The post Matt Wolff opens up on pressure as pro, says attitude affected playing partners appeared first on Golf.

The post Matt Wolff opens up on pressure as pro, says attitude affected playing partners appeared first on Golf.

Thursday’s 65, Matthew Wolff says, was a bonus. Four days earlier, while warming up for this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, his play was very un-65. “I lost every golf ball I had in my bag.” 

He then continued:

“I was just trying to work on my attitude and have a good time.”

News

It’s been nearly three years now since Wolff turned pro, and if his ball-striking alone couldn’t convince you, his victory just two weeks in cemented it: This is a superstar. He played 15 more events before the 2020 Covid break; he made 13 cuts. He held the 54-hole lead at the 2020 U.S. Open. He tied for second in his next event.  

And then? About this time last year, Wolff was in the middle of a self-imposed break. He skipped the PGA Championship. When he returned at the U.S. Open, he told GOLF’s Dylan Dethier that “sometimes it’s a lot of pressure, and I think it got a little intense.” He had been miserable.  

Which brings us back to this week. Along the way, he’s been open and revealing when asked about his mental health, and Thursday was no different. Wolff revealed that it was difficult being looped in with Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa, other stars in their early 20s. He admitted that his attitude affected his playing partners. He said he doesn’t care if he shot a 90 on Friday. “As long as I have a good attitude, I can put a check mark on this week and say that I’ve grown as a person and as a player, and that’s just all I really care about right now.”

News

After an introductory question at his post-round press conference, a reporter asked Wolff: “When you talked about working on your attitude, is that anything specific or just overall in general how you think around the course? How do you go about that?”

“I think it’s just more defining my own success,” Wolff said. “I think coming out with Viktor and Collin, they’re really good friends of mine and I think all the success they’ve had is great and I’m very happy for them, but I think just like getting put in that group and, you know, everyone talking about like, you know, everything that I could do with the golf ball or all my skills or anything like that, and I just felt like there was so much pressure and so much expectation around me that it was just really hard to live up to.

“I feel like I call myself a people pleaser because I kind of just like to please everyone. I feel like that’s why I love signing autographs and love doing stuff like that because I just want everyone to be happy. I’ve kind of learned that you can’t really make everyone happy. If you have a good attitude, most people don’t even care how you play, they just kind of like to see that you’re having a good time, and especially the people most important to me. That’s kind of all I’ve been working on.”

What has he done?

Instruction

“Yeah, it’s been a lot of different stuff,” Wolff said. “I don’t really like to read, so audiobooks a little bit more than reading. I think, yeah, just talking with the people that have been closest to me, the ones that have supported me the most.

“Kind of knowing and understanding that when people tell me, you know, about how good I am or something like that — not how good I am, but just like just the support that I have, I kind of turn the support into maybe more pressure, or I don’t need to turn it into more pressure because they just want to see me happy at the end of the day. I think just taking what everyone’s saying about me but kind of flipping it a little bit. But yeah, probably internally a little bit and just, you know, being happy to be out here. I’m on the PGA Tour, I’m 23 years old. And I know I’ve struggled, but I know everyone in the world would probably trade places with me, so I need to start learning to enjoy myself and realize how good I have it.”

One of his biggest regrets, Wolff said, was that his attitude was often affecting his playing partners. 

“Just looking back on it, I think it’s happened a couple times and I wish I could go back and reverse it, and I feel terrible,” he said. “Like I said, I never want to affect anyone else, and I was obviously affecting myself a lot. But just the fact that I knew that kind of with my shoulders down or anything that I was struggling with, it was — it’s hard to play good when you’re playing with someone who’s like that. Like I said, I wish I could go back and redo what I did, but the only thing I can do now is from here on forward just try to do my best to not have that attitude. If I let it affect myself, that’s one thing, but if I let it affect someone else, then that’s unacceptable.

News

“It’s definitely just been learning experiences and growing and maturing a little bit. Like I said, I can’t do anything about it now, but I’m just trying to be better for everyone and my peers. Those are the people I respect. I want to be able for them to look at me and not, you know, not want to play with me or something like that. I’m just trying to be better for them and for myself as well.”

After Thursday’s first round at the Wells Fargo, Wolff sits two shots back of leader Jason Day. Should he be in contention on the weekend, he’ll be in search of win No. 2, after that victory just under three years ago. But now it maybe doesn’t matter as much it did then, he says. 

A reporter also asked Wolff: “Do you feel that when your attitude is good, that physically you have everything you need to do what you did today?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s been a rough patch, but I’ve won on the PGA Tour, I know that I can get it done and I know that I have what it takes,” he said. “I think just allowing me to free up a little bit and not get so down on myself or I’m allowed to make mistakes. I feel like in the past I was telling myself that I needed to be perfect and that’s just not the case. No one’s perfect, especially in this game. So I’m just trying to go out there and, like I said, just have fun. 

“That’s really like literally the only thing that I care about.”

The post Matt Wolff opens up on pressure as pro, says attitude affected playing partners appeared first on Golf.

The post How quirky was this Houston Open par-4? One star teed off with wedge (!) appeared first on Golf.

The post How quirky was this Houston Open par-4? One star teed off with wedge (!) appeared first on Golf.

Stephan Jaeger? He went tee to green in a single shot, rolled in the 22-footer and walked away with an eagle two. 

Kevin Tway? He hit a driver out to the left of the green, then chipped into the water to the right of it, marked himself down for a bogey five and afterward side-armed his new ball into the drink, too.

Matthew Wolff? One hole after hitting a driver 324 yards, he hit a pitching wedge off the tee and landed it short of trouble, only to get into it after hitting another wedge short. He finished with a double-bogey six. 

All this for a 301-yard, par-4? Believe it. During Saturday’s third round at the Houston Open, the tees were up some 75 yards from previous days on the 17th at Memorial Park, and the fun rose with it. 

“That’s why we like it, when they move it up and make them short, drivable par-4s, because a lot happens, not always good,” analyst Curt Byrum said on the Golf Channel broadcast. 

“You look at the way it’s played — 3.8 [average strokes],” analyst Trevor Immelman said. “Enticing these players to take it on. It’s a great hole.”

At no point was it maybe more so than when Wolff and Tway reached it. 

In front of each was a dogleg that wrapped itself around water to the right, and a few players, such as Jaeger, took it straight over the hazard. Tway, in the lead at the time, was among those who drove it left of the green, and it left him with a delicate 45-yard shot to get on.  

Tway chipped it, his ball ran past the hole, and it dribbled into the water. He bogeyed the hole and the closing one, and he’ll start Sunday a stroke out of the lead. 

“Oh boy, oh boy,” Immelman said on the broadcast as the ball rolled farther from the hole and closer to the water. 

“There you go,” he said when it dove in.  

Three groups in front of Tway, and also in the lead at the time, Wolff pulled a pitching wedge from his bag and dropped his tee shot ahead of the dogleg. While prudent, it was also at least a little disappointing. On a risk-reward tee shot, who doesn’t want to see one of golf’s longest hitters give it a go?

“Wind dying down, driver might be a good club for Wolff,” Byrum said before Wolff decided. “It’s down wind, 296 to the front, 301 to the hole. That hole location is in the front, just over the lake that fronts this green. So it’s going to be really interesting to see what Matt Wolff does. Got to be so tempting for him to just try to send a driver straight up in the air.” 

News

“Yeah, must be,” Immelman said. “Particularly with as high as what he can hit it. He’s one of the few players that can land it on and keep it on. And for insurance, if he decides to go for it, because of the build-out over the back of the green there, he’ll be able to know that he can stop the ball if it comes out hot too.”

Wolff then hit his wedge 170 yards. Impressive, but it wasn’t the club that could send it twice that distance. 

“Man, I wanted to see him hit driver,” Byrum said on the broadcast. 

“Me, too,” Immelman said.  

“He’s got all that momentum, and he drives it really good,” Byrum said. “He’s long, he’s accurate, but the decision has been made.”

“I always think back to a lesson Jack Nicklaus gave me,” Immelman said. “He said he always felt like strategy-wise that he needed to know in his mind that he would pull a shot off eight out of 10 times if he was going to go for it. If he didn’t feel like he had that kind of confidence, he would play back to something he knew he could pull off.”

On his second shot, from 132 yards out, Wolff hit wedge again — wedge-wedge on a par-4! —  but it dropped about 20 yards short and into the water. Visibly stunned, Wolff even looked at the bottom of his club to confirm that he had hit the right one. 

From there, he dropped, pitched on and two-putted for a double-bogey six. He’ll start Sunday a stroke out of the lead. 

“Bet he wishes he hit driver now,” Byrum cracked after Wolff finished up the hole.  

Did he?

News

“I just didn’t really see the point in going for it, to be honest,” Wolff said. Marc [Leishman, Wolff’s playing partner] hit after me, but with where that pin was and that back slope, if you were anywhere past pin high, it was going to be a really hard chip. As you saw Marc, he felt like he hit a pretty good chip, and it went 20, 25 feet behind the hole.

“On top of that, you bring in the water if you’re trying to stay short of it, so I just didn’t really see a point of going for it, and on top of that, I hit pitching wedge off the tee, which I almost felt a little — I almost feel like I wouldn’t let myself hit pitching wedge on a par-4, and I knew it was the right club, and I hit sand wedge in. I knew I was going to be able to hit the fairway with a wedge, and I would have another wedge in. Not many times I thought I would be making double with two wedges, but it is what it is and I have to live with whatever happened, but I just didn’t really see a point in going for it.”

What happened on the second shot?

“I knew it was the right club,” Wolff said. “That’s why I’m just so dumbfounded really about how that came up that short. I really didn’t — maybe — I definitely hit the second one a little harder because it came up short, but it was 125 to carry the front or onto the green and 131 to the hole and it was downwind. All week I’ve been hitting my sand wedge — I hit my sand wedge 130, 135 just normal, just cruising it. Gap wedge on the last hole I had 132 and it was a little into the wind and I hit gap wedge and I flew it 140. I definitely knew it wasn’t a gap wedge, and it wasn’t a lob wedge. As you can see, the second shot was good. I just can’t really give you an answer on how that came up that short.”

Will 17 play up during Sunday’s final round? It’s unlikely. But Saturday will give officials at least something to think about. 

Much like how 67 players just had to.

The post How quirky was this Houston Open par-4? One star teed off with wedge (!) appeared first on Golf.

The post This Matthew Wolff game-changing swing fix came to him in the most unlikely moment appeared first on Golf.

The post This Matthew Wolff game-changing swing fix came to him in the most unlikely moment appeared first on Golf.

Some swing fixes come to us in a lesson, others on the range and still others in the precise moment when we begin to doubt we’ll ever fix our flaws.

And then there are those that come to us as if in a dream.

Matthew Wolff knows this to be true, because he more or less experienced it himself.

The story begins with the up-and-coming star mired in a months-long slump at the beginning of this year, a spell so bad he briefly took a break from the game to better focus his priorities. In a stretch from January to June of 2021, Wolff recorded two missed cuts, two WDs and a DQ … and zero top-10 finishes. He looked like a shell of the player who’d quickly ascended to become one of the PGA Tour’s best young players, and who’d gone shot-for-shot with Bryson DeChambeau in Sunday of the previous year’s U.S. Open.

Wolff returned over the summer from his brief hiatus with a new lease on life and his swing — the former coming from months of exhaustive work and self-reflection, the latter in his last waking moments one evening.

Instruction

“I was about to fall asleep, to be honest, and I was just kind of thinking,” Wolff said from the Houston Open on Wednesday. “I wasn’t too tired, but I was like, I don’t know if I had an early tee time or what, but I was really just sitting there thinking and I was like, well, I was looking at my swing, not so much my setup, and I was trying to do different stuff in my swing.”

But after a few minutes of looking at his swing, something else caught Wolff’s eye.

“Then I remember kind of, like, making a little note of it when I looked at the video in the first place and just kind of realizing, like, Oh, wow, I feel like my setup’s a little different, that’s weird,” Wolff said. “And I looked at my setup versus how I was in college, because for me I played really good golf in college and day in and day out it was just extremely consistent.”

Sure enough, when Wolff looked back at his old swing, he noticed a marked difference in his setup. Whereas in his current swing, he was rigid and slightly hunched over the ball, in his old one, he was in a squatted, athletic stance, his weight further back.

It was a eureka moment for Wolff, who began to notice his swing returning to form almost immediately.

“Went out the next day, I think it was Wednesday, so I had one day to practice it before the start of Sanderson, and from that point I think Sanderson was a really good tournament for me,” Wolff said. “But still just getting used to the setup. Then when I got to Shriners, I felt really comfortable and from that point on I’ve just been rolling.”

Through the early portion of the 2021-22 season, Wolff has already recorded as many top-10 finishes as all of the previous season, and his game is teeming with confidence. Now all that’s left to do is win, which would be his first title since the 3M Open in 2019.

Wolff says, with his new setup in tow, he’s ready to start a new streak.

“I feel like I have a really good chance to win this week,” Wolff said. “There’s a couple things in my game and mentally and physically that I feel like I’ve learned about myself, and with that experience that I have in my back pocket now, if I’m playing good, try to play as much as I can.”

The post This Matthew Wolff game-changing swing fix came to him in the most unlikely moment appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 smart bets for the 2021 Houston Open, according to a professional gambler appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 smart bets for the 2021 Houston Open, according to a professional gambler appeared first on Golf.

Erick Lindgren is a star of the professional poker circuit, with more than $10 million in career earnings. But he has proven to be a shark at golf wagering, too. Over a torrid stretch of making PGA Tour picks for GOLF.com last summer and fall, Lindgren picked five outright winners, among other spot-on picks. That sparkling track record inspired us to re-up with Lindgren as our gambling guru for the 2021-22 campaign, and he picked up right where he left off by choosing Hideki Matsuyama to win the Zozo Championship two weeks ago.

News

The ground rules are the same as they were last season: Every week, we’re giving Lindgren a $1,000 gambling budget (just play money!). In return, he’s giving us — well, you — his five best bets for that week’s event. Here’s Lindgren’s playlist for the 2021 Houston Open, which kicks off Thursday at Memorial Park.

(Looking to place any of these bets yourself? We teamed with BetMGM, and the online sportsbook is offering a “Risk-Free Bet” of up to $1,000.)

1. Matthew Wolff to win, 28-1 (wager: $200)

Wolff made birdies in bunches last week. When the big-hitter starts flashing that kind of form, Lindgren says, “I’m ready to hop on.”

2. Sungjae Im to win, 22-1 (wager: $100)

Most of us know Im as a metronomic ball-striker with one of the game’s most languid golf swings. But Lindgren says there’s lots to love in his short game, which should be at a premium this week.

News

3. Patrick Reed, Top 10 finish, 4-1 (wager: $200)

Always a short-game clinician, Reed is playing a home game this week. Lindgren sees a strong finish in the cards.

4. Jason Day, Top 10 finish, 6.5-1 (wager: $200)

Day’s back has been an issue for, well, about as far back as anyone remembers. But after a long off-season, he should be tan, ready and rested for an event in which he finished tied for 7th last year.

5. Cameron Davis, Top 20 finish, 3.5-1 (wager: $300)

Davis started fast here last year, only to fall apart. But Lindgren loves the Aussie’s game on a course that Davis himself says reminds him of the tracks he plays at home.

The post 5 smart bets for the 2021 Houston Open, according to a professional gambler appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 Mayakoba leaderboard: Who’s contending after round 2 appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 Mayakoba leaderboard: Who’s contending after round 2 appeared first on Golf.

Matthew Wolff leads after two rounds at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, and about a month ago, in his last start, he finished second at the Shriners Children’s Open. But while he says he’s been “working on a few things,” he also admits a reason behind this surge isn’t all that sophisticated. “I feel really good with every part of my game, and I just tell myself, go out there, swing it hard and find the ball,” he said. Simple enough. Here are three things you need to know after Friday’s second round at El Camaleon Golf Club in Riviera Maya, Mexico. 

Complete leaderboard here.

Matthew Wolff leads 

Wolff, for the most part, has been finding his ball in the fairway, then on the green, then in the hole. On Thursday, he fired a 10-under 61, a course record. On Friday, he was seven shots worse after a 68, but he maintained his two-stroke advantage. After 36 holes, Wolff is at 13-under, while Scottie Scheffler is at 11-under, and Carlos Ortiz and defending champion Viktor Hovland are at 10-under. 

“When you shoot that low of a round, even three-under the next day, to me it just, you know, maybe not quite as good because of the round I had yesterday, but at the end of the day, three-under in the afternoon wave, I was really pleased with that,” Wolff said. “Felt like I maybe could have made a few more putts and stuff like that, but yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m hitting it really good. All parts of my game are clicking and just looking forward to a good weekend.”

Two Ryder Cuppers are in contention 

Scheffler, in his first event since being a part of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team, shot the day’s second-best round, a seven-under 64 that included five straight birdies on his back nine. Hovland, a member of the losing European Ryder Cup team, shot a six-under 65 that included a double bogey on the 1st hole, his 10th hole of the day after starting on the back nine, while Oritz, playing in his home country, also shot a 65.

“I just kept the ball in play,” Scheffler said. “I gave myself a lot of looks today. I don’t think I missed very many greens, so that’s really important around this place, just keep it in position. I did a good job of that today.”

At nine-under were 10 golfers, and seven golfers were at eight-under. 

Brooks Koepka misses cut 

Among the players missing the cut were Will Zalatoris (two-under) and Brooks Koepka (even par). 

Making the cut, at four-under, were Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed.   

The post 2021 Mayakoba leaderboard: Who’s contending after round 2 appeared first on Golf.

The post Matthew Wolff just shot 61. He said these were his 2 keys to success appeared first on Golf.

The post Matthew Wolff just shot 61. He said these were his 2 keys to success appeared first on Golf.

Even going almost a month without a competitive tournament round couldn’t slow Matthew Wolff. The 22-year-old opened the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba with a 10-under 61, good for a course record and two-stroke lead heading into Friday.

In Wolff’s other two starts this season he was T17 at the Sanderson Farms Championship and was the runner-up at the Shriners Children’s Open on Oct. 10. On Thursday, he made 10 birdies and no bogeys and led Aaron Wise by two. His 61 tied his career-low on Tour.

News

“As soon as I finished the round, my caddie said to me, he goes, ‘You know, I’ve been caddying for you for quite a few rounds and that was not the one that I thought was going to be the lowest,'” Wolff told reporters. “It was very steady, birdies kind of came evenly throughout the round; didn’t really make any mistakes.”

Wolff hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. His game plan was to keep it in play off the tee — mission accomplished — but he added that two things were the key to his strong play: his comfortability (i.e. setup) and commitment.

“I think the main thing about how you play well out here is just being comfortable,” he said. “Every single shot I was comfortable over, I was committed to. Yeah, just ended up that, at the end of the day, last putt dropped. I didn’t know it was a course record, it’s really cool to hear.”

Wolff said he could tell his game was on during his pre-round warm-up on the range.

“I’ve just been working with my coach a little bit, George [Gankas], about just kind of setup; really nothing about the swing, just making sure that I’m comfortable in my setup,” Wolff said. “To me, I feel like when I am comfortable, that’s when I make the best swings. So, for me, I just pick the club that I feel most comfortable with and focus on the setup, just keeping the knees a little bent and not standing so on top of the ball and everything kind of clicked today.”

Wolff begins his second round at 1:52 p.m. (ET) off the 1st tee. He’s grouped with Matt Jones and Justin Rose.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

The post Matthew Wolff just shot 61. He said these were his 2 keys to success appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘A nightmare scenario’: Matthew Wolff is stung by bizarre ‘bad rake job’ appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘A nightmare scenario’: Matthew Wolff is stung by bizarre ‘bad rake job’ appeared first on Golf.

Matthew Wolff hit his tee shot on the 13th at TPC Summerlin, it surprisingly stopped just a foot from the lip of a fairway bunker, and Jim “Bones” Mackay winced. 

No stranger to caddying, Mackay is familiar with both the work of a good loop, and that of a bad one. And this?

“This is horrible,” the analyst said on the Golf Channel broadcast.

Wolff’s ball, Mackay saw during Sunday’s final round of the Shriners Children’s Open, had come to rest in a groove in the bunker left by a bunker rake and failed to trickle down into a more manageable shot. While you could successfully argue that Wolff shouldn’t have been in the sand in the first place, you could also make the point that he’d at least get the common courtesy of having the people in front of him clean up after themselves. 

From his near-impossible position, Wolff hit his ball just 19 feet.    

Instruction

“The reason this ball didn’t release back down in the bunker some 15 feet is it got caught up in a bad rake job,” said Mackay, both Phil Mickelson’s former longtime caddie and Justin Thomas’ new one. “So just a nightmare scenario for Matthew, who can’t get this ball back to the fairway.” 

“Awful,” analyst Curt Byrum said on the broadcast. “He’s got to be frustrated right now.” 

Indeed. Outside of the bunker, Wolff’s ball would settle both on a downhill lie and about 10 yards short of a mound — which he smacked, the ball advancing just 89 yards. Down five shots to the surging Sungjae Im and in need of birdies, Wolff would bogey the scorable par-5. 

“Gosh, his head is spinning right now, and his caddie is trying his best there to slow him down and say, look, where are you aiming, what are you trying to do, but he’s on the run,” analyst Trevor Immelman said on the broadcast.

From there, Wolff would rebound with birdies on 15 and 16 and finish second, four shots behind Im.

“I just, I really, I’ve never seen a break like that,” Wolff said afterward. “I hit a good drive and I thought I could carry that bunker like I’ve been all week, but unfortunately, it just went in the lip. But, I mean, with a 3-wood, you think it would just roll down to the middle of the bunker and then you would hit something into the fairway and then have a good look at birdie. For my ball to, someone left the rake at the top of the bunker and it left an indentation and my ball stuck in that indentation.

“So like I said, just a lot of things that didn’t really go my way on the final day. I’m really happy with how the week was and super confident in my game.”

The post ‘A nightmare scenario’: Matthew Wolff is stung by bizarre ‘bad rake job’ appeared first on Golf.

The post The swing revelation that has Matthew Wolff looking (and playing) like his old self appeared first on Golf.

The post The swing revelation that has Matthew Wolff looking (and playing) like his old self appeared first on Golf.

Someday, a group of savvy television executives — or perhaps the good folks at the Hallmark Channel — will summon the wherewithal to draft a script for The Many Lives of Matthew Wolff. The 22-year-old has barely entered the first act of his professional career, and yet he’s already among golf’s most fascinating players.

His swing is a source of limitless intrigue. A wonky and swooping tornado of motion, it serves as the perfect metaphor for his early career: capable of both dramatic success and head-scratching oddities.

First there was the 2019 win at the 3M Open that made Wolff the first winner of his rookie class, outracing both Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland to the achievement. Then there was the dazzling success that followed, punctuated by a Sunday duel with Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open that resulted in a runner-up finish.

Then came unexpected struggles — a series of missed cuts followed by a several-month hiatus from competitive golf. And then shock, when he admitted a large reason behind his sabbatical was because the grind of the pro game had robbed him of his joy for the sport.

These narratives would be suitable for the arc of an eventful professional career. For Matt Wolff, they’ve all occurred in the last 18 months.

News

Of course, no script would be complete without a redemption story — the portion of Wolff’s story it appears he might now be entering.

The young gun is once again finding his confidence on the course, and through three rounds at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, is firmly in contention to grab the second win of his pro career.

There’s a lot that’s changed since Wolff’s break earlier this year — much of it mindset-driven. But as far as swing changes are concerned, he’s found recent success by simplifying his approach.

“I’ve been working on the same thing with my coach [George Gankas] for a little bit now and it’s the first time we kind of stuck to one thing, because last year was kind of a struggle,” Wolff said after his third consecutive round in the 60s at the Shriners on Saturday.

In a swing as complex and unique as Wolff’s, how does he find a single tweak worth focusing on? The answer, as it turns out, isn’t to focus upon the swing at all.

“I was trying to find a bunch of different stuff in my swing and we came to the kind of the realization that we don’t need to be changing too much, just one small thing,” Wolff said. “For me, it’s just set up.”

For Wolff, finding an athletic posture is a strong indicator for athleticism throughout the rest of the swing. For those who’ve seen him swing, it should come as no surprise that athleticism plays a significant role in his success.

“It’s when I feel comfortable other the ball and feel like I’m athletic I feel like I really hit the ball well,” he said. “Sometimes I get a little straight-legged and bent over a little bit.”

On Sunday, Wolff is in the hunt for his first win since his roller-coaster ride began last June. A victory would be a fitting conclusion to act one for one of golf’s most interesting players. Or, as some might call it, a Hollywood ending.

“I feel like really confident with where I’m at in my game,” Wolff said. “My putting, my chipping, every part of my game feels really solid so I’m excited for tomorrow.”

The post The swing revelation that has Matthew Wolff looking (and playing) like his old self appeared first on Golf.

The post How Matthew Wolff won $1 million last weekend… after missing the cut appeared first on Golf.

The post How Matthew Wolff won $1 million last weekend… after missing the cut appeared first on Golf.

Matthew Wolff played through a difficult season on the PGA Tour this year, marked by several highs and some admittedly honest lows. Last weekend featured both for the 22-year-old pro.

Beginning the season on a tear with second-place finishes at the 2020 U.S. Open and the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Wolff failed to record a top 10 in 2021 while battling mental health issues, culminating in a missed cut at last week’s Wyndham Championship.

But Wolff didn’t leave North Carolina empty-handed. In fact, he drove away with an extra $1 million in his pocket, his biggest check of the year.

News

While Wolff didn’t go low enough to play the weekend at Sedgefield CC, he did do enough to secure a victory in the season-long Aon Risk-Reward Challenge. Here’s how the competition worked: At participating events on the PGA and PGA Tours, a single hole was designated as the Aon Risk-Reward hole, with a player’s performance on that hole contributing to their Risk-Reward standing. The player with the lowest average score to par at the end of the regular season wins $1 million.

Wolff happened to excel on these holes, including the par-5 15th in the first two rounds of the Wyndham. It was enough to earn an average score to par of -1.048, beating out runner-up Kevin Na’s score of -.935.

“Yeah, it means a lot. I think, you know, obviously there’s a lot of money to be made out on Tour, but I’m new out here and every little bit helps,” Wolff said after his round on Friday night. “And Aon puts on a great contest, year-long contest. Just happy that I got it done. And I knew about it kind of the last couple months, so on the Aon holes I was a little more nervous than I usually am, but played them pretty well and just came out on top.

“It’s the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge and I’m a pretty risky player and I guess it just happened to turn out in my favor on those holes,” he continued. “I feel like I have a pretty good game plan every single week, but seems like those holes I just have a better one.”

The $1 million bonus still pales in comparison to earnings Wolff made on the course in his up-and-down season: a whopping $2,507,324. He will continue his season next week at the Northern Trust, the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. But his FedEx ranking of 59th means he’ll have to play well to remain in the Top 70 and move onto the second playoff event.

The post How Matthew Wolff won $1 million last weekend… after missing the cut appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I tried so hard to be perfect:’ Matthew Wolff explains PGA Tour absence appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I tried so hard to be perfect:’ Matthew Wolff explains PGA Tour absence appeared first on Golf.

SAN DIEGO — Matthew Wolff stepped onto the 4th hole at Torrey Pines on Wednesday, stuck a tee in the ground, waggled his trademark waggle, felt the left-to-right wind off the Pacific, took the club back high and outside, dropped it in the slot and torpedoed his TaylorMade into the San Diego sky, the ball soaring down the right-center of the fairway.

He grinned. Fist-bumped. Sheathed his driver. Then he sidled over to chat, ready to answer the question that’s been on every golf fan’s mind.

How are you, Matt?

He paused. Took a deep breath. Considered.

“I’m OK.”

The last time a U.S. Open was contested, Wolff looked like a world-beater. On Sunday at Winged Foot last September, he held the 54-hole lead and walked to the 1st tee chatting on his phone, oozing carefree jock swagger. And even though he didn’t close that day — he finished second, behind Bryson DeChambeau — all signs indicated that he’d officially arrived. A few weeks before, he’d finished T4 at the PGA Championship. A week later, he finished T2 at the Shriners. He skyrocketed to No. 12 in the world. Top pros were gushing about his game. “We all know how talented Matt is,” Rory McIlroy said. Everyone believed in Matthew Wolff.

Except Matthew Wolff.

“I tried so hard to be perfect,” he said on Wednesday, nine months later, on the eve of another U.S. Open. “A lot of guys out here try to be so perfect. And I want to please everyone, I want to make people happy, I want to play well, I want people to root for me. Sometimes it’s a lot of pressure, and I think it got a little intense. It got too much.”

News

George Gankas, his longtime coach and confidante, strolled alongside Wolff all afternoon, dialing in the turn in his backswing and keeping the mood light in between.

“How’s Matty Wolff doing?” He gestured as Wolff nipped a bunker shot to kick-in range and tossed his wedge to his caddie, Nick. “Right now — at this point, right now? He’s pretty f—- good. He’s loose.”

Wolff hasn’t played competitive golf in two months. The last time he teed it up, he signed for the wrong score at the Masters and got DQ’d. That came after an 83-WD at the WGC-Concession and a 78-WD at the Farmers Insurance Open. Since that runner-up finish in Las Vegas in October, Wolff has played 10 tournaments without cracking the top 25. Over time, the frustrations compounded. His patience wore thin. It didn’t take a body language expert to see that Wolff was off his game.

“One bad shot, he gets down,” Gankas said. “That’s what he’s working on: taking things a little bit more lightly. He’s looking for that happy place, if that makes sense. He’s working on being good to himself.”

“It’s a great life I live, and I know that,” Wolff added, aware not everyone feels natural empathy towards the young and wealthy. “But I think there are a lot of things people don’t know about being a pro golfer, or a pro athlete in general. There’s been a lot of talk about mental health in the sports world recently. And I don’t put myself in the spotlight; I’m not one to speak out on topics or anything. I just think that it’s important to take care of yourself and make sure that you’re happy. I’ve been trying to work on that.”

News

When Wolff is on, he’s all the way on. At a GOLF Magazine photoshoot in the fall, he was on. He was enthusiastic, animated, the life of the party. It’s not common for the subject of a cover shoot to check in on the photographer’s assistant, but Wolff did. (“How are you doing? You need anything? Lemme get you a water, hang on. I’ll grab a water.”) He has a way of making the people around him feel special.

He has a harder time doing the same for himself. His profession requires the pursuit of perfection, but it also requires that the pursuer recognizes his goal is unattainable. That’s where Wolff struggles.

“Golf can be f— brutal,” he said succinctly.

Wolff skipped the PGA Championship. He skipped the Memorial. He needed a break. Instead he’s spent the past couple months spending time with family and friends, recharging his batteries. He’d bought a house in Jupiter that was intended to be his training grounds, but he hasn’t been there in months. Oklahoma, where he went to school, feels far more like home.

But now he’s back. Wolff’s peers are happy to see him, too. Xander Schauffele came in for a hug on the range. Sam Burns crossed a fairway to say hello. Bubba Watson, who has been open about his own ups and downs with mental health, spoke at length with Wolff on the range.

“People have been super nice,” Wolff said. “You remember that everyone goes through stuff.”

Thursday, he’ll be in the bright lights again, once more unto the breach, taking on competitive golf on a grand stage, keeping stroke-play score for 72 holes. Oddsmakers don’t think much of his chances — he’s going off at 200-1 or longer on some books — but that’s the way he prefers it.

“I love flying under the radar,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

Courses

“He’s not a favorite to make the cut,” Gankas added, unprompted. Does Wolff know that? Gankas gave a sly smile. “I made him aware of it. He likes it when people doubt him. The more doubt we can get from other people, the better it’ll be for him.”

It’s a complex equation, happiness.

There is, of course, a chance Wolff makes those books look silly. He’s built for a course like this one, with long rough and room to operate. As he hit drivers on the range, he worked his swing speed into the high 120s, his ball speed nearing 190. Bomber numbers. The ball jumps off his clubface.

“The rough doesn’t affect him in any way at all. It’s weird,” Gankas said. “At Winged Foot, guys were flubbing it out of the rough. He was taking 8-irons, 6-irons, hitting it on the green like it was nothing.”

There’s a certain added challenge to return to the Tour for golf’s most punishing test of the year. But Wolff insists he’s excited to be back. He’s been following the game, even in his absence, and talking to him you’re constantly reminded that he’s an excitable 22-year-old.

“I’m excited to watch that dude Wilco [Nienaber] bomb it,” Wolff says. “He could be longest on Tour!”

That’s part of this week’s focus: Enjoying himself.

“I’m not here to ‘bounce back,'” he said. “There are goals I have in my mind this week that are a little different from goals I had previously.”

The way Wolff speaks, it’s clear that he’s trying to convince himself. He wants those goals to be his goals, so he’ll speak them into existence, even if that doesn’t come naturally.

“I know I get really hard on myself. I know I do. But I’ve starting to realize that’s not fair to me, either,” he said. “I’m trying to start enjoying myself a little more.”

The post ‘I tried so hard to be perfect:’ Matthew Wolff explains PGA Tour absence appeared first on Golf.