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NCAA MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPMay 28, 2018Alan BrattonVictor HovlandKristoffer VenturaMatthew WolffStillwater, Oklahoma THE MODERATOR: Alan, if you would talk about today's round and the last four days for you, going into team play tomorrow. ALAN BRATTON: It was a great day out there. Karsten Creek had a lot more teeth today. The greens dried out. It was nice to have the golf course overall dry. Fairways were much drier. Greens were smoother, faster, firmer, so it was a good test. Plus there was a little bit of wind. This place plays a lot different with the wind. Really pleased with the day. We showed a lot of fight, especially on the back nine. I know Viktor had a struggle there the middle of the front nine. But overall Chris did a great job leading us out there, and I was with Matt all day, he was solid. Pleased with the guys. Goal for the week was to finish on top of the stroke play. That was the first goal, so we got that taken care of, now we move on to match play. Q. Kris, talk about your day today, leading your team and the big day that you had as a team, as well? KRISTOFFER VENTURA: Overall, I wasn't hitting my best today, and I ended up making two bogeys on the front nine, and I managed to make two birdies on the back nine and no bogeys. Overall it was tough. The previous three days, it's hard to play Karsten (indiscernible), but today I kept my ball out there, and just being tough. Karsten plays different when it's windy, and this is how we usually play it every day, but overall, I'm pretty proud of my team and what we've done so far, and we move on to match play. Q. Viktor, if you'd want to talk about your day today, maybe the relief, as well, going in. You got through stroke play, going into match play tomorrow, just the mindset? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, I got off to a good start on 1 making a birdie. That hole is playing long into the wind. I hit some good shots and got off to a good start, but then made some mistakes in the middle of the front nine and couldn't really get out of it. It seemed like the bad shots just kept pouring on. So I was 5-over through 7, managed to just keep it together and shoot 2-under from there on in. Yeah, so it ended up not being a terrible round, but it's good to be done with the stroke play. We won the stroke play portion. We're headed into the match play with some confidence, and hopefully we can get some wins. Q. Matthew, talk about getting through the four days of stroke play now, first time through this kind of setup for you. Talk about going into tomorrow. MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, stroke play was a lot of fun. I mean, it was a great experience, especially being at Karsten Creek, our home for our first national championship. That's unforgettable. I thought I played pretty well. I wasn't hitting it as well as I'd like to and had a couple bad breaks, but I was really happy with how I played overall, and really happy and proud of my team for getting that 1 spot and finishing on top. The mindset going into tomorrow, it's just do what we always do. We always play this course so well. We have so much experience, and we've shot such low numbers here throughout the year. Match play is a little different, obviously. You have to take some risks. But I think we're going to be in pretty good shape. We all have a lot of confidence going into it. Q. Al, scoring was pretty high today. Will you change your mindset going into match play? ALAN BRATTON: No, not at all. But the tournament starts over, obviously. First part is done. Whatever the score was -- again, the conditions dictate things out here. You never know what a good score is. Our goal is just to be the lowest one, whatever that added up to, and we got that done, but the tournament starts over tomorrow, so we'll be ready for the first tee shot. I don't know who we play yet. I haven't looked at that stuff. But we'll focus on that now and get ready for the first tee ball tomorrow. Q. (Indiscernible.) ALAN BRATTON: We'll be focused on whoever we have the first match. We've got to take care of our business there, and then we'll take care of whoever ends up out in front of us. Q. Kris, the struggles that you and Matt had the first three days, how is it being able to shift gears and having basically a clean slate now? KRISTOFFER VENTURA: I think that's what's fun with about this tournament. Not only the stroke play, but now when you get into match play, anything can happen. It doesn't matter what we've done so far in the stroke play. As long as we show up tomorrow and play really good. My focus, and I know my teammates' focus, will be just to look in front of us tomorrow on the first tee. Q. You had a couple of bogeys early on. How important was it (indiscernible)? MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, it was really important. I think I had two bogeys early and missed a couple short putts, and I was getting a little down on myself, but I've been working on that lately throughout the year, just having a better attitude and keeping my head up because I always play better when I'm like myself, not down and grumpy. It was nice having Coach Bratton there to help me out, and I felt a lot more comfortable with him out there and having the crowd out here, also. I mean, you can't ask for a better home crowd. They're there for you, and they're there to be behind you when you're up and be there for you when you're down. Yeah, I just stuck to my game plan, and I knew some birdies would come. The course is in great shape, and I feel so comfortable out here that I wasn't really worried that I was going to shoot a bad score. Q. Viktor, talk about the mindset, how different is it now going from today into tomorrow? VIKTOR HOVLAND: Yeah, the stroke play, you've got to finish out the hole. Match play you don't necessarily need to. And I found that I've played a lot of my better golf in match play. I'm not sure if maybe it's just the mentality that, well, if I hit a really bad shot, I can just pick up the ball and it's only 1-down. I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how it is tomorrow, but I hope to bring forward my better golf again in match play tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. Q. Coach, four Big 12 teams in the Final Eight. What does that say about your conference? ALAN BRATTON: Yeah, absolutely. We had seven teams here, and four of the seven teams made match play. I think they mentioned that early in the pre-tournament press conference, just the strength of the conference. You've got to credit all the coaches for working hard and all the good players in this area. Proud of the conference. That's nice to see. And hopefully we all have a good showing in match play. Q. (Indiscernible.) ALAN BRATTON: We've played with them quite a few times. We've played with them, I believe, at the Floridian and at their home tournament. We've probably played with them somewhere else, too. Very familiar. Obviously I'm familiar with the university. I'm from College Station. That will be a good match-up. They've had a good year, and we'll need to be on our game, but I promise you we'll be ready. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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