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NCAA MEN'S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPMay 27, 2019Alan BrattonMatthew WolffFayetteville, Arkansas THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a quick statement. Matthew, just a quick statement about your play today. Obviously, you have four big rounds for you, just your feeling about winning the championship. MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah. It was an unbelievable experience. Started off kind of slow, but kind of just was mentally tough and I told myself to kind of pick it up a little bit, give myself opportunities, and obviously, we have had a great year, so don't let anything get to you. I have confidence in kind of just taking it shot by shot after that. But happy to be here, but still got work to do for the next couple days. THE MODERATOR: Coach, can you talk about, obviously, the play of your team was outstanding, but also Matthew, just talk about both. ALAN BRATTON: Yeah. It was a fantastic week. What a great test of golf the Blessings has been. And proud of my team that we showed our depth, got contributions from all of our guys. Hayden Wood went out and shot 69 today, that was big, to have the first guy out post a good number. We wanted to close well, we obviously had built a big lead, but wanted to take pride in putting up another good score today to keep building momentum into match play. And walking with Matt was a treat, it always is, he does some pretty awesome things. He hit an 8-iron from 151 on number 3 which I thought was the best shot he hit all day, and on No. 12 he hit an 8-iron from 200 yards. So to have the ability to change speed like that was exciting. He worked the ball both ways and did a fantastic job of keeping his composure all week. After the slow start, he was 4-over par after his first nine holes and I just did the best I could to remind him, hey, it's a 72-hole tournament and hopefully that's a lesson that he learned, we talked about that a lot, and hopefully that he remembers that for the rest of his life to always play that way. So certainly fun to have a front row seat for the show that he put on. Q. Talk a little bit about coming back from that 73, your first round and how you were able to rebound from that to be where you are today. MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, it was, the 73 actually I closed really well. I shot 4-over the first nine, but shot 3-under on the last nine with a bogey on the last hole. And I think that kind of coach reminded me after the front nine, I was kind of getting a little down on myself and I felt confident and I still felt like I could still play really well, but. I wasn't even hitting bad shots, but stuff wasn't going my way. I had a couple 3-putts and I think the course was just really hard. And he kind of told me the amount of times that Tiger Woods probably looked like he wasn't going to make the cut after the first nine or even after the first round, the greatest player of all time, and see -- that kind of motivated me a little to push me and know that I can still, obviously, win this thing and bounce back. And I think that's going to show a lot more character than going out and not missing a shot and playing four spectacular rounds. To be able to go out there and struggle a little bit and then bring it back and have really good a back nine. And then the last three days really gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of my career and for the next couple days. Q. Matthew, first individual championship for Oklahoma State since Jonathan Moore, who is now a strength and conditioning coach for you guys, how has his presence around the program and out here again today going to help you maybe get through this week? MATTHEW WOLFF: He's awesome. The last two years he's been one of the most important people on the team to me. He really, every single time I see him in the gym, at the course, eating lunch, I mean, he'll practice and play with us. He always has a smile on his face. He always just takes everything as it comes and is really blessed to be around all of us and as I am him. Obviously, I was talking to him a little before. I got stretched each round beforehand and he was kind of just telling me to take it one shot at a time. And at the end of the day, the team is the most important thing, but if you do everything that you can to help your team, then it's going to work out for you individually as well and that's what I did. That's the mindset I had today. I did everything I could to get the team score as low as possible and finish out the round and that just ended up me being the National Champion individually. So, but like I said, the team was, we killed everyone else and that's the goal for the next couple days as well. Q. Alan, talk about the match play last year. Obviously the success you had and what you hoped for going into match play starting tomorrow. ALAN BRATTON: Well, I mean that's the goal at the start of the week, you have several goals as you go, you got to make the Top-8 and our goal was to come out on top in the stroke play and we were able to do that last year and we did it again this year. And then the great thing about this event is we start all over tomorrow. Everybody starts at zero, we're all tied, and it looks like we'll get SMU in the morning, they just won the playoff, I think, so congratulations to them and we'll be ready to go in the morning. Q. Coach, Hayden Wood obviously came in shape the last two rounds, a guy that contributed to the team score. Can you talk about the importance of having a solid fifth, for rounds where maybe guys maybe struggled here and there? ALAN BRATTON: Well that's been the strength of our team the last four years is our depth. We have a different guy step up every day. I think Hayden and Matt tied for the low score for our team today. Everybody had a round under par this week. So again that speaks to the strength of our group and you need that in much match play. Each guy can only get you one point. I think Matt won the tournament by five. In a stroke play event one player can carry you. In match play all five guys have to contribute. So that's important for us and it will be important tomorrow, it's always important. But I'm comforted that our guys know how to get it done and have great experience to draw on from last year, but last year's last year, this is a new week and we'll be focused on the first tee ball tomorrow and get as many points as we can. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you, coach, thank you, Matthew. Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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