SHRINERS CHILDREN'S OPEN

October 9, 2021

Matthew Wolff

TPC Summerlin

Quick Quotes

Q. Thoughts, you talked about the wind already, did it ever lay down, was it steady and did it make certain holes play worse or harder than the others maybe?

MATTHEW WOLFF: I think starting the round it was honestly really windy. The first three holes were pretty brutal. Then it started to lay down. But I would say it was more gusty today. Yesterday was a little breezy but today was more gusty, it was like sometimes it would lay down but other times it would pick up heavily. So feel like it was difficult to judge the wind out there, especially on that front nine, but like I said, the back nine there's two par-5s and a drivable par-4 and you also get to catch those, I mean not into the wind but kind of downwind. So makes those play a little easier and I knew that makings the turn at 1-under I definitely would be in a good spot to make a run on the back nine which I did.

Q. But you still got to do it. Curious, 16 we'll talk about, but 15 is that a driver or 3-wood for you?

MATTHEW WOLFF: It's 3-wood. Yeah, I mean, today with the wind it was pretty much straight off the right and I knew if I played it with the wind it would go too far, so I tried to hold it up against it a little bit and landed it pretty close to the hole, just ran to the back edge and then 2-putted. So, yeah a big part of this course is the wind. I feel like it had a lot of defense today and you obviously could play well and make birdies, which I did, but it was also if you were just a little off or caught a couple gusts or breezes, it was hard to make some birdies. So hopefully it lays low a little bit more tomorrow, but I don't know, I seem to like it.

Q. Just for the record was that a full pitching wedge or a chip pitching wedge?

MATTHEW WOLFF: It was a full pitching wedge. 157. Yeah.

Q. You talked a little bit about the wind, but no one was scoring on the front today. Some people have said pin placement as well. Did you think that played into scoring as well?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, the pin placements were pretty difficult today. Even the ones that didn't seem too difficult like I would say 6, that was a pretty gettable pin because you had a bunch of room long, but the way the wind was and like I said it was pretty much just off the right, so if you caught it a little down it was going to go far and then if you caught it short it was going to roll all the way back to you. So there was a few pins out there that were maybe a little questionable with the breezy conditions, but I felt like for the most part I played really solid and took advantage of the holes that I could attack and the ones that I didn't I played smart and made sure to just make my par.

Q. So the streak is still alive, 11 for 11 in the 60s here. What's it going to take tomorrow to make it 12 for 12?

MATTHEW WOLFF: I don't know, I'm not really sure what it's going to take tomorrow. But I know that if I keep on doing what I'm doing I'm sure I'm going to like where I end up at the end of the week. But there's a bunch of really good players at the top of the leaderboard, Sam Burns came off a win last week, so he's playing really solid and can close the deal. But seems like a lot of those players are PGA TOUR winners, so I think it's going to be a really good test tomorrow, I don't know how the conditions are going to be, but I'm just really looking forward to having a good time.

Q. It looks at this point like there's nine of you within three of the lead. Does that change your mindset going in, do you need to be more aggressive?

MATTHEW WOLFF: No, no. I mean, as you can see, I've played the front nine pretty consistently, other than that one triple on 3, but I haven't really made a lot of mistakes but I also haven't made a lot of birdie on the front nine and the back nine I seem to really turn it on and I just feel like with the two par-5s and the drivable par-4 I can really get after it, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to get off to a hot start. So I'm just going to keep on sticking with my game plan and my process and hopefully it turns out like I come on top, but at the end of the day I'm happy with where I'm at.

Q. Curious about what kind of memory you have. For example, when you got here this week and you get seeing the 18th for the first time do you think much about last year? When you get to Minnesota for the first time since winning and you get there, does the positive and this negative work both ways?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, I think I feel really comfortable here. There's a couple stressful tee shots out there, but for the most part I feel really good with my 3-wood and that's kind of the club that I use around here and I'm hitting it really good, finding a lot of fairways and just feel comfortable out here and like I said I'm not really sure what it's going to take, but coming down the stretch knowing that I've, that I can make birdies and eagles coming down the stretch and close out a good round here makes me feel really comfortable and confident if I don't get off to the best start on the front nine.

Q. Did you know you were going to play well here?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Did I know?

Q. When you first got here, yeah. Do you know what I mean by that?

MATTHEW WOLFF: I had a hunch, yeah.

Q. Because?

MATTHEW WOLFF: I was hitting it really good last week at Sanderson, I've been working on the same thing with my coach 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, 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 and for me it's just set up. It's when I feel comfortable other the ball and feel like I'm athletic I feel like I really hit the ball well. Sometimes I get a little straight legged and bent over a little bit. But, yeah, I feel like really confident with where I'm at in my game, my putting, my chipping, every part of my game feels really solid so I'm excited for tomorrow.

Q. Is that what you guys focused in on then is your setup?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, I mean a couple other things, but, yeah, setup and just making sure to get shallow. When I get steep on the ball it's hard for me to really keep the face square through impact and when I'm shallow I do a really good job of flexing it down with my wrist and being able to keep that face square through impact and it's really allowed me to not only have more control with my ball flight and shot shape but also my start line, which is the most important thing.

Q. Can you fix yourself in the middle of a round?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Yeah, I know my swing well enough to where I know if I'm doing stuff I know little tricks or things that I can do to maybe not miss it left or not miss it right or stuff like that. But like I said, I mean I feel really confident in my game and I don't think there's much I need to change right now.

Q. Curious, where are you hitting driver out here?

MATTHEW WOLFF: Just the par-5s pretty much. I mean 13 was downwind today and I had to take it pretty far left so I hit 3-wood on that hole. I hit 3-wood, 7-iron on 13. Then 9 and 16 are the only two other ones. So not too many drivers, but a lot of 3-woods and I'm hitting it really good.