MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2023

Matthew McClean

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you give us your thoughts of your first round at the Masters?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah. I don't know, I probably deep down would have been happy with the start I had. I was flying there. But to be to disappointed with 5-over in the first round is probably the sign of I actually played pretty well. So, yeah, it was tough to finish it out there, but yeah, I played much better than that and pretty happy with how I played.

Q. How did you feel about that start, almost holing your second shot at the first and you look at the leaderboard and you're leading the Masters, albeit briefly and early?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah, well, I'd like to see the second shot actually. It must have been close. I was joking, I was saying after 4, I would take a screenshot of the leaderboard there, leading the Masters.

But, yeah, I felt fine. Yeah, it wasn't -- obviously I wasn't thinking that I was going to shoot 6-, 7-under. I was just trying to play each hole. But, yeah, I'm sort of happy with sort of how I felt right there the whole way around, even when I was 2-under.

Yeah, it's more positives probably than negatives. The 5-over probably looks worse than how I feel about it.

Q. As an experience, what was it like?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah, it was brilliant. Yeah, I hit my first tee shot about 50 yards right on Monday in the practice round, so to stand up and birdie the 1st was great. I felt fine, so I probably felt a lot better than I expected to, to be honest. It was good day.

Q. Round 1 under your belt. Do you feel something much better teeing it up tomorrow?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Who knows. It's a pretty tough start to get off to, 2-under through 4. But, yeah, I'll just play the same sort of outlook as I did today. I felt like I could have got close to level out there today and that would have been a good round for me. I don't know what the cut's going to be. I'll probably not look at it, but I'll just try to shoot as low as I can tomorrow.

Q. What were the nerves like on that first tee?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: I felt -- yeah, I was nervous enough, yeah. But yeah, just the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were probably similar. I didn't feel any more nervous today than the practice rounds, which is great to have three days here to sort of get somewhat used to that feeling.

But, yeah, I sort of had a bit of a turner up the left there and thankfully hit a good shot in there and made birdie, and that's something to be down a bit, but I was nervous enough but to be expected.

Q. What did you hit into 1st hole?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: 7-iron.

Q. And you had a chance on the 2nd as well?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: I hit a pretty poor drive down 2 and, yeah, I sort of thought the putt -- I wasn't too sure about the putt. But yeah, I had a chance too. Made a great par 3 and then made a great 2 at 4, so I got off to great start, yeah.

Q. This course obviously can bite you and it bit you a couple of times. How difficult is it playing out there? How's the conditions?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: I don't know, it's hard to tell how hard it is. It depends on how good you played. But, yeah, I mean, if I feel I can get around there level or under par, I'm sure some of these guys can get round in 6-under, 7-under. But it's still tough. There's a lot of good shots you have to hit out there. But as I said, these guys are obviously the best in the world. So, yeah, I think it's set up pretty fair.

Q. Did playing with Rory yesterday help you at all just to get over a bit of nerves for today?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah, quite possibly, yeah. I felt fine yesterday with Rory and Shane and Tommy, which was probably expected to feel a lot more nervous than I did. But, yeah, I played with Shane on Monday and Shane's been great. And I think obviously the extra few people that followed Rory around this place helped as well to get used to the crowds. So the crowds felt obviously a bit smaller today than yesterday, which probably did help me today.

Q. Do you feel maybe you can shoot under par tomorrow and make the cut? Do you feel like you're playing well enough?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah, I don't know what the cut is or what it's going to be, but under par round here is going to be pretty tough in the Masters. But, yeah, I felt like I could have done it today. It's just so easy to make bogeys out here and even doubles as well, so easier said than done. But, yeah, I don't know, we'll see what I shoot.

Q. When you won the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Erin Hills the course was playing about 7,300 and change. Augusta National's playing just 7,500, a little bit over that. Can you explain how much more difficult this is -- just a 200-yard difference, explain how much more difficult this golf course is maybe to Erin Hills where you won?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Erin Hills off the back is I think another few hundred yards, but, yeah, it's just tight. Erin Hills is a bit wider off the tee. You can sort of give the driver a good go. Here, if you miss it, you're in trouble and you're definitely not making birdie chances out here if you miss the fairway. So yeah, I mean, the driving's definitely a bit more difficult than people give it granted for -- or people give it credit for. So if you drive it well around here, I think you can have good chances. But I think the difficulty here is that if you hit it in the wrong place, you can't make par. So that's the tough bit about here. And not knowing it, obviously, first time is -- there's a lot of things that you find out during the tournament that you didn't know before.

Q. I noticed there were times you were above the hole when you got out of position and really you were pretty much lagging a putt and hopefully it stays close. What do you go work on this afternoon to try to keep your numbers more intact so you prevent that and stay below the hole when you get out of position?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: I think I just hit a couple of ones with a bit adrenaline. I hit one down 17, the 7-iron flew 185 in the wind. So I can't really account for that and go to the range and work on that. That's just, you know, sometimes you hit those shots into the wrong position and, yeah, I probably won't work on anything. Go do a bit of putting, a bit of short game. Might hit a few balls. But generally pretty happy.

Q. What made you choose optometry?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Don't know. That's the hardest question I've had. Yeah, I don't know. I just always did sciences in school and had some sort of interest and that's sort of healthcare side of things as well. And I was able to do the degree working and do what I'm doing now as well. So that was part of the reason. But, yeah, just general interest and sort of sciences and healthcare.

Q. How do you fit in eye exams in between practice? Like what's your schedule like?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: I just work three months, four months over the winter and don't work the rest of the year pretty much. So I haven't worked in optometry since this year so far. No, just full-time. I'm pretty much full-time golf. So, yeah, that's how I fit it in is just don't work really.

Q. What are your -- I know you want to play in the Walker Cup. What are your future plans beyond that?

MATTHEW McCLEAN: Yeah, I'll just have to see how this year goes. Yeah, I felt good today. It was a good sort of good stepping stone today I think for the rest of the year. But I got tomorrow, obviously, and, yeah, U.S. Open in June and a few big tournaments throughout the summer to -- have to play well in those to make the Walker Cup and then I'll see where I lie in September as to whether or not I'll do anything further.