MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2026

Tom McKibbin

Quick Quotes

Q. First round in Augusta. Up and down for you. Tell us a little bit about it.

TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, it was tough. Yeah, the golf course feels like it plays completely different than even yesterday.

Yeah, the greens are firm and very fast. Yeah, some of the putts you get are just incredibly difficult, incredibly fast. Yeah, just it's very difficult. It feels like it's hard to make birdies but very easy to make bogeys.

So overall it was an okay day. I'll take it. Maybe a little bit of lack of experience here or there, but, yeah, overall it was okay.

Q. Can you give us examples of that lack of experience? Where did you feel it? Which holes?

TOM McKIBBIN: Just maybe a few of the longer putts. Knowing sort of -- they're obviously uphill and knowing you think they're going to be slow based off the last couple and they're not slow.

And then a few sort of chip shots where I was sort of short right on 17. The greens are pretty firm and I didn't expect it to sort of the check up that much. So knowing you can be more aggressive on that chip and things like that sort of might help get a couple feet closer.

Q. The positive, those birdies on the front nine, talk about them.

TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, a good birdie on two. Driver and 4-iron to about 30 feet, couple putts. And then I hit a really good wedge into nine to about eight or nine feet with a very quick right-to-left putt. Felt like I just about got it going.

Thankfully held that one. Yeah, it was nice to have a couple birdies on the card.

Q. And the not so good part, bogeys at the end. Mentally, I mean...

TOM McKIBBIN: No, again, two of them were three-putts. Then one sort of poor tee shot and maybe a little scrappy chip shot.

But, yeah, some of the putts I thought were going to be one way quicker than it was and one way slower than it was. Yeah, sort of maybe a little bit sort of the out of position.

Q. What do you take from today in terms of strategy for tomorrow? What would you adjust?

TOM McKIBBIN: Not much. Maybe just tidy up a couple two putts and maybe try and make a couple more birdies on the par-5s. Sort of, yeah, try and shoot a decent score tomorrow.

Q. In terms of mindset do you feel comfortable here?

TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, it's obviously a very hard place to -- I mean, the golf course is so difficult. It's hard. I feel like every shot there is danger lurking around.

Yeah, I think it's hard to feel comfortable. Yeah, once I sort of got into the round today, yeah, it felt yeah, quite nice.