Question: Must have been an extremely long day. Reflect on your first Olympic experience.
Hideki: I was extremely happy to be able to stand here on this stage. Since I was in contention, I was really hoping that I could win a medal. I’m really disappointed I wasn’t able to realize that.
Question: It seems that you struggled to sync your long and short game today. But you remained very patient and hung tough.
Hideki: I have no energy or endurance left at this point. But I kept fighting at the end with my heart. Unfortunately, I fell short at the end.
Question: Course setting appeared very difficult. It reminded me of the major championship settings. Was it difficult to read the greens?
Hideki: I was having some success on the greens until yesterday. As for today, I was reading them well but once my feel of putting started to go, my read started to wear off as well. I realize that’s something I need to work on moving forward. If I am able to do that, I know I can shoot low scores as I did on the second day. I will do my best to work on that going forward.
Question: What’s your goal moving forward?
Hideki: I will be returning to the PGA TOUR event next week. I will make sure to prepare and try to do my best there.
Questions: Coming into this week, you were challenged physically and barely made it to the event. The week ended with a playoff. Reflect on the week.
Hideki: I was not able to deliver the performance I was hoping for. At the same time, the positive is that I was able to contend. At one point of the round, there was a moment where I could potentially catch up and move past the leaders. But I just was not able to put it together at the end. There are somethings that I’ve identified that I need to work on, which I hope to work on moving forward.
Question: We determine the gold, silver, and bronze winners in the Olympics. Was there any different in emotions compared to playing the regular tournaments?
Hideki: My goal was of course to win the goal. But I needed to hole out the second shot on 18th hole to beat Xander, which was a bit unrealistic. I knew that if I had ended my round with birdie, I was going to get a bronze medal. I’m left with a frustration that I wasn’t able to convert the opportunities.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports