, worked with him, found him in the middle of the year, got better, and every year it has gotten better. Last year I finished No. 1 on the Money List, this year I'm not going to finish No. 1 on the Money List, but I have a chance to win the FedExCup. I feel like my game has steadily improved. One of the goals in the back of my mind this year was to beat my record of top 10s. I could still, I think, tie it this year. I had 11 last year. I wanted to not miss a cut this year, and I ended up having two bad weeks, I played bad at the British Open and the Canadian Open back-to-back missed cuts. All in all, it was another really steady, really good year and Chris has played a large part in making me a more consistent, better golfer. All we've talked about lately -- you know, we try to eliminate the need for timing. We try to eliminate as much club face rotation through impact and just really take away that need to kind of find it and be able to play good week in and week out, and I've felt like I've accomplished that. Q. I haven't memorized your scenarios sheet, but I think there's one where you can win $10 million without winning this tournament. Just wondering what your thoughts are on that, and if you happen to achieve that strange feat whether you can take the heat? MATT KUCHAR: It would be a strange feat. It would be, certainly would be a fun one to talk about, read your articles and listen to the radio shows, and yeah, take that $10 million right to the Royal Bank of Canada. Q. Shameless plug. MATT KUCHAR: (Laughing). That is interesting. I hope that's not the way it works out. I think the way Jim Furyk did it last year, winning the TOUR Championship, winning the whole thing, that's the way to do it. I'd like to do it that way. If it works out that I don't win and I still win the FedExCup, that will be a fun topic to try to figure out how to prove myself or prove that being worthy. Q. The fact that we've had Tiger twice and Vijay and Jim, not so much because of their names but what they did, that it almost validates the system? MATT KUCHAR: I always think -- when I watch a tournament and see really good names at the top of the leaderboard, I think it validates the course. I think it shows that this is a course that shows that the best players coming through and playing the best. I always find it a little bit weird when you have a tournament with all the big names but none of the big names at the top of the leaderboard, a bunch of guys who we know but people at home would not know. I think the system, like you said earlier, has been validated because it's had the biggest names in golf as its champions. Q. How does it feel to be in the top 5? MATT KUCHAR: It's exciting. To be in the top 5, to have a chance to win $10 million, it's a crazy amount of money. It's really fun to be able to be in that position, to control your destiny, to be able to win this tournament and win the FedExCup. It makes me a little more proud of the consistency I've kind of been able to uphold for the last two years, to be a guy who's back-to-back years been in the top 5 and had a chance to do that. I'm amazed at Jim Furyk. I think he was one of the most consistent players in the game of golf, to not be here, it shows you how tough this game is and how tough it is just to make the top 30. But to repeat in the top 5, I'm really happy about that. Q. What did you learn in your experience last year here at the TOUR Championship that you can bring in here this year, but you do still control your own destiny? MATT KUCHAR: My wife has made me limit the off-course activities, getting together with friends, dinners, those sort of things, which has been tough to say no to the friends, texting saying if you have an open night, love to catch up for dinner. So many of those I've gone ahead and said this year we're going to try to stay a lot more quiet. Last year was a busy week for us, just catching up with so many friends. And I love Atlanta, I love being here, I've got so many great friends here. But my wife said, you really owe it to yourself to make this as much of a regular tournament as you can and to not just feel like you're entertaining all week. So I'm trying to limit it a bit, and it's been hard. But I think after tonight -- we're going to the commissioner's dinner tonight and then going to stay pretty quiet for the rest of the week. Q. What strategy or skill do you think that you'll have to win this tournament? MATT KUCHAR: Strategy or skill? That's a good question. I think this golf course is a fantastic golf course and it tests all parts of a golfer's game. I think that you've got to drive the ball well. This Bermuda rough is difficult to play out of, and on these greens, they're so fast that you want to be below the hole. You want to have uphill putts. They're so fast putting downhill that it's hard to get the speed right, it's hard to just lag it up close that it puts a premium on being in the fairway because you can control the distance, because you can control how far you hit the ball and hopefully leave yourself uphill putts. When you're coming out of the rough, not driving it in the fairway and hitting your approach shots from the rough, it's hard to control your distances, and a lot of times those balls will go too far and go over the green, and those are just bad places to be. A guy needs to drive the ball well and position his approach shots where he's hopefully putting uphill most of the time. Q. Did it or how much did last year sting, and how much do you use that motivation coming into this year? MATT KUCHAR: It was something where I knew I could improve. Last year at the end of the year, I looked at it and said, I won the Money List, I won the stroke average, now you could always say I could learn more money and shoot lower scores and beat both of those numbers, but I did finish No. 2 on the FedExCup and knew that I could actually move up a spot higher in the FedExCup. So that was definitely in the back of my mind, was a goal. It's something that I said I know I can accomplish. I know I can improve in that category. I don't think it stings. Jim Furyk had a fantastic year. He won the TOUR Championship and was a deserving winner of the FedExCup. That doesn't sting. I didn't three-putt the last hole to lose the tournament and the FedExCup. Jim Furyk won. So I think I did have some motivation, and that was a category that I knew I could improve upon, and I'm excited to have a chance. It kind of seems like a long shot to try to be the FedExCup winner, but I'm here at the TOUR Championship in the top 5 and have a legitimate shot, so it's pretty exciting to be in this position. Q. On the 18th, do you think it's harder to make a 2 or a 5? MATT KUCHAR: It's got to be harder to make a 5. I think 18 is an interesting finishing hole. I just think you're probably not going to see many 2s. It's fun when I think you have a finishing hole and you can make a birdie, make a bogey, where stuff can happen. It seems like it's pretty much you see pars and bogeys on the last hole. You don't see many 2s and you would see, I think, even less 5s. Q. There's been some discussion about should you flip the nines and finish on a maybe reachable par-5. Has the par-3 become kind of a -- MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, it becomes signature. It's gotten so talked about, and it's a hard hole. The distance is somewhere around 220 yards, and that's -- you don't make a lot of birdies. You don't go flag hunting from 220 yards. You look to hit the middle of the green, and if you miss it, you hope you miss it with some green to work with and a chance to get up-and-down. It's kind of become a signature hole, and I guess a birdie there would certainly look pretty cool. To finish with a 2 there is kind of a heroic effort. Q. Luke Donald was in here yesterday talking about when he voted for Player of the Year. Do you look at consistency over the course of an entire season? Do you look at guys who had one or two big weeks at the major championships? What would you weigh more importantly? MATT KUCHAR: Right now I think I'd have to pick Luke Donald, and I don't know what I'd weigh more importantly. It's somewhat of a -- there doesn't appear to be a clear hands-down, Tiger Woods won two majors type of year and then five other tournaments. There's no clear -- there's no doubt about it. Keegan Bradley, having won the PGA and having won another tournament, as well, has thrown his hat in that conversation. But I think Luke Donald being so consistent and taking over the No. 1 spot in the world and retaining it, proving that he's been the best player in the world. He plays steady every week and seems to have a chance, won the Match Play and won in Europe a couple times. I know that doesn't affect our voting on the PGA, but it kind of in my mind gives him a little more -- solidifies that position a little more in that he's a great player, and winning abroad still registers in my mind as being an important thing. Q. When you talk about cutting back on the entertaining, I'm just curious how much you were entertaining last year, and was that just kind of a first-year -- I don't want to call it mistake, but bad planning? MATT KUCHAR: I don't know if it really affected my game or not. I didn't have my best week here last year. I hope that entertaining doesn't affect my game. I think that being able to still be friendly off the course is something that I think I can handle. However, you're trying to win this week and trying to put myself in the best position to win this week. You get so used to your routine week in and week out on TOUR, and right now mine is with two little kids and it's not really the most exciting of routines. The kids eat at 6:30, we shower them, we bathe them, they're in bed at 7:30 and we're not long behind. We watch TV until 9:30 or 10:00 and then we go to bed. We get a couple hours of quiet time. It's simple, it's nice, but we enjoy it. It's what we do. We're really trying to stick more to that routine and what we're used to. I also think you've got to be okay when things aren't normal. As a golfer, you're in so many situations that aren't normal. You have to be able to adjust. On the golf course, you hit it in funny spots and you have to be able to adjust to different circumstances and situations, and I think off the course you should do the same. However, we're trying to control it as much as we can and just make it very normal this week. Q. Do you think your attitude is a little more loose going into this tournament compared to last year, a little more laid back as far as your outlook? MATT KUCHAR: There's an excitement. The level of excitement I would say is the same. I was in a great position, No. 1 position, and maybe had a little more attention, but I feel like the attitude is the same. I feel like there's a lot of great things that can happen this week, and I'm excited. Q. Weren't you also moving or buying furniture or transitioning and living in a hotel or something last year? Weren't there some extraneous variables there? MATT KUCHAR: Good for you. We had just closed, sold our house here in Atlanta and had to -- we had the week off the week before the TOUR Championship last year. So it was three Playoffs in a row, week off, and then TOUR Championship. The people that bought our house wanted to move in, I don't know if it was Monday or Tuesday of TOUR Championship week, so we basically spent the week packing up the house and getting out of our house. The timing wasn't really great, but we felt fortunate to be able to sell our house and felt like we could hire a moving company to pack up boxes and do all that stuff. But as it worked out, we did a lot more work than we were planning on doing, and we ended up moving into a friend's house for the week. I wouldn't tell you that any of that affected my play. I think I adjust pretty well to those situations. I think getting out of the normal going to bed at 7:30 type of thing is not something that I have to do to play well. We had fun. I still got plenty of hours of sleep. You don't tee off until 1:00 here or 12:00 or something, so it's not like you only get five hours of sleep. It's easy to get all the sleep you need. I just was slightly off. This golf course is hard. I think I was playing a little bit more out of the rough than I would like to. The greens are fast, and they're fun to putt, and you could easily -- if you're not playing great, this course can let you know, and I think that's the great attribute of this course. Q. Can you talk about the belly putter and what factored into your decisions to try that for the first time? MATT KUCHAR: I do not anchor it on my belly. I use a longer putter, and it just goes up my left forearm, and I tried it through talking with Dave Stockton. Earlier this year we were out in Palm Springs and I was doing a clinic at a club I stay at kind of during -- I call it my spring training. It's end of December before the TOUR starts and then base myself out of a club called The Vintage in Palm Springs for kind of the West Coast Swing, and the club asked me to help out with a clinic they put on, and they brought in the Stocktons to do the putting version and had me just around to be a part of it. So I hung out some with the Stocktons, talked about putting, and I had some ideas that I felt strongly about with putting. I worked with a guy called Mike Shannon down in Sea Island, and I was trading some ideas what I've learned from Mike Shannon and kind of seeing what their theories were and tried to hit a few putts, and before long I just kind of choked way down on my putter and put the grip up my wrist a little bit and said, if I do that, is that kind of what you guys are talking about, just knowing that if I release the club the putter kind of comes off my wrist and arm? They said, yeah, that would almost be a training aid for you if you stick it up there and keep it there. And I said, that feels really good. I kind of combined the two methods and have a lot of people initially pull me aside, second-guessing me making a change. I feel like I've always been a very good putter. I made a change, and it's actually been great. I feel like it's helped me be a little more consistent, and even though that's one of the things I've prided myself on is being a good putter, being a consistent putter, not having the weeks where you just putt terrible, I feel like you're not going to make all the putts every week, but I feel like I give them chances every week. I've continued on that trend and feel like I'm every bit as consistent, if not even more consistent through doing it. But my thoughts on the belly putter: It seems in theory to be helpful or maybe even more helpful. However, I just don't know that -- I've not spent any time doing it. I don't know how it really works. It seems theoretically like it would make things easier. I look at the other side of the coin, if it really was better, everybody would be doing it, and I don't know what the percentage is now. I know it's gone up a lot in the past year, but it's still a pretty small percentage of guys using the belly putter I would think. Q. What person or role model has really helped you to this point in your life? MATT KUCHAR: Person or role model? Growing up I have such great memories of after school I'd get dropped off at the driving range and I'd hit balls until dad would get off work and come and meet me and play nine holes. Kind of every afternoon after school we'd do that, and that was certainly a really fun way to grow up. I was lucky to grow up at a club that had other professional golfers playing there. It was a club called Heathrow Country Club. Chris DiMarco played out of there, Fulton Allem, Donnie Hammond, had a number of guys on the PGA Tour. So as a kid I'd stand back from afar and watch them and be in awe. And before long I got kind of old enough and good enough that they'd even include me in games that they'd go out and play. And that was just a really neat way to grow up, one, having dad to kind of play every afternoon, and then I got good enough to start playing with PGA TOUR players, and it was fun. And I look back at that experience and hope to be able to do the same with kids at the clubs where I play now and see kids that are driven to be great and kind of include them in playing golf with me and the other guys down in Sea Island. Q. How old were you before you could beat your dad? MATT KUCHAR: I think I was 14 and we were both 8 or 9 handicaps I think is the timing. I seemed to go -- my first handicap I remember I was probably 13 or early in the 14, and got an 18 handicap was my first handicap, and just quickly kind of went through the ranks and got to a 9 handicap where I was the same with dad, and dad stayed a 9, kind of just stalled out there, and I kept going. He's gotten it down to a 5, but we had this kind of whole different learning curves. We basically took to the game about the same time. Mom upgraded our membership. We were just tennis members at the club, and I was 12 when she did that. We tried golf, he played probably once or twice a year was kind of the type of golfer he was, and really kind of took to it at the same time, and our learning curves were vastly different. Q. You already talked about the 18th hole. Talk about the other par-3 on the back nine, the 11th hole. What are your thoughts on that hole in general? MATT KUCHAR: That's another long par-3. It's one where you want to be below the hole. There's not a whole lot of attacking the pin on that one, either. That's got some deep bunkers, short and kind of ugliness left. But if you've got some great to work with, they're not that bad of a place to be. You don't want to be long, don't want to short side yourself on that hole. It's one of those where you'll take the middle of the green four straight days. LAURA HILL: Good luck this week. Thanks for coming in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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