Matt Wallace has endured a rapid rise to prominence over the past two years. He won three times on the European Tour in 2018 and was one of the first players left off the European Ryder Cup team. Then, in 2019, he finished T3 and T12 in back-to-back majors and rose to 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Wallace then signed with Callaway ahead of the 2020 season and put 14 Callaway clubs in play, including the Callaway Mavrik driver. His goal was simple: play a more robust schedule in the United States, and get his first U.S. win.

Recent events have obviously thrown a wrench into those plans, but Wallace is remaining positive. Since putting the Mavrik in play, his driving distance jumped from 300.6 yards in 2019 to 310.2 in 2020.

How’d he do it? Along with his continuing work in the gym, it was the combination of his new driver and a surprising mindset off the tee, which the Englishman says average golfers can benefit from.

Wallace’s key for more distance? Don’t swing hard.

“Strangely, I try to hit it as soft as I can with the driver,” Wallace says. “My normal swing speed on the driving range when I’m trying to practice is about 114, 115. You see these guys that are in the 120s.”

Why slower can mean longer

It sounds counterintuitive, but Wallace says his biggest advice to most amateurs who want more distance is to swing softer, and prioritize the quality of the strike.

“Don’t always try to swing 100 percent,” he says. “Don’t try to hit it as hard as you can, because if you do, you’re going to lose that quality of strike. And strike is the most important thing for ball speed, for distance. Try to hit the middle of the clubface as much as you can, and that’s your swing speed. Don’t think about swing speed, and then strike. Think about quality of strike, and then swing speed.”

Once you have that quality of strike, Wallace says you can rely on the technology within the golf club, like he did, to help increase distance.

“Ultimately you want to get clubs for the best numbers for the strike out of the middle,” Wallace says. “For me, the Mavrik is faster, the face is hotter. I’m able to get more ballspeed out of the Mavrik. Which is great, because now my main focus on the course is to just try and hit fairways.”

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Hotheaded Englishman Matt Wallace drew the ire of fans on social media on Sunday when he berated his caddie while in contention on the back nine of the BMW International in Munich.

Wallace’s visible frustration was caught on the SkySports broadcast throughout the round, coming to a head several times. On the par-3 12th, viewers reported Wallace’s anger with caddie Dave McNeilly after his tee shot sailed long.

Wallace, the defending champion, still stepped to the 18th tee very much in contention, needing a birdie to rejoin the lead. Instead, he hooked his tee shot into the water and went on to make bogey. Cameras picked up a tense moment with Wallace going at McNeilly again.

I watched him play the 18th and this is the only dialogue with the caddie on my DVR pic.twitter.com/tbPXZReTmS

— Matt Sylla (@mattsylla) June 24, 2019

Wallace would go on to make bogey, finishing two shots outside the playoff between Matthew Fitzpatrick and eventual winner Andrea Pavan.

The behavior was the second time in as many weeks that Wallace has run hot on the golf course. Despite a strong T12 finish at last week’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Wallace was captured in several moments of frustration, tossing a putter on one occasion, turning his hat backwards on another. The behavior drew pointed criticism from SkySports analyst Rich Beem. “I’m sorry but I just don’t enjoy watching that,” he said. “I know you’re intense, but get over yourself.”

https://twitter.com/TheGolfVillan/status/1139900821909528576

Wallace had penned an apology in a column for the Evening Standard after further frustration boiled over on the last hole of the British Masters. “I’m really disappointed in the way I behaved. For 71 holes, I’d done really well, then let myself down badly with one petulant act,” he wrote. “The best players in the world don’t do that so why should I?”

Wallace finished the BMW in a seven-way tie for 3rd. Wallace leads the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and sits a career-best No. 24 in the world. You can see further reaction to his actions below.

Missed it, but it sounds like Matt Wallace put on quite a show earlier today in Munich (not the good kind)

— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) June 24, 2019

At what point do the European tour take a look at Matt Wallace and his on course behaviour. Disgusting treatment of his caddy after he once again kept attitude beat him ..time for a fine or a ban may help him in the long run to be Europe's number 1 https://t.co/ECgIDyL9xi

— Robert gardiner (@Robertg57213407) June 24, 2019

https://twitter.com/goonerkh/status/1142911775135948800

I have a feeling Matt Wallace will have a new caddy on his next event. Amazing dirty looks, he hit the shots!! #EuropeanTour2019 #bmwinternational

— Out of Bounds Comedy (@OoBComedy) June 23, 2019

Matt Wallace is quickly becoming the most dislikable golfer out there. Maybe it’s his desire to win and strive for perfection, but there’s no need to be an absolute tit when things go wrong from time to time.

— Mike Norman (@MikkyMo73) June 23, 2019

https://twitter.com/CircusPony9/status/1142802049827917824

Matt Wallace an awful dose giving the caddy loads for tonking it in the drink! Must have had a chat with Jordan Spieth last wkend!

— Alan Reck (@alanreck) June 23, 2019

@EuropeanTour Matt Wallace language on 18 and way he spoke to caddy was disgusting

— Andrew Dixon (@AndrewD45451631) June 23, 2019

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Matt Wallace raced to a tidy first round 69 at Bethpage Black on Thursday, thanks in large part to his performance on the green. The Englishman gained 3.3 strokes on the field and ranked 3rd in SG: Putting on the day. And he did it using an eye-catching grip that you might want to try yourself.

It’s called the two-thumb putting grip. Wallace interlocks his fingers so his palms are facing opposing each other, and as he grips the putter, he places his thumbs alongside one another. As you can see, he uses a specific grip to make it even easier.

What’s the point? Because by positioning your hands alongside one another on the grip, rather than with one above the other, it allows the shoulders to hang level with one another at address. Doing so forms a perfect triangle between both shoulders and the hands, which allows to rock on a pendulum motion more easily.

Here’s Francesco Molinari’s coach, Denis Pugh, talking about the technique.

So if you’re struggling on the greens, give it a go yourself. It’s not for everyone, of course, and it’ll take some practice regardless, but it’s a technique that’s certainly been working for Matt Wallace during the PGA Championship at Bethpage.

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The European Tour has been pumping out genuinely hilarious golf videos starring their pro golfers for years. But the Tour’s social team have truly outdone themselves with their latest pranking masterpiece. Not surprisingly, Tour funnyman Eddie Pepperell is very much involved.

For his latest comedic performance, Pepperell decided to have some fun with his friend and fellow English Tour pro Matt Wallace. But a normal prank wouldn’t do. Instead, Pepperell devised an elaborate fake media day to torture Wallace. And he filmed the whole experience.

The set-up: Wallace, the 2018 BMW International Open champion, was convinced he had to do a full day of promotion for the 2019 BMW event, including a voice over recording session and a BMW photo shoot.

The catch: Every person he came in contact with was in on the joke. Not only that, but they were all encouraged by Pepperell to give Wallace a hard time.

It begins with Wallace getting picked up late in the morning by a driver who deserves some kind of award for his appearance. Not only is he late, but he proceeds to pull faux pas after faux pas all day long, clearly getting on Wallace’s nerves from the get-go. Pepperell, meanwhile, sat in another car with a remote camera watching the events unfolded.

The driver first drops Wallace off for the voice over, where the director leads him through a painfully awkward recording session. It ends with Wallace agreeing to record one message in German, all while Pepperell laughs his head off in another room.

After that, it’s off to a photo shoot and interview at a BMW office. Wallace’s patience runs thin as the fake interviewer, who had Pepperell dictating lines through an ear piece, asks for selfie after selfie. Then, Wallace is accused of scratching an antique BMW sports car worth 2,000,000 pounds before being informed he might have to pay for it.

Check it out below.

Matt Wallace spent a whole day doing promotional work.

But it was all a prank… 🙈#TheFakeMediaDay pic.twitter.com/SycUorgLzS

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 13, 2019

Just as Wallace is about to truly blow his top, Pepperell enters disguised in a white hazmat suit. As soon as Pepperell opens his mouth, Wallace realizes who it is and what has happened. After learning the truth, he puts his hands over his face and screams “No! Oh my god, you’ve done me!”

It was all in good fun, but Pepperell would still be smart to watch his back over the next few months, as Wallace closes out the video by talking directly into the camera, saying, “There’s revenge involved somewhere down the line.”

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