THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Tom Kim to the interview room here at the Travelers. Not result that you wanted, can you talk about your emotions today?
TOM KIM: Yeah, I fought hard. It takes really just small things to win out here and my two bogeys this week came from two 3-putts. That last hole in the playoff where in regulation I had the same kind of shot where I just needed to smash a wedge when the wind was up and the difference between regulation and the playoff was as soon as I hit it the wind died and a slight mishit and unfortunately plugged ball and when that happens you can do anything about it. But other than I'm going to definitely look at this week as a positive, it's my best finish of the year, despite almost coming through having the lead last night, I just, against the pest players in the world I fought really hard and going into next week that's my ninth week, you know, make sure I pick up my feet.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.
Q. (Question about relationship/friendship with Scottie.)
TOM KIM: Today I think I just, I had so much fun out there, felt like a practice round with him. I play a lot of golf with him at home and even out here we play a lot of practice rounds. We were just, I told him as soon as we hit the tee shot in the playoff it's just, it feels like, it's very rare for us just the two of us to go out and play, but at the same time it's just like, it's almost like, hey, we're just at home but we just have hundreds of thousands of people on the golf course. But it's been big. He's a really good friend. I've learned a lot from him, obviously not just by watching him but by asking him a lot of thugs and he's been so kind just to be able to share some stuff. I'm really happy for him. I know it's his sixth win for the season and it hasn't happened since Tiger. As much as I love him, I would have loved to take that away from him, but I'm happy for him and after I tapped out, after he tapped out, he said some really nice words and it meant a lot to me.
Q. (Take through 72nd hole to make birdie after disruption on No. 18 green.)
TOM KIM: Yeah, to be honest, the regulation, it's just, I knew I needed to make birdie, but 18's a really interesting hole because if you miss the fairway the hole just becomes really hard. That right bunker that they placed by the green, it's very penalizing, as you saw in the playoff, with my ball being plugged. With the wind being so up I wanted to hit 3-wood and me and Paul were talking, I had to make birdie, I have to give myself a chance and I hit a really good tee shot. With all that going on, it almost kind of, for me, it kind of, I didn't mind it at all, like obviously it is a disruption and you don't want it to happen, but for me it was just it kind of slowed things down and I just took my time and I felt rally confident in myself just to give myself that putt to force a playoff. It's what I practice for and I'm glad I made it.
Q. (Was it unsettling after the incident?)
TOM KIM: Yeah, it was a lot to go with. Who prepares for someone, for four people to run with, I don't know what they had, but they left a lot of marks on the greens, which is not right for us players, especially when two guys are trying to win a golf tournament. But I'm very grateful for the TOUR and the TOUR security for handling that really well and making us players feel a lot safer.
Q. (Being paired with Scottie during a final round and close friendship – does it help with stress?)
TOM KIM: Yeah, with him and I, for me I just, I've gotten to like Scottie more as a person than a golfer, so I think that's really big when, because there's a lot of friends out here that you kind of just meet for golf, not really outside, and he's one of the few people that we're at home, we still hang out and still play a lot of golf together. I think it made it a lot more fun for me, to be honest, like more enjoyable to come down -- obviously he's a phenomenal player, world No. 1, all those titles, but at the same time for me it's just he's just Scottie Scheffler, he's just a good friend. To come down with someone that I play a lot of golf with, who beats me a lot at home, and unfortunately, he beat me in the playoff too, but it definitely made it a lot more enjoyable out there.
Q. (Is it threatening to be paired with Scottie and the special attention he gets and playing alongside him?)
TOM KIM: It's actually kind of the other way. No, you don't need to worry about him, because he's going to play well. He's just going to play well. So it's almost just like you're not even worried about it. You're not even thinking about him. I did a really good job, I felt like feeling like not looking at leaderboards and -- because it got I think a lot of guys were within a shot with a few holes to play. I just kept my head down and I really birdied the holes that I needed to birdie to give myself a chance and it's just, it's amazing how I got into a playoff, but there's so many little things that on 16, that putt just rolls a little bit more I win by one, or if I don't 3-putt on 8 I win by one, or if I don't 3-putt from 10 feet yesterday on 4 I win by one. So there's just so many little things that could have changed, but I feel like these little things are steps into my career for me to taking the next leap.
Q. (On the 18th green incident, what was going through your mind?)
TOM KIM: Not really an opportunity, it was just more like it kind of took like the meaning of the putt kind of a way for a second. Because like for the past 17 and a half holes all you're thinking about is golf, and suddenly when that happens you're just like, your mind goes into a complete, like, you're almost not even playing golf anymore, like people are, security guards -- like I thought it was a dream for a second. Like the security guards were tackling people and people were getting arrested, like it's just, it's really hard to see nowadays. Like I said, again, it kind of felt like it took my mind off of the moment and just kind of realized what was happening and obviously even though those people did something bad, you still don't want them to get hurt, because obviously the police are trying to protect the players and stuff, I get it, but you still don't want people to get hurt and I think it just kind of personally just took my mind away from golf a little bit and worried about something else.
Q. (Any key takeaways or learnings from today?)
TOM KIM: Like other than like what I shot or what I finished or where I finished, it's more I've worked really, really hard this past few week, it's my 8th week in a row and it's just nice to know that the hard work kind of really does come to life. Like, yes, it would have been super sweet if I won, but it still doesn't change who I am. If I win I'm still going to go next week and prep the best I can. If I don't win, tomorrow I'm going to wake up, try to prep the best I can for the next event. It doesn't change me and I feel like this year has been a lot of learning, I've had a lot of learning lessons of trying to not label things. I am who I am, 10 wins on the PGA TOUR, zero wins on the PGA TOUR, it's not going to change me. I think it took a lot of experiences for me to actually learn that and once I kind of, once I started to learn this a lot more I started it free up and actually when I work hard not expect anything, just kind of let things happened. I think that's what happened this week. I was really close to wire-to-wire finish, that would have been awesome, but it just wasn't meant to be and I'll have my chances.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports