No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 114: Matt Fitzpatrick

Episode Date: January 16, 2018

Matt Fitzpatrick joins us at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA to talk about the 2018 season, life on the road, and a lot more. We talk about his short stint at Northwestern,... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 114: Matt Fitzpatrick appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. We are here in Abu Dhabi with Matthew Fitzpatrick. Matthew, what's going on? Not much. Do you go, is it Matthew 100% of time? Do you go? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You go by Matthew? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like formally, in turn of it, you go Matthew. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Matt. You go by Matt. Yeah, yeah. Like formally, internally. Definitely, you go Matthew. Matt. No, no, no.

Oh, Matt, oh, Matt. Matthew, if I'm in trouble with my mom. So you're here in Abu Dhabi. You've been coming here for a while. What do you look forward to when you come to this part of the world for golf? It's mainly the weather. It's pretty still.

There's not that much wind. The sun is always out, you know, it's good temperature. It's pretty much like the perfect place for golf. I know everyone says Palm Springs in the States is like, probably similar. So, but that's what it feels like when it comes here, everything's in great shape. Yeah, that's the main thing. You know, you get two weeks of good weather. A lot of English people come to the UAE in general.

We went out, we were on a tour last night, and there was like four British girls like on the street. Yeah, just, I mean, it was like, yeah, it's a quick seven hour flight. Oh, it's not that good. Well, yeah, no, that's the thing. Like, I don't know whether the flight's a cheap or what, but I know there's a lot of British people out here.

I've got a few friends that work out here and stuff, so. What do you remember about the first time you came here? Was there much culture shock or is it? It's funny, I actually came here on holiday with my parents in about I think it was like, oh, four. And that mean there was just, it was just desert and no buildings. And I mean, we were in Dubai, not Abu Dhabi. But like, literally you had to get a car everywhere.

You couldn't walk anywhere. There was nowhere really to go. We just went to this place called Dubai Creek. But like literally you had to get a car everywhere. You couldn't walk anywhere. There was nowhere really to go. We just went to this place called Dubai Creek. We mainly went there for dinner because there was like nothing else going on, you know, eating in the hotel and yeah, it was just literally desert.

So you've seen kind of progression? Yeah, really, I mean, I didn't remember much from 04, but like when I first came back again in about, I think it was 2014, and 2014, it just changed massively. What do you do? Are you so short during a week like this? Do you do like any cultural things?

Do you eat when you come here? No, no, I'm terrible. Are just terrible. Yeah, I'm terrible. I mean, like a place like this, it doesn't, you know, I'm terrible. Or just terrible. Yeah, I'm terrible. I mean, like a place like this, it doesn't, you know, I wouldn't really, I don't know where to start culturally. I mean, obviously there's the mosque and stuff

that is pretty cool, but yeah, a place like this, I wouldn't, but you know, if I was in Paris and probably go out, you know, or Chet Republic, it's pretty cool as well, so. Braug, right? Yeah, that's a good place to go out. Yeah know, or chat republic, it's pretty cool as well, so. Brawg, right? Yeah, that's a good place to go out. Yeah. What is, how are things different like this week

on tour to compare to a normal European tour stop? There's not really a normal European tour stop. No, there isn't, there isn't. I don't know how many you've been to, but this is like pretty out the normal as well. You know, you can't walk anywhere. You can't just like leave the hotel and go for dinner, you gotta get a taxi or you eat in the hotel. That's probably the biggest thing is literally, you can't just walk down the street to a restaurant.

It's a 10 minute cab ride to a bunch of restaurants or another hotel, you know, for dinner. That's what we were really interested to come out here, just because we'd never been of Middle East one. It's kind It turned into such a golfing hub Corners of the world when I was a golf and kind of just curious to see how things go out here But I want to get kind of talk a lot of things with you want to get into kind of your background and stuff But we we so I used to live in Chicago So I've curious about your Northwestern day. It's cool cool What we did you just party too hard?

One quarter and Northwestern you're out of the go. I wish I was that much of a pie animal, but I'm really not. No, I loved it. The school was just too difficult. I can't, it was just too difficult. That's what it was? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be honest. I didn't really get enough of my brains, you know.

But I, it was definitely more golf and ability that got me in. So, yeah, that again, I loved playing for coach, I guess, in, you know, and David Ingalls there. It was great while I was there, you know, and I made some great friends, like, we should probably see in social media. I've been back at Tone to see all those guys, while they were still in college, and Chicago's the city's awesome as well. I thought I figured it was just way too cold,

and you saw the winter of the first time, and you were out too. I picked a great time to leave, literally, that the January after was the record lows. Like it was ridiculous, so. The shib area. Yeah. So how do you get into Northwestern in the first place? What's your view? Um, a couple of mainly good academics. My dad was always sort of like

get a degree, something to fall back on if the golf doesn't work out. Um, and then the other thing was was pat himself by golf. So, um, I knew obviously Coach Luke and he was a good golf coach and I knew my coaches might walk him peak how I knew him. They spoke highly of him in terms of you knew what he was doing. I know a lot of these coaches tend to be more managers than actual swing coaches. So I felt it was a good thing to have that if I was really struggling. And to be honest, like I had a little bit of interest from a few others, but not. You're kind of an unknown kind of person. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, I won the British boys, which is like US junior, and the awesome Stanford are in touch and Cal Berkeley are in touch and all these other schools are of suddenly

Got in touch and by that point is too late. I don't I was just about to sign for Your dad was your dad like crushed when you were like head. I don't really want to do I think a little bit. I you know, I mean he's always been they've always been great. My mom and dad are like really supportive and whatever I do, but That was the big thing. I think the good thing was my compete Persuaded him that he they said that was good enough to make it. So I Think they sold it to him though. It was gonna. It was kind of gonna be all right So did you have an oh shit moment like along the way? that it was going to be all right. So did you have an OSHIT moment along the way?

Like your first midterm? Yes, many a times. Many a times. Like my current girlfriend, I met her there. Obviously, and we were in the same intro to sight class. And it was like that my student advisor was like, yeah, this is a great class to get you started. You know, it's pretty basic, you know, you get going

and like, first few lectures, I sort of kind of got the gist of what was going on and then, let's just like, yeah, this is what you need to study and like, I'm studying with my girlfriend and I'm like, what? Like, this doesn't make any sense. She'll think going in, nothing at all. I'm reading no after no, nothing's going in. And then we take this test and I was just like,

I have no idea. And then I can't even remember my grades after the first. How many, how many tournaments did you play in that, that semester? Play five. Five. So that's a lot of travel. So good.

Yeah. That's a big adjustment. But we had to we only it was kind of good though in a way we played we played um I do play play limpy fields which are in our way and then we played our home tournaments or two of those were like and then your home course at Northwestern was what? And mix it was actually it's called the Glenn Club by the the main practice facility is, but I mean, we played North Shore, Lake Shore, where else?

Lots of different places, basically. There's too much good golf. Yeah, there is quite a bit. There's quite a bit. So what was the timeline for when you committed to Northwestern? Did you won the USAM in 13, right? And then you went to school that fall. Had you already committed to Northwestern, like way in advance ofAM in 13, right? And then you went to school that fall, had you already committed to Northwestern,

like way in advance of that, did the US Amateur win change kind of your career back? Yeah. This is, I mean, this is really bad, but like, I didn't really know much about the US Amateur in a way. Like my dad is like a golf perforated like this, best way of putting it you know he

knows everything about the amateur game the professional game knows all that to work out will rankings you name it. So like he entered me and he's like you know we'll go it's in Boston great city great experience and then we'll have like four days in New York at the end you know you might not get through the, the, the the stroke plate. No joke there's either. And then when we'll take it from there, anyway, obviously managed to get through, kept on, kept on going all right and managed to win the thing. So, it was a little bit from my field and then exactly and then played walk, go to school and it all happened really fast because I never really got a week at home All night before I went to walk a cup to really sort of

Get to grips with what's going on But it wasn't enough really. I didn't you know, it just it just happened and I was just there and I was just thrown right in So it was probably a good thing in a way, but so I wasn't like not really sure about this anymore, but It's pretty crazy of course to kind of win Side on scene. I lived in Boston for the last last two years Oh nice. I was lucky enough to go out there one day And just I was so blown away at how small the greens are. Yeah, I mean suits your game. Yeah, very very well I mean, it was it was that way the condition was awesome. Just fairways, pure like tight, tight fairways, and then the greens were firm, fast,

missed the green, tuffle up and down, missed it on the wrong side, like your dad is. Anybody that you went up against in Matchplay that has kind of made it onto the World Stage or are they still kind of trickling through? Um. In my whole amateur stuff, or just in that that same that USM Not that I went up against. I don't think I know I played I played Gavin Hall who played for Texas and

He won the junior players like quite a few years before that. And I remember he won it by like five and he hit so far. It was unbelievable. Like 30 by me. I mean, I was like 17 or something. So when I got drawn again, Sim, I was sort of like, this gets really good, you know. See what put just wasn't his course. Like, you know, it was, it was tight and I just ended up holding every single I love that so it kind of helped me along the way

So the Walker Cup 2013 we wanted to ask about national golf links. Okay, what was it like to compete like on such an amazingly historic course? Yeah, did you have an appreciation for it at the time or do you not not not really I have now I'm lucky enough I've got two really good friends, like family friends that are members there. So I've played it quite a bit since. Had the special lunch there that they call, so they love that. Ted actually says that, to him, I managed to say that they bring out lobster's like bread rolls, which is crazy. So, but now I mean, to play with your friends, I think it's a fantastic golf course. You know, you're always in the hole. You're never really going to lose a ball, some funky greens, but kind of let me down as

a competition course because I just felt like it was you could just smash it long and far. Technology is not. Yeah, exactly. You know, you could do it. And anyway, you know, you go, it's wide. And that was sort of helpful for those guys, because they were just picker and longer than us. Yeah.

Another topic I wanted to discuss was you're like kind of you're, you're what, you're 5'10, 155, 165. I don't know. No, that's what you're doing. That's what you're doing. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Just kind of being one of the guys on tour that isn't like known as a bomber, do you,

is there a big difference between your P and Tour and PGA Tour setups in that regard? And do you truly feel like you're at a disadvantage when you do tee it up against those bombers? I think so. I think I'm big into statistics and everything and all the strokes gains stuff. I think that's one thing that there's absolutely such an advantage by hitting it 320 through the air like Rory and DJ and John Rahm and all

those guys. There is no doubt about that. There's a massive advantage, but I did some work towards the end of the year, we're putting together some form of a bit of a chart on the difference between fairways here and missing. I know I tried sort of PGA and bridge stone time to move the ball up and try and get a little bit more carry which I did and I was carrying it 10-15 yards further just by doing that and changing shaft but it was going left right everywhere you know it was really bad so we sort of sat down after that with my team and sort of put this worked out this chart on sort of fairways hit rather than length. Did that at the back end of the year and had like a top 50. Yeah, a top 15s in a row.

Also, just looking at that, I was going to ask about the Omega European Masters just because it looks like... You win cool tournaments Thank you. Yeah, you got that one. You've got the Nordayam You got the the the am at The golf club or at the country club and then really you kind of sold your performance short at national golf lengths Yeah, you went three and one. Yeah Wasn't it wasn't, yeah. But, um, but yeah, so I mean it was pretty quick results.

Yeah. After switching things back, then you just, and that, it was literally just ball position. Yeah, I mean, what was funny, like growing up where I played at Hallumshire Golf, like it was just always windy, always hilly, you know, so we always had to keep it down. Like lots of back foot shots and my attack angle just naturally was probably the driver who was like four, five on the down.

So it's something we've always looked at and sort of kept an eye on. And then literally I did probably a month of moving it up, just literally keeping it open, hitting up on it. And then all of a sudden it went from like minus five to plus five. So obviously it's stupidly drastic. One extreme to the other. Yeah, exactly. So it's stupidly drastic. But then when we just sort of said, right, well, just go what feels comfortable.

I did that. And like it obviously somehow averaged out then like plus one which is great because now that's a pretty decent attack angle And you can obviously increase that and it still feels pretty natural to me. So yeah So going back Dude just looking at you seem to play really well to Gusta to minus the second round Yeah, yeah, it looks like second round kind of your number but I was just was just been right in the mix. Yeah, I loved the place. You know, I've spent a ton of time there. When I was got the chance as an amateur and then first year as a pro and last year, I just think it's a place where we're so lucky to get invited and go and play, you know,

you've got to make the most of it. And then then guys so when you played as an amateur, did you stay in the crow's nest? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did one night I only did one night. Yeah, so That was fun. And then had you seen it Prior to showing up on Sunday or Monday or the torn of the Namata. Yeah, I went like two weeks before Yeah, and spent like four days in a row. It was drastically different than, right? I mean, it's unbelievable. It's like, I played again last year, I went and played the Saturday, Sunday,

and they'd had a bad storm. It was really wet. The Greens were so spinning back and everything. You turn up Thursday morning, and it's just like pitching on this table. So. And then so going back to your kind of charting the statistics, you found that there was enough of an advantage to be had by hitting fairways. Yeah, I mean, I

spoke to this stats guy that actually met with works for sort of tailor-made and basically, yeah, average fairway here, you get in 10 to 15 yards extra roll. So, have that and then two extra fairways, it equated to like, two extra fairways on top of what you already hear. It was like a gain of 1.3, which I was like averaging minus 0.0 something. Okay. Was it different on the Euro Tour versus the PGA Tour? Like was there a disparity between it being more advantageous to hit fairways on one or the other?

No, well, it was kind of the back end of the year, so I've not really seen the proof yet, but I know playing the USPGA, well, to Quail Hollow this year, Lashu was absolutely brutal. Was, so I remember is actually last summer in Scotland. I remember seeing you, if I forget the name of the restaurant, I want to say like Lido or something like that. I remember seeing you walk out of the restaurant carrying your track man. So is that, is that thing just with you? Oh, why did I? Why was Scottish open?

I think it was in it was at Dundonald so we were all near to it. Oh, where do you mean? It was like somewhere. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe. DJ was tight with his track man but that's like I think I tried to stop his laugh.

Yeah, well to be fair though we've had some bad instances with my track man. Right. It has been left in some terrible places. Like the one most recently, like was South Africa, it was Joeburg Airport. Like, Joeburg's not like the safest place. Right. Everyone knows that. And I checked in and that was in like a separate hand luggage piece.

And literally, I mean, Ted had just walked into dinner and like, yeah, let's just go get some dinner and then I get there and I've just gone, oh shit. And like, literally, I'm sprinting back there because I mean, it could be gone. You don't know. Those are expensive. Yeah, well, exactly. So I'm sprinting and I get there.

And fortunately, for some reason, I see two other players at a notebook They didn't ask any questions why I was like dying and out of breath and I just slowly walked away wheeling my hand Look kids with this trap man in that no one had touched and I was just so grateful though still there A year ago Callaway debuted their revolutionary ball speed technology jailbreak in epic drivers reviewed their revolutionary ball speed technology jailbreak in epic drivers. Golfers everywhere immediately noticed unbelievable gains and as a result, it was somehow the best selling driver every single month in 2017. I can speak from experience on this because I played the epic all year long and it was unquestionably the best club I've ever hit.

You've definitely heard me say that on this podcast many times. Well, today, Calloway just unveiled their-new Rogue Drivers with enhanced jailbreak technology for incredible distance and new, more forgiving head shapes. You can choose from three options. The Rogue Standard, which is a 460cc head that will benefit a wide range of players. And of course, the Rogue Sub-Zero for Golf or Seeking Extreme, Low spin and tour level shape. That's the one I'm going to be playing and then of course you could have the Rogue draw which is this is for golfers who are struggling with a slice and need every bit of draw promoting technology there is. As you can expect with Callaway their content

team is all over this and they've built out in an interactive landing page on their site that you must see. Go to Callawayigulf.com, slash jailbreak, for tech break apart, shaft options, videos, photos, it's everything. So calaigulf.com, slash jailbreak, the new road driver from Calaway, the number one driver in golf. So are you pretty married to the track man,

or is it how often are you using it? Is it a key tool for you? Yeah, it is. I mean, it's something more of us, everyone knows that. Now DJ's been just hammering his numbers, you know. He's got this love affair of the family with his track man. So it's all they talk about. Yeah, coverage in the state.

It's like a running meme. So it's like DJ's friends with his track man, Jordan, and Justin are friends. And that's it. That's all the media. I like it. I like it. But yeah, I mean, it's more my fear of losing it

than anything, I think. That's what you're using it every day. Exactly. Exactly. But I didn't even tell the best story. I just remembered the best story with the track man. Left it in a rental car, JFK. I then got an attack scene with my girlfriend

to go to La Guadilla. Got to La Guadilla. We realized it's in the rental car, JFK, I then got an attack scene with my girlfriend, go to La Guadilla, got to La Guadilla, realized it's in the rental car JFK, fortunately flights delayed, getting an attack scene, go back, pick it up, get back to La Guadilla, make my flight with the track man, so. I'm not sure, I totally have realized that you were responsible for buying your own track man. I just assumed track man was like,

you were sponsored by the tours, whether they had representatives out there. Should be that the night, that would be nice. I as assumed trackman was like, you're sponsored by the tours, or they had representatives out there. Show their number nine. That's what I said. What would they worry? They bring technicians out to the tournaments, right? And help you with everything. Yeah, they do.

But it's fully operational on your own, too, and you can hook it up to your phone. Absolutely, yeah. So going back to, we started talking about the masters going out of order here, but I want to know what's something like the first masters you played in. What was something that surprised you? I think just seeing the course itself, you know, you stand on top of, you

as being for, yeah, so you stand here the side of the clubhouse and I was there when it was just empty and there's just literally no one in the course and you just don't realize how much, what's the word? Well, elevation, that's the worst thing. That's the first thing you know. Number 10 is like a ski slope. Yeah, exactly. So like literally, you stood at the top

and then you can see all the way down to, I wanna say, 15 or almost, kind of, maybe. But yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy. So when you turn pro in 2014 after the US Open, you bypassed your entry into the open championship as a USA Amener. What made that timing make the most sense for you or why that particular timing? I'd qualified for the Open the year before, so I'd played the Open before, so that was, I think if I hadn't have played the, I would have stayed.

And it's like one of the different things. Exactly, but I think because I'd done it before, it was like, you know, there's a good run of events. There was Irish, Scottish, French, and at the time, I'd managed to get invites for all of those. And it was a good money opportunity, really. You never know, you have those, you it was good money opportunity really. You know, you never know, you have those, you have three good starts there, three top tens and you're close to getting your cards. And then you go straight to the challenge tour, kind of the second half of the season. Yeah, I'd not made enough money out of the starts that I had and then gone challenge tour and sort of kicked on really fast and played really well. I had some good finishes.

I've always been kind of, you know, we talked a lot of PGA tour guys that come through the web and kind of the praises they're sitting for like that part of the process and learning to be a professional. Was that challenge tour experience like pretty integral in your success or were you kind of like ready to get, ready to graduate pretty quickly? A little, I think more the more the really, you know, I think the courses

aren't set up out there as they are here, you know, I'm good friends with David Lipsky, I've never played Web.com, but I'll never Pat Goss told me a story about David calling him doing, you know, he'd do all these drills on your dispersion and all this short game drills and E-Ring's pattern says, all that shit you taught me is absolutely effing useless. You know, all these guys do is get driver out every hole, hit it as far as they can, fire every single flag and make every single port and that like this at what it uses this to me. So I don't know whether it's like that. I mean, on challenge story, it wasn't that drastic, but I know you've got to you've this to me. So I don't know whether it's like that. I mean, on challenge story, it wasn't that drastic, but I know you've got to shoot low scores too.

There's more variables out there too, with the conditioning. So how many challenge short events did you play? I think I played about, I think I played eight. Okay. And what was the craziest place you played? Because like, we've got a friend back in Jacksonville, Chris Baker, who he played the challenge

tour one year I think and he was telling us about going to the Kazakhstan open. Yeah, I played too. The two the two the two best were went as a by a shan okay, which was just in the middle of nowhere the weirdest place ever this hotel called Rick's also tell and it was like brand new amazing build just empty. Like there was like just about 40 golfers staying in there or whatever it was. And then went to Kazakhstan and that was interesting to say the least. Yeah, but a handful of golf courses and the whole country. Exactly. We kept having this guy who looked like a drug dealer

or something. He just kept coming up to us in a leather jacket, gold teeth, shaking my hand. Like pretty much, it was like every other day and he's like, you play well today, you play well. And I'm like, just so strange. And yeah, that was interesting. I remember watching you, Big Randy, one of our other guys, and we always went down to the

heritage every year. And I remember watching you one year. We probably watched you for 25 minutes, just hit balls. Man, he has the best tempo in swing ever. But you didn't try to overswing it, you didn't try to. Is that kind of something that you've always had? Or is that something? Yeah.

One problem I'm trying to work on the range like this year is I just literally draggable hit, draggable hit, and like it's far too quick. So I don't think I always take in what I'm being told by my coach, whatever, and, and, you know, like you say, tempo sort of goes then before you know, you just hit one after another. And I've always tried to sort of keep my, when my swing, when just hit him one after another and I've always tried to sort of keep my, when my swing, when I over swing a little bit, it doesn't really help me at all.

So that's another thing really. So it's just like, almost trying to swing within myself, nice and slow and easy and keep it short. What was it tough when you're paired up with somebody like Dustin Johnson or Alvaro Kiro, so that's not over swing. Do you know what? I think. It's not as bad as I thought. when you're paired up with somebody like Dustin Johnson or Avarro Kiroz. Yeah. That's not over swing. Do you know what? It's not as bad as I thought.

You know, I always thought I probably would try and try and go after it, but I think like I like to think is that I make it up for another areas. You know, I know a lot of people but say, you know, you hold every put you look at. And I do put well, you know, statistically I do. So I'd like to just try and keep that in my mind that, you know, just out putting them rather than how it drives him. At what point in 2016 did you start thinking about

Radar Cup qualification every week? Every week. Yeah. You know, like, I end the season. I won the second week of the points. I don't think anything of it. Anyway, then have like three top tens of the end of the year in big events, so I'm still up there. And then gets to about, I don't know, February or March. Yeah, but no, probably just after April, and it's like, hang on, like, in the right a cup team here,

and then all of a sudden it just became really real. And then every week was like, beat myself up by, oh, I've gotta do well, gotta do well, got me that team, got me that team. And yeah, I was having big discussion to my coach about it. And the first week where we sort of had to sit down and said, you know, look, got to just let it go. You know, you just got to play and relax and end up winning the no day of master. So that helped again, helped me kick along again. And then, yeah, when I did close it out,

it was such a great feeling, you know. How would you describe your first Radar Cup experience? It was a tough one. Yeah, that's a tough one. You can let it fly. Yeah, I'm gonna let it fly. Yeah. As he looks up, it was manager.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was brilliant, but disappointed. Yeah, very did, yeah. Did you know you were gonna sit out the first day or was that a surprise when it happened? It's one of those. I kind of went in thinking I was gonna sit out one, I didn't expect to sit out three personally.

Now, I understand where it was all coming from, Rocky, not played it for American turf or that, but I think the whole thing with it, we never really got a chance like me, Thomas, Ertme, Chris Ward, Andy Sullivan, and it would have been nice to just have a chance. The one thing I learned from it was you need to play for ball You need to play one of the four ball matches Before going to Sunday that will put my opinion purely just to play your own ball just to hold out

You know, but every shot just yeah, just a bit of pressure like I played a force and was on Saturday. I've hit probably well half the shots obviously and Like I'm just not ready to go. You know, I don't know what it's like to hold a six foot. Oh, it's, it's, you know, it's just weird. It's really weird. Do you think the O and four start and the first session change kind of the plan for any of the pairings? No, I think Danny Willett's brother changed the, yeah, then it, I really do. You know, if, if he doesn't write the article, Danny probably plays. You know, Darren's got his ideas.

I don't know if the UX team were more excited to play or not, but maybe they're not so excited to play. And yeah, I think it might have been three won, you know, made me two all, whatever, but I think them might have had a chance in the afternoon to won, you know, made me two all whatever, but I think I might have had a chance in the afternoon to play, you know. Yeah, because the sitting will let the crowd get even more fired up for when he actually came in.

Exactly. It was ugly. Yeah. I mean, I was out there just in like, in some of those situations, you're in no position as a media member to say something, but I almost turned around and be like, you like stopped. Yeah. I mean, I mean golf, you people.

Yeah. Damn you people. It was like legitimately ugly. And that was kind of like, I was living a broad at the time and I came back to the States and kind of just looked around in like a changing political environment. I was like, this is just weird. It was kind of like, I don't know.

It didn't fill me with like patriotic pride the way people conducted themselves. And what was like the craziest thing somebody said to you? Or the... I had a few, yeah, and a few. Anything that's suitable for my first day, my first lichy, my first hole gets to the green, did your mom cut your hair?

That was a good one, I thought that was good one. That's kind of good. Yeah, I mean, I thought it was good. And then about, well, that afternoon, I think I was eating a sandwich. Did your mum cut your criss-crossed off that? That was a good one as well. You were 21 at the time? Yeah, so I mean, it works. Yeah, exactly. Those were healthy songs. Yeah, so I mean, it's better than some of the stuff that some of the guys got, obviously. We wanted to know what was the worst time you got or the work

The those were the worst I mean I got a flight. Yeah exactly. I think In my opinion, I mean I followed Dan because I'm good friends with him and and I followed a few of the other the boys that Get a little bit more stick than then the most and Like obviously it came across badly in the media that I really didn't think it was that bad I don't know whether people didn't expect it to be that bad or what but I went in there with the full mindset that Every single one of his fans hates you one of them basically wants to destroy you and you just got to deal with it I think maybe my Soccer background helped a little I was gonna say being English. English. Yeah, I really do because soccer, who

would get exactly, you know, my team, Sheffield United, I've been to so many games, and you know, you see it all the time. They play Mrs. the Bull, or what, or does it bad tackle, and all of a sudden, the fans are you saying everything under the sun, and just abuse, and the guy. So I kind of, I'm not saying I was used to it,

but you know, you've heard it before. Rory said in his pressur today, just how little the course and the set up did favors for you guys as the European team, which I suppose is part of the plan as a host, but how different it's going to be in France this year as well. So going back to Hazeltein, I mean, probably just not your cup of tea as far as it could be concerned. No, no, absolutely. And I think my, I think my

caddy saw Davis maybe the Sunday or something Saturday and and Davis said, how do you like it? My caddy was like,, well, sell for you boys and something like that. And he was like, yep, absolutely. I was like, I mean, literally, he admitted to it, you know. It's no secret. And it's right, so why wouldn't you sell? If you want to win, the aim of the game is to win and it's not cheating, it's just a pure, it's like a request.

So. It's funny, Rose called it the set up on Sunday so it was similar to a pro-AM. Well, no, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, and I mean, I can't remember too much of the Sunday, but like the flags, I seem to remember a pretty central, not talked really.

It's a pretty polarizing course as it is, too, exactly. It's, I mean, like I said, Tony Jacken said it. It was like, was it cow patch or cowfield or something like that? And that's not really what you want set about you golf course. And then why, yeah, I mean, I have bad memories because of what why you go on to tie a good tie. Never forget about that. What was it like to get paired with a guy like Henry Stenson and a veteran?

Did he say anything in particular to you before you started and during the round about? No. I think not really. I mean, he's, I know his caddy as well and obviously he's worked with Pete for such a long time. So we kind of had a bit of a pre-existing relationship, which was good. He's quite a quiet person anyway. So I don't really think he didn't really say much. And for me, I didn't

be wrong, I was nervous, but I kind of put things into perspective like, I'm not going to hit like amazing shots in my first ever rider cup, so you know, I kind of just sort of tried to deal with it as best I could, but you know, he's a good partner to have, because I think the thing is, you know, he's so good to eat have because I think the thing is you know he's so good tea to green I sort of had that confidence like it's all right Emory cool Emory will save it. I can eat it anywhere He'll just get it on the green. That's fine and he keeps it pretty light. Yeah, well exactly We're the nerves as real as everyone says they are was it yes, and no yeah The first it used more I think excitement nerves rather than like oh god this could go anywhere first it was more, I think excitement nerves rather than like, oh God, this could

go anywhere. Like it was just, you just wanted to get going because it was just, and make puts and sort of fish bump and all that sort of stuff that comes with it. You know, I remember watching, uh, Medina and, you know, you're just there like, I want to be part of that and I've never thought I would be in for his time. So in hearing Roy's comments to the press conference today, it seems like you guys are pretty fired up for a rematch. I think so.

Yeah, I genuinely do. I think. Chomping at the bit. Yeah. I think hopefully all being well, like I'd love to make the team. That is my main goal this year and, you know, I think we will have a strong team but you can do want a bit of revenge. For me personally as well playing two matches out of five, yeah it's out of five. It was really disappointing for me bearing in my one mandatory, so I kind of just want to get another crack at it really because I don't feel

I was given enough chance like I almost want to sort of say Can we just not count that one on my record, you know, it's a warm up. Yeah, exactly. So what's the scouting report on Lake golf Ness and I don't know if I can share that Just for a venue perspective it like like seeing it on TV it almost looks kind of like TPC sawgrass or something. No, there's water. Yeah, do you know when I first ever played there as my first event or one of my first friends at a pro, I loved it. The fairways were lying with gorse and it was really tight. Rough was thick, firm greens. And then obviously when they found out

that the writer Coup was coming, they changed it and they took it all away. And I played the French Open last year and I was like, this is awful, like terrible because it just wide open. And you know, you did it. Totally playing into the America's hands. Yeah, exactly, right.

So I'm thinking, so it was terrible because they'd taken all, but every single hole pretty much like has a Bank either side So literally every hole will be like a stadium and that's what's gonna be made and you know why they've done it you can see it but when you get that those holes filled with people it's gonna be Unbelievable, I think it will probably be one of the best like as a venue. I think for crowd anyway. Eurasia Cup. How was that? It was good fun. Yeah, it was a

Little tricky than everyone thought I think yeah, I personally thought they were they were Underrated. I thought they were I thought they were gonna be better than what everyone said So so that's an event in the States. We're not a whole lot of people, I remember watching it a few years ago. Yeah. And like, it doesn't get much closer. People had no idea what it was. Which, eh, I think they should move it around either in Asia, you know, just in Asia to kind of grow the game over there,

but also just to get it more exposure in the States. Yeah. How was the course over there in Colin Port? The course is, I mean, it's like a bit of a resort course. It's pretty wide open, but at the same time, the roof's not very, it's pretty nasty too. It's quite thick. But, you know, if you were a 60-yard right-wide drive, you're still in play. Yeah, you know, I played played a couple guys that did that and Right, they hack it up by the green and they get up and down because they know the grass so well and they're so good at a chipping, you know, but

if you took it round Another golf course you lose in Four balls and you win in holes and I had a good conversation with like snoring on the Sunday We're talking about the golf course and why it was a bit closer and stuff and we used to playing golf courses where they took the pins and it's three from the right and we had a good shot and it's 15 feet. You know, you're not always going to make you 15 footers but those guys missed the green and then they're so good at chipping, they just chip it on and hold the putt. So, I think that's why they probably had a bit of an answer.

So you flew here from Malaysia? Yes. And then where were you before that? Uh, Dubai for a couple of days. Okay. And then before that, I was in Florida. Okay. And Florida's home base for you.

At least right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. How'd you decide on Florida? Just the best club. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the big thing for me, yeah. Sort of being at home, like my practice facilities are non-existent. You know, there's no best club as a par three cause. There's double-sided range, two tripping greens, two point greens. It's good weather. I mean, yeah. Perfect weather. Yeah. I mean, it has double-sided range, two chipping greens, two putting greens, it's... Good weather. Yeah, perfect weather.

Yeah, I mean, it's brilliant, you know. You can fly in an hour pretty easily. Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad in that aspect. And, but the thing is with it, you've got Rory, you've got Justin Thomas, you've got Ricky, you've got all these guys playing there where I'd love to go playing nine holes with them, either to pick the brains

or to just compete against them just to get me sharper and not only is there always a game there's always a game with a top yeah exactly exactly it's not like you're just gonna go play with three three friends that are off like six seven and eight you know so living in Florida now or at least part time, how do you set your schedule up? Like do you do play kind of the Florida swing and then stack those WGCs and then kind of come back over to the floor? Yeah, so I'm doing February basically till end of May.

And then I'll go back and forth a bit in between after that, but I'm from an American based in February until May. And then I've got a month off based in February. And then I'll play Mexico, Val Sparbe Hill match play. Okay. Cool. And then as far as the tournaments that you've won prior to those kind of dictate what your schedule is moving forward, like I know you won the Northam Masters 2016, like just boat race. Yeah, a little bit, but it is like I've sort of taken the view now really that I want

to play where I want to play or where I need to play. You know, this, my dad being knowing all this stuff about, well, ranking points, there's going to be occasions over the next few years where we go try play like Japan open or because the certain events that carry like national opens carry more ranking points. So, candid, you're not cheating the system, but they're not going to have a stronger field is. You're preaching the choir here, Salih. This is like Salih's. Really?

He's up on a pedestal just preaching this. Ah. You tricky Europeans manipulating the official world golf rankings. That's what somebody people have been saying. Like, oh, look at the world golf rankings. Europe's gonna be favored in the rider cup. And I'm like, youros are manipulating the system.

And you just admitted it, you're making me so happy. That's like, so. Oh, no, everyone does it though. Like, no offense ever in hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but then not a sma. That fall part of the season is where the year I was like, make a huge putt, because you guys have put more events

at the end of the year, that event, ton of points and stuff like this. It's not necessarily manipulation, but it is like, into the year rankings, which decides where you can do some of this next year. It's a very strong, Europe push. Sally's still salty that Alex Noren was like ninth

in the world. It's a separate topic. Hey, you won four times in a year. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. They totally were. The knock was never on noran. It's just like the way the rankings were. Just the tournaments. Yeah, no, no, it's just like if you win a bunch, and it's not the best case, but the point is, like if you win a bunch of events like on the European tour,

you can, like if you get, I think there was one week where you win, you get 24 points or something like that. And somebody finished a shot out of the playoff in like the Valspar, remember this, and they got like four points. And they, the, what, because Valspar, remember this, and they got four points. And they, they, what, because if they finished tied four, it was just a three-way tie.

And like, so with a much, much better feel, you get so many less points. No, I agree. And I mean, I know Grayson Moring, Kelly Crafty. Yeah, they were on the bandwagon of this, which I understand. And, you know, I do, I do a record on your side. Yeah.

No, I agree. Like the fields here are probably, you know, we get, like this week's a great example. DJ comes over, Rosie comes over, Rory's here, all the sudden points are just pumped up. So it only takes, Europeans have a good week, finishes second, picks up, I don't know, say 20 ranking points and he's just flying up there, you know, whereas... But there's value in every week in the US though, has Ricky, DJ, Justin, you know,

speed, all those boys. That's the thing is if you're beating a huge sum of some of the top players, there should be a ton of value in that. If you win a lower rank European tour event that may not have anyone from the top 100 in the world, you get a ton of points no matter what. That's kind of my argument. I agree with you. But it's I don't know.

When you're just kind of splitting hairs when you get into that top mess, yeah. World rankings aren't holding anybody in particular back. It's just kind of simply, it's not perfect. The company I use to start, they have a performance ranking, so they do it a little bit different. And literally mine has been worse than my official war ranking. And they've got a lot of guys that are that, literally mine has been worse than my official will ranking.

And that they've got a lot of guys that are that and there's very few that are better than the will ranking. So well, I wouldn't mind it if you know, so you know, kept going you line those guys like the American guys that kind of bypass playing the web tour to go play in Europe. I think that's fantastic. I didn't that's great for you. I didn't that small. And you know, I think you probably learn a bit more.

Yeah, it makes a little more sense. Getting near the end of my questions, you got any more? Yeah. All right, defending in Sweden, you came in second. Was that, what was that experience like just, I mean, you kind of cracked the code on defending, you know, that's just kind of the way. Just kind of looking at what all Fleet would have to do today was remarkable like all the all the

the obligations and everything was just wild. You know, you've just being ferried around from place to place to place. I think it I think it depends on the thing like even DP wills the biggest one I want and even defending that last year. That's too bad. Yeah, yeah and even defending that last year. That's too bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, even defending that last year, that wasn't, it wasn't that bad. I think it depends on what which tournament win. And some of that today too was probably, you got the player of the year. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

But I know British Masters, the year after one that, that was pretty, that was pretty busy, you know, go love interviews, go play this in the pro-am and do this thing. And that was pretty busy, but you know, I think you'd be an idiot to complain that you've got to do all that, you know, I'd take winning every year and having to do that the following year, you know. But it is, I don't know, I don't know if in Europe the guys have to do more than they do in America. It seems that way when I'm over there. But I don't know if that's actually the case. Favorite course in England? Oh, favorite course in England.

Probably well-burnt. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I've worn around there, but I just really like his tree line. It reminds me a lot of Harbour Town. Okay. Yeah, that probably goes that. I was going to say, you're bound to win Harbour Town. Honestly, if I won Harbour Town, I may retire. That has always been the goal. Growing up, we were there on holiday all the time. We'd always watched the tournament and then playing.

So lovely. And to Mr. Cut these last two years as a pro, like I'm so angry. Do you think you've gotten almost too excited for it? You may be, maybe. I think I really think the Maslow's takes it a lot out of you. I think certainly the year after I finished seventh,

sort of got to Harbour Town. And I was a bit like, I was like, almost do I have to play and then I was like, it doesn't matter if I missed the cut. Which, she's not really a great way, obviously, looking at it, but it's kind of just that master's buzz, you still ought to come off that and you're a bit like, I could, I'm going to call something like this. But at the same time, I love the event so much, I would never, I would almost never miss it, really. You're going to start skipping the masters.

Yeah. To prefer every time. Yeah. Absolutely. No, that's a life. Anyone from the Masters is listening. Have you always kind of looked up to Luke Donald as a mentor? Like was that part of going to?

Not really now. I don't respect Luke a lot. He's been a great player. He still is a great player. But who's kind of taking you under their wing the most? I mean, probably Marcus, I admired him from afar. Is Martin Kym, it really? I've just become really good friends in Martin.

You know, he's a two-time major winner and I think people forget that a lot He's a great guy works really really hard And he's very very genuine, you know, I met a lot of these guys and you know you play rounds with them on the golf course And then you'll see him after and it's like you won't get anything out of them really and Seems like he has a life. Yeah, he does. He does and, um, yeah, he's just, he's just a, he's just a really good, good guy.

He's looking to it for a girlfriend. I'm gonna let anyone's listening. So, you know, last time you paid for a round of golf, uh, t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t- Palm Beach, Pothry that played like two Christmas's ago. Okay. That's the only one I can really think of. What tournament in the States have you not played yet that you really wanna get to? Um, Memorial. Okay.

Absolutely. Memorial. This is talking to absolutely double no higher. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, all right, I think on that we're going to wrap it up. Thank you, Mike.

No. Thank you for trying to share a microphone on this. We had some technical issues if you couldn't tell. I waited till the end to say it because I don't want people to notice it until then. Matt, thank you for the time and best of luck this week. There is actually a well-known no-lang up podcast bump for the week that you do the interview. Oh. I actually added some people messaging me this week saying,

who am I interviewing this week? Cause they want to bet on you. So I'll be, people are gonna be placing bets on you. I hope so, I hope it works out. One last question. Any, how much of a menace is Kierdeck, Opie Bonnrat? Like, you just look like he was tearing it up

in the team rooms, this would be him. Like, what, it's just just vaping all over the place It's funny. I mean he's such a nice guy You made a little bit of a mistake last week, but putting up First out first point against Paul Casey and Fleetwood. I think and you don't want to get just He's a man. You don't want to get Paul Casey fired up not all that didn't end well All right cool. I just had to ask You don't want to get pulled Casey Fido. Not all. That didn't end well. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Cool. I just had to ask. No. All right. We'll wrap it up that. Thank you for the time in. Best of luck this week.

Thank you very much. It's getting right close. Be the right club today. Yes. Yeah. That's better than most. How about it? That is better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.