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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 15, 2012Matt KucharSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Q. Both Jim and Graeme McDowell before him were just talking about how much you really have to respect par on this setup. Can you comment on that? MATT KUCHAR: Par is a great score for sure. You have to hit it well just to have a good chance at a par. If you're not hitting it well, you are hoping to make par, but it's even surviving just to make bogey sometimes. You really got to be driving it well, accurate with the irons, the greens as firm as they are, hard to make birdies. It's just a difficult setup to make birdies. With as firm as these greens are and as tough as the conditions are. Q. Is that as a U.S. Open should be? MATT KUCHAR: I'm okay. I'm not the USGA. I'm not setting it up, I don't know what a U.S. Open should be. I'm okay that Rory McIlroy had a great round, a great week last week and went several under par, when par's a good score it's fun as well. Q. Jim Furyk just being through here you think of him as a great U.S. Open player. What are players that you think of when you think of the U.S. Open and what are the biggest ingredients you think to success? MATT KUCHAR: Tiger Woods seems to have done pretty well in U.S. Opens. I don't know. It seems like he and Jack Nicklaus are the guys that hit it long and hit it high and I think you need a couple of those characteristics just to be able to take advantage out of the rough. If you want to take advantage of really firm greens. A guy likely Lee Trevino probably would not have faired as well at the Masters or U.S. Open. Probably would fair well a lot of other places. But guys that have that power and can hit it really high. Rory McIlroy was great last year. Q. There seems to be bigger scores for the younger stars. Is that a mentality thing? MATT KUCHAR: I haven't seen, I think maybe it's just a facet of that it's U.S. Open golf. I think that you, it's so different that you're not always going to get the best guys up on top of the leaderboard. It's so difficult that I think sometimes you get guys that you are not used to hearing about. You don't always get the best of the best in the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Open. Q. After the first six holes was there a sigh of relief? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I got off to a bad start, I was 3‑over through three. And then kind of glad to finish that way. So after you get through 6, I don't know if you ever get a relief, I think that out here you finish the 6th hole, you got a chance for birdie on 7. But even that can go wrong for you pretty quickly in every hole. It is pretty easy for things to go wrong. So I don't see much of a relief, I know the first six are tough, but they continue to be tough out there. Q. What happened on the first three that were you 3‑over after three? MATT KUCHAR: Drove it through the fairway into the woods on No. 1 and then had to take an unplayable. And that was just a double bogey there. I was kind of hoping to maybe salvage a bogey, but the best I could have done was bogey there. And 3 is a tough par‑3, just actually made a good up‑and‑down for bogey on 3. So that might actually have been a kick start, the up‑and‑down for bogey was a good save. Q. Graeme and Jim both had birdies in the same group on that hole and the crowd was kind of shocked to see two birdies out of one group? MATT KUCHAR: Pretty impressive on that hole. They have done a nice job with giving you a run up there. I think that we have seen courses and setups in the past where the greens are that firm for a front pin and there's nowhere to land it and it's nice there was at least a little run up area there to land it. Q. I know it was 14 years ago, but in what ways is the course different now? MATT KUCHAR: I see it just much if firmer than I remember. This course the ball is running a lot in the fairways, the fairways are firm and the greens are just really firm. Q. You get that early hole and you know there's not a lot of birdie holes coming. How tough is it to fight and stick around? MATT KUCHAR: I think I have that mentality that I realize that those are going to happen. You try to limit those but those are bound to happen and even playing practice rounds, a key here was to not let those things get the best of you. That you're going to have streaks of bogeys, you're going to have a couple bogeys in a row, you're going to have a double bogey, a triple bogey even and just understand that that's going to happen and that's going to happen to other guys too. It's just pretty impossible to go around this place without making some sort of mistake and a big number. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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