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RBC HERITAGEApril 17, 2014Matt KucharHILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Matt Kuchar to our interview room. Bogey‑free 66 today. We found out a couple of minutes ago, your best round ever in Harbour Town. Under very difficult conditions.  Talk a little bit about the day. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I would not expect to shoot my low round at tournament competition on a day like this. It was blowing early. It was difficult, it was cold and windy. But I've been playing some good golf for a little stretch now, and it was nice to keep it going. I got out there and hit a lot of good shots. Never really found myself in a whole lot of trouble out there. One bit of scrambling I did came on my backside, it was probably the‑‑ maybe the fourth hole, par‑3. I missed the green to the right, to the right pin, but chipped it to five feet and made a par save from five feet. Other than that it was some awfully steady golf. Took advantage of the par‑5s on the front side. And pretty darn pleased to have shot 5‑under this these conditions. JOE CHEMYCZ:  You have played well for this course for every year you've been here. You missed the cut the first year, but every year you made solid finishes. MATT KUCHAR: It's always been one of my favorites. I think most players think that this is a great golf course. It's unique, it's different, we don't see a whole lot. We really have to shape your ball around the golf course, position yourself in the right spots. I think it's just one of the better designed courses I've played. When I look at golf course architecture and design this one stands out as being really fantastic layout and fun to play. It's one I look forward to every year. Q. Davis has told us for years when he plays well here that he gears his game up for the Masters, so when he comes here it just kind of flows, too. Is that sort of a similar approach you have, you give yourself up for the Masters and the good vibes just keep going the week after? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I think I try to start peaking for Major championships. I like to see if I can't play well every week. Certainly you're so tested at the Masters, and you have to be so precise around Major Championship golf that I think a lot of times guys next week they're a little more alert, a little more sharp because of the precision required at Major championships. So guys, I think, you're going to see a lot of guys if they're not maybe too run down from a Major championship come out and play some pretty good golf the week following. Q. A couple different questions: What is the challenge of coming off a week like that, where it is the intensity, pressure? And then coming into a week like this? MATT KUCHAR: I think there's sometimes some mental fatigue that happens, but for me getting a chance to tee it up on a PGA TOUR event is exciting. You have a couple of days to unwind after a Major, and then Thursday starts and then you've got a chance to play another PGA TOUR event. Not just a PGA TOUR event but the RBC Heritage classic at Harbour Town. It's a fantastic venue, fantastic tournament. It's pretty easy to get excited for this. Q. What's the biggest thing you took out of last week? MATT KUCHAR: Awfully excited to have a chance late on Sunday, to be there in the hunt. Golf is different late on Sunday. It is. And I think the more taste you can have at it, the better you end up doing. I would say from last week I think just building some comfort in those situations. Q. You've obviously played well the last few weeks, but is there anything you can pinpoint for the final days that kind of gets you over the top? MATT KUCHAR: The final days I played some decent golf. Houston I thought I played nice. I shot even par in some tough conditions. San Antonio really tough conditions. Augusta National on Sunday, played some good golf. I bogeyed 17 and 18, which was a bit of a letdown to shoot 2‑over, but not at all disappointed with the performance. I'd like to shoot some better numbers, but I certainly am not going to try to change anything as to how I approach it Sunday. I feel like it's just a matter of getting more and more comfortable and playing some better golf. I feel like my game's ready. I've played some great golf on Sunday in some big events. I don't see any issue there. Just play some okay golf and I'd just like a few more chances at it. Q. You talked about the difficult conditions. Specifically what was the wind like out at 16, 17 and 18? And do you feel, hey, a 66 now, boy, that's like ten shots better than maybe what some of these guys coming out this afternoon are going to face? MATT KUCHAR: There's no telling. I haven't seen the forecast. I don't know if the wind‑‑ I felt like the wind out there today was anywhere 15, 20 miles an hour most of the day. I don't know if the wind is going to get to 25 or 30. I kind of see it similar, 15 to 20 most of the afternoon. I don't see a whole big difference in conditions. It was cold and tough this morning. I don't know if it's going to be a whole lot tougher this afternoon. I think when we look ahead the next couple of days, I hope this isn't the best day. It certainly looks like it's one of the better days the remainder of the week. So I know we're in for some more tough conditions as the week progresses. Q. Would you talk about the overallweek at Sea Pines, the whole ambience of staying here. MATT KUCHAR: Did you say the Wednesday at Sea Pines? Q. No, here for the whole week at Sea Pines. Just the experience with your family. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, we love it. We have some good friends of ours from Atlanta have a home out towards South Beach. So we stay with them, really enjoy spending the week with them. They've got a great home. We just feel like it's a home away from home for us. The kids come and play on the beach, play in the pool. It's a nice, relaxed lifestyle. It reminds us of where we live at Sea Island, just a very family friendly‑‑ to see families riding bikes. You see all families doing a bunch of activities together.  And we find ourselves doing sort of similar things, a lot of family activities together while we're here. Q. What's the best shot you hit today? Can you walk through your birdies. MATT KUCHAR: One of the toughest ones came out good, a missed green, but I hit a drive into a stiff wind on 18 and had 204 yards to the front of the green. I hit my hybrid as good as I could. It landed just into the face of the bunker and rolled back down. It was one of those things. 18 was playing really, really hard. I couldn't imagine trying to hit 3‑wood in there, but it nearly was a 3‑wood in for me. To make par on 18 was a great score. That's certainly not a highlight of a birdie. Nothing real spectacular. I can't remember my first nine, where my birdies came. 15 I hit a 9‑iron approach. It was only about 128 to the pin but into enough wind. It's pretty much a two‑club wind that I hit a 9‑iron up there to ten feet. Ernie Els' putt was on a similar line. So I got a good read off Ernie. 13, the cool little hole with almost the island green. I hit a 3‑wood that was kind of down the middle of the fairway, but just enough hedge around the trees that I had to play a little bit out towards the right. Hit it to the middle of the green and had a 20‑footer straight down the hill. It was fun to see it go in. It was straight downhill, down green, so just kind of rolled for a long time. It was nice speed. Those are my two birdies on the front. The two par‑5s on the back were just standard birdies. Actually I had a chip‑out on 2. Just barely drove it in the bunker, wedged out, hit a wedge to 12 feet and made it. And then 5, the other par‑5 was a nice drive and a 3‑wood, still had 45 yards to the hole, hit a wedge to five feet. And then 9, hit a nice drive. Played aggressive because the pin was back right on nine, which I thought was a really good play, but Ernie, myself and Hunter Mahan all hit drivers all in really good conditions. I had a fantastic wedge shot and it barely stayed on the green. We were all about 50 yards away. And I had 12 feet left and I hit the best shot of the group. It was a harder little wedge shot than I anticipated. So I had 12 feet and made that. Q. Length so often gets confused with difficulty on Tour. When you get a little wind, how much better does Harbour Town hold its own with some of the bigger courses? MATT KUCHAR: I think it holds its own with or without wind. I think it's a fantastic test of golf. I think it can be played with driver or with irons. It can just be played so many different ways. And I think nine is a fantastic example. You certainly are welcome to hit driver, trying to be aggressive. I think you see guys hit anything from a 4‑iron all the way up to a driver and in between. There's so many different ways to play the hole. It gives you a lot of options. You've got to be precise, regardless if you're hitting a 4‑iron or a driver. I've made bogey both ways, hitting driver off the tee and trying to be conservative. JOE CHEMYCZ:  Thank you. Play well the rest of the week. MATT KUCHAR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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