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THE BARCLAYS

August 26, 2011

Matt Kuchar

EDISON, NEW JERSEY

COLIN MURRAY: Matt, 6-under 65 today, 14-under for the tournament, if you could just talk a little bit about your day today and then looking forward to tomorrow, what probably is going to turn in to be a little bit of a shootout there.
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, it was not all that exciting today. 6-under par, no bogeys, there was nothing really of note.
My one, what felt like a great shot was a recovery shot on the 8th hole, drove it in the right rough kind of behind some trees and punched one through the trees and ran it up, probably ran 50 yards up on to the green and had 25 feet for birdie. That was probably the most exciting shot of the day. The rest was just steady golf, not too much worth noting other than no bogeys and six birdies, was pretty good.
COLIN MURRAY: Could you just talk about your mind-set now going into tomorrow, knowing it's only going to be a 54-hole event and you've only got 18 holes left.
MATT KUCHAR: I think they definitely made the right decision with 54 holes. The forecast just looks terrible. I think all of us are going to be excited to wrap this thing up and get out of here as quickly and safely as we can.
It has the potential to be pretty scary, and I think all of us would strive to stay save. So finishing up as early as we can Saturday I think is the right decision. It's going to turn into a bit of a shootout. I knew today that was the potential, to cut to 54 holes and needed to make as many birdies as I could. Felt that I left a couple out there.
I think No. 16 and No. 18 today were definitely really good birdie opportunities. I made pars on both of those holes but other than that, I felt like I took pretty good advantage of the course today.

Q. The announcement about shortening the event only happened in the mid afternoon, do you think it should have been announced in the morning so that all of the players could know that 54 holes would be the extent of the tournament, because the a.m. guys don't know that until 12:30 and now the p.m. guys know they have to get it in for 54 holes. Does that change mind-set of how people would approach the event or not?
MATT KUCHAR: Not in my mind. Maybe in some guys'. I've never been a guy that follows much of the leaderboard, anyway. I think knowing where you stand can only really help or hurt you with a hole or two left in the tournament. I think other than that, you play to the best of your ability, the best shot for that situation. I don't think with 27 holes left you start doing some crazy stuff. I just don't think that the timing should affect that many guys.
Today I found out with a hole and a half to go on my 17th hole. But I did have that in the back of my mind, that it was a potential to go to 54 holes; that I definitely wanted to make as many birdies as possible, with that being a potential outcome and a potential finish to this tournament.
So I had that in my mind but that being said, I don't know that guys knowing in the morning would have played much differently than they not knowing.

Q. How did you find out when you were out there on the course? And has this been something that you guys have been talking about for the last couple of days?
MATT KUCHAR: Oh, yeah, it's been fun to talk about. My walking scorer announced to the group walking to 17 green that it was going to be shortened to a 54-hole tournament, play to hopefully finish by two o'clock.
And yeah, there's just been a lot of speculation. It's been fun to talk about. It's been interesting to think of a potential would be to go to Tuesday, have a complete Sunday, Monday wash out, potentially go to Tuesday, but then had they asked us to stay around Sunday, Monday, just in case, when they are evacuating everybody else was kind of an interesting topic, and one I wasn't sure how they would handle.
So it seemed like the smartest thing with potential evacuations coming to get this thing wrapped up and let everybody get home. I think safety is everybody's first concern.

Q. I was just looking at some stats and you ranked third on the PGA TOUR in scoring average in the third round, but 46th in the final round; so which one prevails tomorrow?
MATT KUCHAR: Ha, good question. Good question. Scoring average includes all rounds, so I'm going to hope that one holds up best. I know last year I was leading scoring average. I think my Sunday scoring average would have been pretty strong as well.
I guess this year is not as strong but I still feel like a pretty solid golfer, and excited to have this opportunity. It's cool to try to defend The Barclays tournament. It's a lot of fun to have this opportunity. It's fun to have an opportunity to get up in the kind of top tier of the race to the FedExCup. It's cool to kind of have a shot for me to move up one more spot. Finished second last year. I would love to climb up one more spot in that FedExCup and be No. 1.
So right now I'm putting myself in pretty good position and I think the thing I'll try to stay most focused on is just trying to defend The Barclays.

Q. Is it weird to defend the title on a different golf course?
MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, right now I'm three for three with not being able to defend on the same course.
But I was thinking, somebody told me if I won this week if I want to defend on the same golf course again next year. But I am a fan of the rotation. I think there are so many great courses in the metro area up here, I think rotation is a good thing.

Q. Apart from length, what is it about this course that makes it so conducive to scoring?
MATT KUCHAR: Apart from the length? I would just say the conditions, the soft conditions. To me it seems like any time you have soft conditions doesn't matter how long, doesn't matter how deep the rough is.
Some guys are going to figure out a way to make a bunch of birdies. I think the kind of biggest determining factor in how hard a course plays and how difficult it is to make birdies is how firm greens are. I think when you have really firm greens, it becomes difficult to get a ball close to the hole and difficult to chip balls close to the hole. I think the scores are under are just a lot less under par with firm conditions.

Q. Theoretically the announcement would give you an advantage since you are 18 holes closer to the win than you normally would be at this time. Do you look at it that way as like, you know, this is a bit of an advantage, shortening the 54, as where you are standing in the leaderboard?
MATT KUCHAR: I think the standard 72 proves the best players generally come out winners after 72. So for me I feel like the more golf we play, the better my chances. But given the situation, I love being on top of the leaderboard with 18 holes to go. Hard to try to find something to complain about with the situation I'm in. Yeah, I'm quite happy that I've got this opportunity and you know, right now, I just feel like we have got one last round to go.

Q. You finished your first round earlier today with two holes, I believe. Did you feel real comfortable getting right back out there and keeping that momentum going from yesterday?
MATT KUCHAR: It's probably one of my least favorite things to do in the game of golf is to play till dark and not complete a round and get back to your hotel at nine o'clock and set your alarm for four o'clock to get back up and get going. I hate warming up with generators. It's not a whole lot of fun to be had. I think all you guys experience the same thing we do. You guys are staying out here late and getting up here early, and it's not much fun, but it's part of the game, and I've been playing well and I felt like if I could continue the go play -- I was 7-under through 16 holes yesterday, and felt like I could keep it going pretty well, and then fortunately I did.

Q. Did you notice Dustin Johnson's run, 29, making 3 every hole, and if, so what were you thinking about that?
MATT KUCHAR: I did not. I did see leaderboards. I did see them up there. I had no idea what his first-round score -- what his nine-hole scores were. I just assumed he was playing good golf for 36 holes to get to, I don't know where he finished right now, or if he is finished, one back at 13-under. I'm not sure of the exact run.
It's funny out here how close tees and greens are; that there don't appear to be nearly as many score boards. I think there's just, the space is so limited that there's far fewer score boards out there, so you don't really get a feel of exactly what's going on. It seems like you can go a couple of holes and not know exactly where everybody stands. That being said, I'm not a big scoreboard watcher, but every now and then, I was looking around and there wasn't a scoreboard to be found anywhere.
COLIN MURRAY: Thanks for your time, best of luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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