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SONY OPEN IN HAWAIIJanuary 9, 2014Chris KirkHONOLULU, HAWAII Q. What a nice start for you here at Waialae. Obviously ending with an eagle is big. CHRIS KIRK: Thanks, yeah, the second half of my round was pretty nice, being 2‑over through 7 and then played the last 11, 8‑under to finish 6 was pretty nice. Q. You got to play with Sang Moon Bae. Were you doing a little drafting off each other out there? CHRIS KIRK: Not at first. He was off to a great start. At one point he was, I think, 4‑ or 5‑under and I was still 2‑over. It took some catching up for me on the back nine. But it's always nice to see putts falling and give you a good feel for it. Q. You played well in this tournament last year. What is it about this golf course that you tend to enjoy or makes you score well? CHRIS KIRK: I think it's a good right to left players' course. I think here and Colonial are kind of two of my favorites of the year. You kind of have to play the ball on the ground a little bit, get firm and fast greens and small greens, so you've got to have a good short game, too. I think all those kind of things together plays into my hands a little bit. Q. You caught the golf course in the morning without much wind, too? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, absolutely. Obviously the holes I was making bogeys on was when it was really calm and nice, but yeah, it's still not blowing very much, and I'm not sure what it's forecast to blow this afternoon. It looks like it's not going to blow a lot this afternoon, either, so you'll probably see pretty good scores throughout the day. Q. I think you had your career low round here last year. Just talk about Waialae and how it sets up for your game. CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, both of the par‑5s are obviously very reachable for me, and so that's a couple good opportunities. I feel like I'm a pretty decent wind player and usually tend to putt pretty well on Bermuda greens. I've spent a lot of time in Georgia putting on Bermuda greens. I feel like I read these greens reasonably well. They're kind of tricky, so a few tricked me early on today, but that's a big part of it out here, being able to read the greens properly. Q. Going back to last year, did that round kind of catapult you for the rest of the season? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, definitely so. I mean, I had a reasonably decent year the year before, but definitely not my best year that I've had. I worked a lot on my game in that off‑season, I know, and then to come here and get rewarded for it the first week out was great. Yeah, had a really solid year all year last year, and I'm hoping I can do the same this year. Q. You're coming from Maui last week? CHRIS KIRK: Uh‑huh. Q. It's a big transition coming from that course to this course. CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, they're both great golf courses, kind of polar opposite, that one having so much slope and big elevation changes, and I think I traditionally have played better on sort of flatter, old‑school type of courses like this one. I'm not really sure why. They tend to suit my game a little bit better. So it's nice to have a little easier course to walk, too. Q. You talked about turning around your round at 8 and 9. Can you describe those holes? CHRIS KIRK: I hit a really good tee shot on 8, which is a tough driving hole for me with the dogleg right to left with a left‑to‑right wind I think is a tough driving hole for everybody, so hit a really good tee shot there and hit a good iron shot in there to about a foot, which was nice. Got out of position a little bit on 9, had to lay up, made a really nice about a 12‑foot putt for birdie there, and then about a eight‑footer par save on 10 after I made those two birdies in a row, and then the good par save on 10, I was kind of rolling from there. Q. That helps the confidence? CHRIS KIRK: Yeah, absolutely. I hit it to about four feet on 11, hit it to about three feet on 12, and made a couple of good shots into 15 and 16 inside of 10 feet, and then obviously to finish it off with an eagle on 18, especially coming out of that fairway bunker, was pretty sweet way to finish. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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