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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 21, 2013Matt KucharMARANA, ARIZONA DOUG MILNE: Matt, you've enjoyed top 5 finishes in your last two starts here. Just kind of bring us up to speed on how you weathered the weather and got back into things today in your successful 3 and 2 win over Hiroyuki. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, my first round tee time at 7:35, I wasn't thinking that was a great draw, and it almost was a great draw, almost completed the match and got to be home watching everybody go through the delays. But played good golf. The front nine looked like we were going to have a real good match. We were both playing some good golf. He eagled the second hole and birdied the fourth hole and looked like I was in for a tough match, and then kind of got momentum going my way, won, I think, 10, 11, 12, and started feeling pretty good, and knew the weather was coming in. I had reports yesterday that we had about an hour before it was going to come sideways on us. And unfortunately I missed a short putt on 14, and things were getting ugly at that point. I remember thinking‑‑ I put my full rain suit on, it was raining hard and sideways, and just trying to get through those times was difficult. I was kind of really hoping to put the match away and be able to hide inside and be done. But had to come out this morning and play a hole and a half and ended up going on and deciding a hole and a half wasn't quite frank enough to justify all the time and practice I put in this morning, so I played 17 and 18 just to keep going. Q. You mentioned and everybody knew that the bad weather was coming. What do you do? You've played over the years, and of course two years ago we had snow here. Do you just sort of say, okay, I'll go out and play, or do you say, oh, nuts, we're going to have rain and snow? MATT KUCHAR: I think the beauty about this format is that there's no luck of the draw, or as far as tee times are concerned, you're dealing with the exact same elements as your competitor is. I think that's a nice thing about the way match play works as opposed to stroke play. There's nobody that gets better tee times than anybody else, so you just kind of deal with it. I wasn't sure who would be better prepared for really cold weather, myself being a Florida boy or a guy from Japan. I wasn't sure if maybe he had an advantage, maybe played in more inclement weather conditions or not. So I really had no idea who would be favored with my first‑round match in those conditions. Q. I know you were a part of the snow here a couple years ago, as well. Has there been talk among the players about questioning whether or not this is the right venue for this event given the weather the past couple years? MATT KUCHAR: No, I think the weather is such an anomaly. I think it's so rare here that you just kind of throw your hands up and say, I guess you just have to have a professional golf tournament to get some crazy weather. It is funny, two years ago we were here and I was playing on the Sunday in the consolation match, and my boys were‑‑ my family was here, I've got two young boys, and they thought that snow was the coolest thing. It was pretty heavy snow in the morning and then the sun came out and melted it pretty quickly, but it was fun to see just a pretty good snow covering. My boys came back last year and they said, when is it going to snow, we want it to snow again. I said, we're in Tucson, it's not going to snow. They remembered again this year, when is it going to snow, is it going to snow. I said, no, it's not going to snow here. They loved it. We had a good time making snow angels and having all sorts of fun with the kids yesterday afternoon. Q. Do you consider yourself a good foul weather, good mudder? MATT KUCHAR: I've had some good success. The tournament in Turning Stone, New York, I won in 2009 as almost a washout, it just rained every day. We played lift, clean and place the entire course. It was the first time I had played lift, clean and place from the rough. It's just not something that you do very often. I had success there, had some good success in other poor conditions. But I think maybe I don't let it get to me, even though I grew up in Florida, grew up in sunshine, I kind of deal with conditions pretty well. Q. The few holes that you played today, how did you find the course condition‑wise? MATT KUCHAR: Walking on the greens you could tell the greens were definitely softer. I think all the water, snow that kind of sat on the greens softened them up. They were pretty firm and really nice practice rounds into yesterday. So I think the greens were substantially‑‑ you could tell more moisture in them, a lot more wet. But I didn't hit a tee shot, I didn't see a ball‑‑ well, I did on the practice holes. It seemed to play longer. I think the course is just wetter and longer. Q. Did you see any casual ice out there or casual water? MATT KUCHAR: No, we were thinking earlier, could you get equipment out on the course to kind of plow the snow, or you just end up with these big snow banks, and that wouldn't be very good. I saw something, interesting we were walking up to the 15th green to get the match started, and there's that big kind of pot bunker 20 yards short of the 15th green, and a maintenance man was draining it, and he had dug a pretty good hole at kind of the very front and lowest point of the bunker and was squeegeeing‑‑ siphoning some water out. I had never seen the process. It was kind of interesting to see how they do it and just the amount of work that has to be done to get the course ready was pretty interesting to see. Q. And you just played 17 and 18 on your own? MATT KUCHAR: Yes, yes, so you can continue on, just‑‑ I went through a full warmup this morning. I didn't know if round 2 would continue or not this afternoon, and I was fully anticipating round 2 to continue. So I went ahead and played 17 and 18, just I felt like I had gotten the news that round 2 was not going to be played today, so I had put in a warmup and I felt like, gosh, I might as well play a few extra holes. I have the right to do that, and I thought it would be just another way to get some extra practice in. Q. That's not unusual in amateur tournaments, right? I've seen guys just play in once the match is over. MATT KUCHAR: Right. Q. So this is just‑‑ well, you don't play much match play in the pros, but it's not done much in the pros? MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, I put in a full warmup today, and to come out and hit a putt on 15 and approach on 16 and a putt was all I hit, and I thought, maybe I'll see if my driver works. Yeah, just thought I'd actually play some full holes. Q. You talked about the momentum shifting yesterday when you made those birdies. When you are leading and there's this 24‑hour delay basically, is it hard not to think that, oh, this could ruin what momentum I had gained going into that back nine? Jason Day came in here yesterday and it almost seemed like made it sure we realized he doesn't think his match is over because of the momentum shift overnight. MATT KUCHAR: Yeah, you look at Sergio's match, and I'm not sure where it stands right now. Q. They're still going, I believe they're on the 20th. MATT KUCHAR: They're still going? Yeah, yeah, so certainly that is a real factor. I mean, things can completely change overnight, and I knew I was in a good position, but I wasn't about to just count myself into the second round. DOUG MILNE: Matt, congratulations, thanks for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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