LIV GOLF ANDALUCIA

June 30, 2023

Jason Kokrak

Real Club Valderrama

Smash GC

Quick Quotes

Q. Talk about how D.C. ended and how it feels to be sitting where you are now, where you were at that final day.

JASON KOKRAK: That was just a miscommunication. I take some of the blame there, too. But it is what it is. I haven't withdrawn from a tournament I think since my second year on the PGA TOUR. I think I remember the tournament, it was Torrey Pines that I pinched a nerve in my back. It was like, I can't even move or I'm going to do more damage. It was one of those things, I couldn't drive into my left side, and I said, there's no way I can help the team today.

I had forgotten about D.C. D.C. is well and over with a month ago, no animosity, no nothing, so I'm moving forward with my team and ready to play the rest of this week.

Q. How do you feel about this course the rest of the weekend?

JASON KOKRAK: I think this golf course, I don't think the wind is going to blow as hard as it did today, so I think I saw a little bit of fire, a little bit of baked-out spots late in the round. I think you've got to be careful with some of the front pins, spinning it off of the greens, off those false fronts.

I think you just be careful with the spin, be aggressive where you can, and then these greens are small; you hit it in the middle of the green, you're not going to have more than 20, 25 feet.

Q. Can I get a few details of the last few days?

JASON KOKRAK: About what?

Q. About your luggage, about your clubs --

JASON KOKRAK: Yeah, sure. That's fine.

Q. Can you take me through when you got here and you realized you didn't have anything?

JASON KOKRAK: Well, I have Air Tags in my bag, so I knew flying over here, my luggage -- I thought my Air Tags were broken first of all because my luggage hadn't moved in over a day from Detroit. I actually left Monday. I had a United flight from Cleveland to Newark and then direct to Málaga from Newark, and I was like, all right, this will be easy. Canceled flights, and then I went to the next day, said all right, let's go through Detroit because that'll be easier. I was supposed to go Cleveland-Detroit, Detroit-Paris, Paris-here, and every connection I barely missed my connector. Just people not showing up for work, driving the jet bridge. It's unfathomable. I understand you have certain situations, but every single time. I don't get it. I think the airlines are at a point where they're basically banking on the plane flying faster to make up time for stupidity almost.

Yeah, I went from Cleveland to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Málaga, and then I didn't get to the house until 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Got to bed, woke up. I was actually on my way with my agent and my swing coach to go buy some clubs at a local store about 20 minutes away. I had irons ready. I had a putter. I had all the stuff ready. I was going to come here and the guys were going to re-shaft some of the stuff and try to dial it in for me, and I finally got my Air Tags to update, and they had moved over to Paris, and then actually I went to lunch and then we got a call at lunch that Matt Wolff's caddie's girlfriend was flying in and just happened to be on the same flight as my clubs and saw them on the luggage rack, and she called Nick, who's Matt Wolff's caddie. She was like, What do I do, and he was like, take them. Take them with you. Somebody picked her up from the airport, and that's how I got my bags. If not, I probably would have gotten my bags maybe this morning.

Kind of a crazy situation.

But I left home striking it nice, playing well, and really pleased with the clubs I have in my bag. I was confident when I got my clubs as long as they weren't broken or bent. I had a really good range session last night with Drew Steckel. I slept good last night, came out early this morning and walked the back nine and worked with my physio, Mark, and did about an hour and a half warmup instead of an hour warmup like I normally do, and I hit the ground running.

Q. So Thursday was when you got your clubs?

JASON KOKRAK: Yeah, Thursday at 5:00.

Q. So you're playing this course blind essentially --

JASON KOKRAK: I mean, I walked it. You don't see shots the same way as when you've played it. You're like, oh, well, I hit that ball way too far. Like I hit the ball on No. 1 way too far and I chipped it through the trees. Still made birdie, but I was completely blocked out. I never would have thought to hit driver there.

But the wind was a big factor today. It was blowing a lot harder than I expected it to early walking the golf course about 9:00 this morning. It was up and it was blowing. I knew the golf course was going to play tough. I kept the ball in front of me. I tried not to short-side myself and just attack when I could.

Q. Given all your circumstances and the fact that you literally had not hit a shot before today --

JASON KOKRAK: On the golf course.

Q. How does this round rank in terms of what you were able to achieve on any given round? It seems pretty -- not miraculous, but --

JASON KOKRAK: Without playing the golf course, I tell people like you tend to play golf courses that you haven't played better the first time around than you do after you've seen them because after you've seen them a couple times, you know where the trouble is, you know where not to hit it. You play a golf course blind and it's like, here's your yardage, here's your shot, hit it here. You just kind of commit to your shot. I think you commit to your shot a little bit better not seeing the golf course until you've bailed out and hit it in the wrong spot.

Very pleased with my round today. A couple of mistakes, but I got away with a couple of shots, too, so very pleased with it, and as I said, I left my place in Cleveland after playing a couple very quality rounds and was excited -- I think I found a nice driver setup for myself.

Q. You were bogey-free, right, or did you finish --

JASON KOKRAK: No, I had two bogeys today. I bogeyed No. 9, and I bogeyed the par-5 on -- I don't even know the hole numbers, to be honest. It was on the front nine. It was the one with the lake on the right. I laid up in the left rough, had a horrible lie, and it just trickled right through and I was up against the collar and some grass got in between and slowed my putter down. I hit almost a duff, but it just didn't come out the right way. Then missed my next six-, eight-footer.

I was playing nice. Then ended up birdieing my next hole. It's one of those games that if I don't make that putt on the next hole and two-putt that one, it's no big deal. I'm very pleased with my round.

Q. This course is not easy.

JASON KOKRAK: No, it's extremely hard golf course. There's a bogey lurking at any given time. Any mistake out here, you're going to make a bogey.

Q. Your form has actually, if you look at your results, not bad.

JASON KOKRAK: No, trending.

Q. Did you feel like the last few months that maybe the results were not bad but --

JASON KOKRAK: I definitely have underachieved. I would say even last year on LIV and this year on LIV I've struggled to find a driver combination. Just haven't found a combination that I'm really comfortable with.

I changed a slight change in my driver, but other than that, I think it's just a little bit of a confidence thing. It's a trickle-down effect with the driver for me, and if I can start freeing myself up with the driver, it kind of frees everything else up for me.

Q. This could be a confidence booster today?

JASON KOKRAK: This could be a confidence booster today, but tomorrow is a new day. You're going to make bogeys around this golf course, and if you drive it straight and drive it in the fairway here, you're going to make a couple birdies and be in the mix.