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OMEGA MISSION HILLS WORLD CUPNovember 24, 2011Matt KucharGary WoodlandHAINAN ISLAND, CHINA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar representing the United States, nice round today. You two combined for eight birdies, a round of 64, and birdied all the par 5s. Maybe just get some brief comments from each one of you, starting with you, Gary. GARY WOODLAND: Overall it was a good day. It's pretty easy when you have a partner that puts it in play all the time. It makes it a little easier for me and allows me to hit driver a lot more. I drove it well today and got it in play, and luckily we got some putts to go in. MATT KUCHAR: It was fun having Gary Woodland as a teammate. He played fantastic today. I think it was mostly his show, 1‑down on one hole, I can't remember if we made a bogey, I pulled a drive on I think the 7th hole and we were both in trouble there, so we made a bogey on 7. That was the one kind of low point in the round. Other than that, it was steady, good golf. Had a lot of attempts at birdie. That's what you look for. You look to have two shots at birdie on every hole in these sort of competitions, and we had a lot of that. Gary just played a great round of golf today. Q. Sort of the nature of this golf course and the sort of aggressive format of the day, how important is it to get off to a fast start? MATT KUCHAR: There's a lot of golf left. Alternate‑shot I think is going to be the real tricky format. I think best‑ball, you see a lot of teams clustered together. Australia went out and set a great pace, 11‑ is a fantastic round of golf. But I think you'll see a big group of us at 8‑, 7‑, 6‑ par and clustered in there. I think teams will separate themselves in the alternate‑shot format. GARY WOODLAND: I agree 100 per cent. It's nice to get off to a good start obviously. But like Matt said, alternate‑shot is what it's going to come down to. Everybody can play well in best‑ball, but tomorrow, both guys are going to have to play well. Q. (In Chinese). MATT KUCHAR:  I'll let Gary take this one. (Laughter). Q. Do you find much difference between playing golf back home in the States, and even though it's only a few days in Hainan, do you find it very different playing golf here, competing in the tournament compared to playing a PGA TOUR event back in the States? And do you have any suggestions after the first round of golf about the golf course here, and maybe the fans, everything? MATT KUCHAR: I think the course is fantastic. We certainly find similar courses back home in the States. The difference in this event being a team event, we don't play that many team events in the States. They are mostly individual, stroke‑play. So I think the biggest difference here is having a partner, and it allows you to be a little more aggressive. I think my role is not at aggressive role; it's the steady role, and let Gary be aggressive. But I think that's the biggest difference in this tournament is the format. GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I agree totally. I think the only suggestion is hope the weather stays nice. The golf course is great, and looking like it will be a great event. Q. The U.S. Team won The Presidents Cup last week, but the last time the U.S. Team won the World Cup is 11 years ago. Do you see any reason why it's been so long, the U.S. Team haven't won a World Cup? GARY WOODLAND: I think there's great players all over the world. Obviously this event, you look this week, there's a ton of players in the Top‑50 in the world. I know the U.S. lost in a playoff three years ago, I believe it was, with Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum. But just great players. Hopefully Matt and I can change that this week. Q. Is there a hole today where you guys sort of walked off and said, well, that's a great team effort, maybe sort of scrambled well or maybe you dropped a shot and Gary came in and picked up, was there a hole where you really slapped each other on the back, saying well done. MATT KUCHAR: There was a couple holes that I wasn't in it. I think 17, I hit a poor approach shot, just missed the green to the left and Gary was right there. It was a difficult hole today. Gary ended up hitting it to about a foot and a half. It felt like he bailed me out. That was one of those things where you appreciate when your partner makes birdie when you're looking like you're not going to help him out of the that's a big step. A lot of times, you're happy to walk away par. When you walk away with birdie in a situation like that, it feels like you really gained a shot. Q. That was on 17, was it? MATT KUCHAR: That was on 17, yeah. Q. You have signed up with Steinberg as your agent. MATT KUCHAR: Yes. Q. Based on what kind of decision that you made that you want to hook up with Tiger's agent? MATT KUCHAR: I've just gotten to know Mark recently, and when he left IMG, I wasn't much interested in a super agency. I felt like you could get forgotten about. But when he left for Excel, it sounded like there was a great opportunity to have a boutique agency, but yet a powerhouse group of agents. So I felt like there was some great opportunity there for me. Any time you can have guys with the connections worldwide like a Mark Steinberg through his working with Tiger Woods and other world‑class players, I just felt like there was some great opportunity for me to take advantage of. Q. Were you with IMG, as well? MATT KUCHAR: No. Q. What kind of a decision will you base on to pick your agent? GARY WOODLAND: You know, I've been with Hambric Sports since I got out of school. It's the same deal Matt's talking about. It's a close group; family. They strictly do golf, and it's just a close group. We all room together. There was nine of us playing the British Open and we had a couple houses together. You find somebody you can trust and somebody you want to stay with. I think that's the big deal is trust. Q. So it's a big company? GARY WOODLAND: No. They have got about 25 guys. Q. Do you believe next year's U.S. captain for The Ryder Cup, Davis Love, will be watching this World Cup, and hopefully both of you will be able to represent the U.S. in the upcoming Ryder Cup? Do you know if he's actually watching along? MATT KUCHAR: I hope so. I hope he's watching. I hope we perform well and hopefully he sees some good things in us. And I think a lot of Davis. I think he'll be a great captain for The Ryder Cup, and I know Gary and I would both love to be a part of that team. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Gentlemen, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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