Q. What did you feel like worked best for you today?
MICHAEL KIM: I felt like every part of my game was pretty solid. Only missed like one or two drives off the tee and hit some wedges close. Putted it nice, chipped it pretty nice. Felt like everything was pretty good today.
Q. Just in the last couple months, it hasn't maybe been the high results you had at the start of the year. Specific parts of the game that you've struggled with?
MICHAEL KIM: You know, I had, like, a small back tweak at Truist and that went on for about a month. Just trying to get the swing and really the entire game kind of back to where it was from Waste Management on.
I feel like I'm in a good spot with my swing and everything. Hopefully it leads to good golf the next three days, too.
Q. Good health at this point?
MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, I feel much better.
Q. With the season you've had, getting to the TOUR Championship, especially kind of this resurgence that you're on, what would that mean in the arc of your career to get back to that?
MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, I mean, TOUR Championship I feel like is the No. 1 goal on everyone's mind at the start of the year, along with top 50 here. To be completely honest, I was probably -- if you had told me I'd be top 50, I would have just signed right there and just watched everyone else play.
But once I had a really good stretch in that beginning to the middle part of the season, I really wanted to make the push for the TOUR Championship, which I've never been to.
Yeah, hopefully making that final push.
Q. What was the pep talk like from Sean Foley this week?
MICHAEL KIM: It's a lot of the same. He gives me a pep talk every week. I was his only guy out here the last couple weeks, so it's been good to get the full attention and full Sean Foley experience the last couple weeks.
Q. How has he helped you get to this point?
MICHAEL KIM: Oh, as much as he's helped me on the swing, he's helped me mentally, life, everything. He's been a full-on life coach for me. It's been awesome.
Q. I know you said you would have signed up for top 50. Was there any feeling of playing with house money coming into this week or was there added pressure to keep the round going?
MICHAEL KIM: Yeah, one of Sean's tag lines I think was grateful but not satisfied. That's kind of the approach I'm taking this week.
Q. Do you think you'll try to drive 5 or push it up there? I saw you laid back today. Could there be a thing where you try to get --
MICHAEL KIM: If anything I thought maybe with a back right pin, and they had the back right pin today. It was into the wind. Even if they had moved it up, I don't think I would have gone for it. The only spot you can miss it is in the front right bunker or right bunkers, but it's a pretty small target. I don't see myself going for it any other days.
Q. What did you and Sean connect and what was the trigger point for you?
MICHAEL KIM: I think it was about four years ago. Press close to right now actually. He was helping Ben An. I tagged along for dinner. We're golf nerds, so we started talking about golf and golf swing.
Because of some of the guys he had worked with in the past, I thought the philosophy that he might have -- that he had wouldn't match with how I thought I should swing the golf club, and I realized I had a misunderstanding of what he thought about the golf swing. After that dinner I decided to go see him about four years ago to this day, pretty close, and it's been great ever since.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports