FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 29, 2002

Matt Kuchar

Q. You were on fire at the end. What happened?

MATT KUCHAR: Oh, I don't know what happened. I made four straight birdies coming in. That was a great way to finish. It's the nature of the game. I was talking to my caddie as we were coming up 18 that staying patient is important. If it doesn't happen early, you don't just let it bother you. You never know when birdies are going to fall. And I did a pretty good job of that. Did a lot of scrambling for pars. Kind of waited and waited and waited, and then finally I came through with four birdies at the end.

Q. These scores are so low, what do you have to do tomorrow to catch up?

MATT KUCHAR: Probably go so, so low tomorrow. I don't know. I'm just going to go out tomorrow and try to put it in the first fairway and go from there. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be a little more early, hopefully. If you can get a few birdies early, you have a little more confidence going and it will feed through the rest of the day.

Q. With this heat it's hard to keep that stamina up and whether you get later on in the round you kind of lose a little bit. But you picked it up with the four birdies in the row. How did you keep your cool in this heat?

MATT KUCHAR: I'm a young kid. 24. If I get tired out here, something's wrong with me. It's really not that bad. I grew up in Central Florida and this feels like home to me.

Q. You said you stayed patient, but when you got to 15 you probably took a peak at the board and knew you were going to have to put some birdies on the board today before you get back for round four tomorrow. So was there a little bit of pressure to score those last four holes?

MATT KUCHAR: Well I don't think you have to determine how you play according to how others play. So regardless of what you see on the board, you don't let somebody else's play affect what you do. You just play the best shot that you can play on each occasion.

Q. Will it affect your mentality to step up on the first tee tomorrow knowing that the leader is at 18-under?

MATT KUCHAR: I don't think. I think we go out and you have your game plan and you stick to the game plan. Now if it gets to the last three or four holes and you're in contention, then you may pay attention to what somebody else is doing. But for the moment I'm not playing the leader, I'm playing the golf course. And it doesn't really matter until you get to those last couple holes how you play, according to how another guy is playing.

Q. Give me a sort of a game plan tomorrow on how you're going to approach things. Are you satisfied with how things are going so far?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I'm pretty happy with today's finish. To birdie the last four holes today. Just to prove to myself that I was able to stay patient. That I was able to follow a pretty good game plan out there.

Q. Staying patient, was that the main part of that game plan?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, initially, the first couple holes I wanted to just feel my game out. See how I was doing on those first couple holes. Play smart, make some pars, play for the middle of the greens. And I knew early that I wasn't quite on today. I kept playing for middle of the greens for the most part. When I had some shorter irons in my hand, on 15 I was able to go ahead and go at that pin.

16, I was able to be just short of the green in two and got up-and-down. So when you make back to back birdies you get a little more confidence about your game. And I hit some good shots on 15 and 16.

Q. That was some pretty solid birdies on 17 and 18.

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, yeah, I was pretty happy with that.

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