SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 5, 2023

Matthew NeSmith

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. What a day with the irons. No. 1 strokes gained approach shots by three shots. Proximity to the hole, 18 feet. That's outrageous. Irons had to feel really good.

MATTHEW NeSMITH: Yeah, they felt good. I've been doing a lot of work with my coach, Gary Cressend, and I think he had a good day today. I saw Henrik played good, so shout-out Gary. I just played good. We've been doing a lot of really good work. Been working hard at home. That's my game; when I play good, I hit my irons good.

Q. You knew coming in that was going to be pretty good this week.

MATTHEW NeSMITH: I think every week for me, that's important. I haven't really hit it that well with my irons the last maybe three, four months, so we've been really, really working on that, and I think it's finally starting to pay off a little bit, and I just hit it nicely. It was good.

Q. Is it hard when you have a layoff, or is that good for you to go home and get some serious work on the game?

MATTHEW NeSMITH: It's been difficult for me. I'm not good at taking time off, so I've been kind of reflecting on trying to figure out how to be better at home, practice at home, show up to a tournament ready instead of just -- I don't know, we play so much golf, you get home and you kind of want to take time off, but you also want to work on it. I'm trying to figure out kind of right now how to figure that out. It looks like the two weeks off that I had at home, I did some good things.

Q. Tell me about the golf course because they haven't had a lot of rain here in Mississippi for about three or four weeks. How did it play today?

MATTHEW NeSMITH: It played great. It was a little softer than I've played it in years past. The greens are absolutely fantastic, as they always are. The fairways were good. The golf course is in fantastic shape. It's just a little softer.

Q. You talked about the condition of the course, but what do you specifically like about this layout? Does it fit your eye in some way?

MATTHEW NeSMITH: It does. To me, it feels like if you can drive it well, it plays into my strengths. If I drive it well, I feel like I can really hit some quality iron shots and kind of get the ball close to some holes, so I feel pretty good around this place, as long as I drive it pretty good.

Q. What did you specifically do well today? Did you drive it well?

MATTHEW NeSMITH: I drove it plenty good enough, and I caught a rhythm with my iron play. Kind of threw the middle of the round, I really hit some nice iron shots and had a good feel for it, and just let it go from there.

Q. Was there a shot or two that stood out to keep the momentum during the round?

MATTHEW NeSMITH: I just hit some really nice shots. I hit it way right off the tee on 8 and hit a really nice 9-iron to about 12 feet and made it. That kind of got the round kick-started. I was only 1-under par at the time, and then I got to birdie 8, and that kind of started to move things in the right direction.