MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2025

Michael Kim

Quick Quotes

Q. Michael, how would you characterize the first round out there?

MICHAEL KIM: Overall, I'm very satisfied with the round. Anything under par today, I think is going to be a good score. The winds are -- it's not incredibly strong, but it's kind of gusty and switching directions here and there.

A lot of gratitude and just overall lots of good feelings about how I played here compared to how I played here last year.

Q. How would you characterize the course play out here today?

MICHAEL KIM: It's pretty tricky. There's some new greens out here. I think 1, 8, 15. I think maybe one or two more. Those greens are noticeably firm on the first bounce, and I don't think I noticed it as much because it was so soft from the rain the first few days.

That 1st hole was definitely a lot firmer today than it was in the practice rounds.

Q. Looking at the pins, they look like there's some pretty tough pins out there.

MICHAEL KIM: Yeah. There's some really good pins. Like even the one on 1, that front left with how firm it is today, I think it's going to play really tricky. Other than really the Sunday pins on the back nine, I don't know if there are too many easy pins out there anyway.

Q. What did you do well today in the game?

MICHAEL KIM: I felt like I just managed it really well. When I missed it off the tee a few times, I was able to put it in spots where I was able to at least have a par putt. I missed it on the correct side, which is such a big thing here. I was able to get a lot of them up-and-down.

Q. Do you think the course was there for the taking with the weather?

MICHAEL KIM: 15 and 13 are downwind. So you can definitely get it there. In the practice rounds, I couldn't get to 15. It wasn't even a thought. And 2 for the most part is gettable.

If you manage all the other holes okay, you can get some of the par-5s, I thought, today. Even 8 was downwind. If you had a decent tee shot, you're definitely going to get there.

I think that's kind of the case for most of the time here.

Q. Would you say the greens were faster for a Thursday?

MICHAEL KIM: I thought they were just about normal. They weren't screaming fast or anything. Like I said, the firmness on a few of them were more notable for me.