THE CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

May 2, 2024

Matt Wallace

TPC Craig Ranch

Quick Quotes

Q. Bogey-free, 8-under. How would you assess your round?

MATT WALLACE: It was great. Really solid day. Got off to a great start. Three birdies to start any tournament is nice.

Just a really solid round of golf. The wind started to pick up at the end, but the course is in amazing condition considering the rain we had and the delay this morning.

Ball in hand is really important, so drove it nice for the most part. Few times I was in the semi-rough with a bid of mud on the ball which can cause a little bit of doubt.

Top up on those, really focus on hitting my tee shots well for the next few days and we'll be in good shape.

Q. Mexico Open you shared you're using a strategy of starting over par. Is that still something you're doing?

MATT WALLACE: No. Something different now. Like me normally. You know, I've started to -- because I had a bit of time off to watch some golf I watched the Masters. Obviously frustrated not to be there, but haven't been playing well enough to be there.

So watching some of the best players in the world, and what I'm seeing from a lot of them, especially the younger guys, younger than me -- I'm not too old, but younger than me -- they're so focused in their shot and not worrying about the outcome or what's out there.

That's what I'm trying to do now. So this might be test number 158 of me with a different round of golf. But taking care my business and my swing is the most important part and I'm able to do that at the moment because I'm in a good place.

Q. Would it be safe to assume one of those players you're watching is Scottie Scheffler?

MATT WALLACE: Well, him, but, I mean, so good that it's difficult to take a lot from him because he's playing unbelievable golf.

It's not as realistic for everyone else out there. I look at Ludvig, the way he plays his game for someone who is so young. The new breed that's come out on TOUR, so fast and so good anyway.

I feel like he's so focused on his own like shot and like down here rather than out here at the target and the outcome that he puts his best move and best swing on it.

And his dispersion pattern is so tight because he's hitting it so well and his swing is in good shape that his dispersion patterns come together and become tighter.

I've seen that over the last two, three weeks when I've been practicing, and last week as well, on tough holes and tough shots. Just really focusing in around the ball rather than out there as much.

Q. Why did you scrap that philosophy that you were doing in Mexico Open?

MATT WALLACE: Because I didn't need to do it. I think back then I wasn't as focused and I wasn't as in a place where -- I was letting my mind go away and I was too level; whereas now I'm playing great golf and I can focus on my shot, and the shots are coming out really good so the score is going to be there anyway.

So I don't have to force myself into thinking, all right, I need to make birdie here, I need to make birdie there.

Last time it was because I was blase about going out and starting a round of golf. It was the start of a tournament. It was like, right, I'll see where it goes, rather than now it's like focus on my shot and it's going to go there when I out the best move in it as possible.

Q. Did you feel a round like this coming?

MATT WALLACE: Yes. Yeah. Thorbjorn and I played some really good golf last week. We didn't have a great last day, but I hit some shots last week on those par-3s in New Orleans that you just can't miss.

I made a bunch of twos on the par-3s last week and hit some great iron shots. I just need to sort out the driver a little bit because I haven't been in play as much as I've wanted really.

Yeah, I knew something like this was coming. I know I'm building into a good stretch.

Q. How do you feel about your season up to now?

MATT WALLACE: Terrible. I've played poor. But I'm old enough now to know it's a long season and there is so much golf to be played. I haven't played how I wanted to, but my main focus from how I didn't start the season was coming up to September when the Ryder Cup points start for me.

So giving myself a little bit more time. Play well until then, and then we hit the ground running from then.

Q. I believe you gone lower on DP World Tour, but you know this is your career low for the TOUR?

MATT WALLACE: Okay, great. Not to par though, is it? Yeah, not par. That's nice. That's always nice. I like the golf course. I played it two years ago and didn't play well enough here. I didn't drive it well enough and I think I missed the cut.

So to come back here and remember the course and like it and know what I needed to do, it's a nice job to go out there and shoot 8-under.

Q. Prior to Zurich was back home. What were you doing on the golf course, off the golf course?

MATT WALLACE: Yeah, because I had three weeks off, I needed to rehab my shoulder. So I had a week off and then I just slowly repped into golf a little bit. Spoke to my coach, what did we need to do, what has he seen over these last few weeks. It's really difficult for a coach I guess to tell you something so drastic sometimes that needs to happen.

A little bit of club face work because it was getting strong and I kept hitting it left. I'm lucky enough that I'm not contracted to a club, so I put the Ping driver in play, something I'm familiar with from a few years ago.

It's just I think a driver that helps the dispersion and helps the miss-hits a little bit. The Titleist driver I won with is an amazing driver. The beauty of being able to use any club that I want is using a club that I feel confident with and it's that driver at the moment.

Q. Which model?

MATT WALLACE: Putter or driver?

Q. The driver.

MATT WALLACE: The driver, Ping. It's the Ping G430.

Q. Remind me of what happened to your shoulder. Left shoulder?

MATT WALLACE: Yeah, left shoulder. Hurt my shoulder just overplaying. Then I slept on it funny at the Cognizant, and I had to go and get it looked at straightaway. I thought I was going to be out for about six weeks.

Next day I had a bit of work on it and it was fine and I could go and play. But I knew that that was as close, that could be an injury, so I had to take a bit more time off.