THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 9, 2002

Matt Kuchar

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome Matt Kuchar, who shot a third round 66 and is tied for third, 13-under, in the tournament.

You're one of the few people who finished a round today. If you could just talk a little bit about your day.

MATT KUCHAR: The day was good. I've been playing well this week. So, it was nice.

I just came off a two-week -- had a vacation from. Tour, which was good for me. I spent six weeks out west, and then to have two weeks to kind of regroup and kind of get focused again helped out. I came out here in pretty good form. Coming out to Florida is nice, putting on bermuda greens, it feels like home again.

Today's round, I think I shot 6-under with eight birdies, two bogeys, and it was pretty much -- not simple golf, but I didn't make any mistakes today. I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens and I'm putting well. That really helps out here.

I think guys are going to shoot well when the wind is not blowing like it is and the greens are putting so well; that it really. It's nice to putt on these greens.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: There's something like 40 players within four shots of the lead. Does that change your game plan at all?

MATT KUCHAR: No, I'm not thinking too much about the lead or the tournament. I'm just really excited to be done with the round tonight so I don't have to come out tomorrow morning.

I think maybe tomorrow -- I don't really pay too much attention to what the leaders are doing. I'll probably leave that until the last couple of holes. I'll just go out and try to play golf tomorrow.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions?

Q. You can from the eighth green to the ninth?

MATT KUCHAR: I think it was fate. The eighth hole is a par 3, and I teed off first, hit it in the right green-side bunker. Chris Riley follows me by putting it in the left green-side bunker and then Jeff Gove hits it on the green. Riley holes out. I hole out on top of him, and then we each leave Jeff on the green, go to the next tee. Jeff putts out, we each tee off. Jeff tees off and the buzzer sounds. I mean, it was -- it was one of those where you're looking at the sun, you're looking at the clock on like the seventh hole and thinking, "there's no way."

As fate normally has it, you're going to get stuck like walking to the ninth tee and the horn is going to go. But we hole out, and had we not probably both holed out, we probably would not have made it.

Q. Did he make the birdie putt?

MATT KUCHAR: No, he 2-putted. I think it was close. We couldn't see. We just heard from the gallery that it sounded like it went near the hole.

Q. How many holes did you play? You didn't play this morning, did you?

MATT KUCHAR: No. I hit two shots Thursday and so basically played 36 holes on Friday.

Q. The stop/start and things like that, when you play a 36-hole final in the Amateur, there's really nothing else that you can get thrown at or into that will be any more difficult than that, will there?

MATT KUCHAR: This was reminiscent to college golf. I'm glad things have changed a bit in college golf. We used to play 36-18. I remember we would leave like on a Saturday night, arrive to a tournament Saturday night, play a practice round Sunday morning, play 36 Monday, 18 Tuesday. You'd rush to the airport so you'd catch a flight home so could you go to Wednesday morning classes. It's similar to that this tournament. Everything is such a rush. You're really not sure.

And for me playing 36 holes, I can't remember being as tired. And I thought I was in pretty good shape. But 36 holes of golf, it wore me out on yesterday's round.

Q. How much of a disadvantage will it be for a guys who have to finish tomorrow, wait, and then go back out?

MATT KUCHAR: I would not want to do that. That's one thing, I was really glad not to have to get out here at 6:30, warm-up, ball in play at 7:30. And then for me, I obviously it would be one hole and then probably wait four hours, three hours for the tee time. That's not a lot of the fun. But if you're staying here, the hotel is right at the course, you can probably go home, go back to your room and catch about two hours of sleep, which is nice, or catch eight SportsCenters.

That's not a pleasant thing to do, but it's a Sunday of a tournament, of a PGA TOUR event; so you're going to be pretty up for it.

Q. Now that you're hear numbers like 40 guys within a four-shot lead, is that surprising or not surprising that everybody has scored as well as they did today?

MATT KUCHAR: That's a lot. If there are 40 guys within four shots of the lead, that's a tremendous amount. I think within more shots -- the winner tomorrow may be outside of four shots.

So everybody's pretty much in contention. It's not like last week where somebody just really pulls away. This has been the case most of the year where there are a lot of people that have a chance on Sunday.

Q. Plenty of first-time winners. Another shot at that tomorrow?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I've love another 66. I would take a 66 tomorrow in a heartbeat.

Q. Think that will be good enough?

MATT KUCHAR: I don't know. I don't know what the scores are. I doubt it. It will probably take a few more, especially if the weather is like it was today. It was a calm day and the greens are putting so well. I mean, the course is there to be had, with this kind of conditions.

Q. If you're one back now, and things don't change, where would you expect to be when the round starts tomorrow?

MATT KUCHAR: I wouldn't be surprised if I was four back when the round starts tomorrow.

Q. Did you work with Rick before the tournament?

MATT KUCHAR: We did. And the great thing was, was we didn't do a thing. He came out and he did some videotape, watched me play nine holes and it was -- it's nice when he doesn't do a thing.

I was playing well. I think it's also the sign of a good instructor; that knows when it's going well, there's really no need to fix it. Don't fix it if it's not broke type of thing.

I was hitting it well, and it makes you feel good when he says, "You know, there's nothing we need to do. This looks great. We are going to save these for times that you are not swinging so well. We'll look back at these swings."

Q. How were you feeling coming off the West Coast, emotionally ?

MATT KUCHAR: I found I needed a different strategy approaching tournaments. When they get that many in a row, because I was playing Monday, Tuesday, and half the Wednesday Pro-Ams I was playing. And for five tournaments, I did that.

Then, of course, Thursday through Sunday, I missed one cut; so I had one free weekend. I really, at the end, got worn out. And at the beginning of the week, I was feeling good, but every time towards the end, Saturdays and Sundays, I seemed to play very poorly at the end of my West Coast stretch.

I realized that I either need to cut up my tournaments a little bit more or figure out a way to approach Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday differently. And I think a Monday off for me is probably an appropriate thing, and I'm not sure exactly how I'll treat the rest of the round.

But I remember playing like U.S. Opens and Masters as a kid, of course, I wasn't playing four weeks straight prior, but I'd play Monday, Tuesday and play like nine holes Wednesday, and I left that to leave myself a little extra energy for the rest of the week.

So I'm still sorting things out for exactly what I need to do on long stretches. It's hard. I was trying to plan out kind of the remainder of my year, and I want to play every week. I mean, every week is an exciting tournament for me. The PGA events, there are tournaments I haven't played; so I don't know if the course suits me well or if it doesn't suit me well. So I am excited to try them ball but I know to play my best, I need some time off. So kind of structuring that is going to be a task for me.

Q. What did you do this week? Did you take Monday, Tuesday off this week to chill out?

MATT KUCHAR: No. But I had the previous two weeks off. So I came in here pretty excited, pretty fresh.

Q. What do you know about Casey and Donald?

MATT KUCHAR: Paul Casey and Luke Donald? Paul Casey hits it a long way and he can make a lot of birdies. I haven't played with him in a while. It's been since college that we've played, but I know he hits it well and he has the ability to go low.

Luke Donald is one of those guys who, I mean, in college, I'd count on him shooting 68 or 67 every day. He was probably the most solid collegiate golf player there was. I've played with him a good bit out here, and he's the same Luke Donald. I think, you know out here, and he's a great putter, so out here he has the ability to go low. But I think you can count on him to be 68 almost every day.

Q. Did you second-guess yourself at all on 14, or did you make so many birdies after that that it didn't really matter?

MATT KUCHAR: Going for the green in two?

Q. And having the shot you had.

MATT KUCHAR: No, that was early in my round. I mean, I started on 10, so 14 was five holes into it. I just got a bad break. I didn't really know that was there. I had never gone for that green and the wind was always a bit different than it was today. I decided to try it and go ahead and get it close.

And I pulled it just barely off the fairway and it was stymied behind one of those pampas grasses.

Q. Did you have any thought of going directly at the green or was it impossible?

MATT KUCHAR: That was impossible. I was two inches from the back of that bush. I was pretty pleased with the shot that I made.

Q. Just the next shot wasn't so --

MATT KUCHAR: The next shot was poor. That one I would have used a different club. It wasn't the best of lies. I would have hit that shot differently, had I had another chance.

Q. For some reason he you felt like you needed to play that one in the air?

MATT KUCHAR: I always chip with my L-wedge. I can hit it low and I can kind of do a lot of things with it. I can hit it like it's a 9-iron. And I feel comfortable doing it. However, that lie, I pulled the wrong club that time.

Q. Johnny Miller gave you some heck for that.

MATT KUCHAR: I'm sure. Johnny Miller gives heck for a lot less. (Laughs.)

Q. He got up there and said, "Well, that was an unforced error."

MATT KUCHAR: It was. I should have gotten up-and-down. I figured from there, I can make a pretty easy par and did not. It happens.

Q. Reflecting back on, you had an opportunity to leave school early; a lot of guys would not necessarily make the same decision today. How comfortable are you with the decision you made? And even today after experiencing the PGA TOUR for a couple of years now, do you feel comfortable with that decision and it was the right decision?

MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, absolutely. Especially now that things are going great. I'm really happy with the way everything has turned out. There are still times where I miss college. I mean, I think all of us miss those days. Those were great times in everybody's life. I don't know who had a poor college experience. I think there's one in a thousand who has a poor college experience.

Those were fun times for me. I still keep in very close touch with my college friends. I have a roommate who was my roommate in college to this point. We always wish we could continue that life and live that life forever.

So my decision, I'm extremely happy with my decision.

Q. Eighth hole, you're rushing to try to get in, make it to the ninth hole and tee off, and Riley makes the sandshot. Are you trying to make that shot?

MATT KUCHAR: I was. That was a shot that was, I would say, I was really looking forward to hitting. Also, to put it on top of Riley would have been very cool. Riley has kind of been a friend of mine, and to kind of have a little showmanship and put one right on top of him would have been neat.

And it was -- it was, for me, a fairly simple bunker shot. Riley had a much more difficult bunker shot than I did. It was one, my caddy even mentioned, to make this bunker shot prior to me getting in there. And I was really thinking about making it, and for it to go in as it did right on top of Riley's was a lot of fun.

Q. How many people were out there?

MATT KUCHAR: There were 30 people out there.

Q. How long was the shot, the bunker shots for both?

MATT KUCHAR: Riley's, he was probably 40 to 50 feet away, and mine was only 20 feet away probably.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

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