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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEYMay 30, 2008Mathew GogginDUBLIN, OHIO DOUG MILNE: Mathew Goggin, thanks for joining us in the interview room. Round two at the Memorial Tournament. Pretty much a tale of two different days as far as the conditions and the wind go. Just a few comments on the round. MATHEW GOGGIN: One thing was the same, I had seven birdies today so that was the same. The five bogeys and a double, well, that was probably a negative. I got out of the box, I holed about a 20-footer from off the front of the green on the first. Obviously I looked over at Jerry and shook my head as I was going, this is ridiculous. Holed about a 25-footer at the next and holed about a 15-footer next and I was just sort of -- didn't know what was going on, to be honest. But I think that it just got windier and windier and got tougher and tougher and not having the experience on this golf course, I think I made a few mental mistakes and a couple of shots where I left it in bad positions or misjudged the wind where I think if you played this tournament a few times you would have the -- the wind seems to really swirl through or funnel through the hole so you get the impression that it's coming from one direction and you look at your wind map and it's saying it's coming from the other direction and you don't know which one to trust. And so there was a couple of times like on 9 and 10 came up short, made bogeys with reasonable shots. And I just misjudged the breeze. And 16 and 17 was the same. I sort of hit a good shot on 16 and it came up short. 17, I hit over the green. So there's a lot of boxes on the scorecard. Actually I played quite well all day. The one bad shot was on 12, that was a bad shot and deserved to be a five. But the two birdies after that were pretty satisfying. THE MODERATOR: Take some questions. Q. Jack call this morning and talk to you? MATHEW GOGGIN: No. No. Q. Waiting for you by your locker? MATHEW GOGGIN: No. There's been nothing put in the locker or I haven't been shown the door yet, so... (Laughter.) Q. Are you like us in that if you get off to a good start and then it starts going sideways you get frustrated and you find yourself thinking, boy, I really don't want to screw up this good day? MATHEW GOGGIN: Well, hopefully I'm not like you guys. (Laughter.) Q. Just in that regard I mean. MATHEW GOGGIN: No, it's more the opposite. It's more the opposite. I think about if the start had been bogey, bogey, bogey, birdie, double, it would have been a little bit tougher to come back from. But, yeah, the four birdies in a row, when you start making a couple of bogeys you know you're playing well. And you've played enough golf to know that not every day is going to be perfect or like yesterday. You're going to make mistakes and it's a tough golf course and anything around par or under par was going to be a great score. It was really the bogeys on 16 and 17 were a little bit disappointing because I was playing well. I righted the ship on 13 and 14, I guess, and didn't birdie 15 from a pretty easy bunker shot and then hit two good shots, one short, one long, two bogeys, so that was a little bit disappointing, but I'll take even par because it's not going to get any easier this afternoon. Q. That's a 72 with -- what is that -- five pars? MATHEW GOGGIN: Um, yes. It is. You wouldn't expect that. When you come off shooting -- having seven birdies and you shoot even par, you're probably disappointed, but the way the sort of round went through the middle there and coming back and then dropping back out again, it's sort of -- it's still pretty satisfying. And you're still around the lead for the tournament, so that's all you can ask for, really. Q. You mentioned that maybe not having experience around here hurt you when the wind came up. What did you learn maybe? What local knowledge did you glean from today's round? MATHEW GOGGIN: I think a lot of the times you got to trust the wind map and not what you're feeling on the ground. There's also some holes like 9, it's a lot more exposed. You look down at the flag and it doesn't look like there's anything going on and it's probably the most exposed hole on the course. So if it's into the breeze there it's going to hit it a lot more. The wind could change tomorrow and it will just be a whole new ball game. I don't expect to get the same conditions. The way the course is playing, it's drying out, it's getting harder. If it keeps being windy, even par over the next two days will be pretty sensational golf. Q. Have you thought about calling Gary Nicklaus for some advice? MATHEW GOGGIN: No. No. Q. Seriously, you said yesterday the first round lead means nothing. What does the second round lead mean? MATHEW GOGGIN: It means nothing. Q. When does the lead mean something then? MATHEW GOGGIN: Well, on the 72nd hole. Obviously it's good for experience. You get to go in and play in the last group. Again it's knocking on the door, you know you're playing well. All that sort of things you can draw on. But at the end of the day it's about going into Sunday with a chance to win and going deeper into Sunday with a chance to win and right up to the last hole. It's just -- you just know you're playing well. I know I'm playing well and making plenty of birdies so that's something to give yourself some confidence over the weekend. Q. What have you learned from your previous experiences this year being on the leaderboard? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, you sort of -- you just can't change anything. You just have to be relaxed and still be aggressive and be patient. I think you get to a point where you start thinking you got to try different things. I got to be super aggressive this time because last time I was too conservative. And you stuff that out and go, well, next time I'm going to be, you know, really amped or really relaxed and you just have to keep doing what you're doing, and only the only thing that changes is the pressure. And that's what makes -- you change decisions or change speed of your swing or anything. The difference between Thursday to Sunday is just pressure. Apart from that it's nothing else. So if you can deal with the pressure, you can deal with Sunday. Q. Can you picture another birthday celebration at Muirfield Village? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yeah, well, actually I'm looking more for a birthday celebration at Torrey Pines. That's the week of my birthday. But I'll take one here too. Q. Are you going to qualify Monday? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yes. Q. Here? MATHEW GOGGIN: Memphis. Q. Memphis? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yeah. Q. Is there a story on the spelling of your first name? Is that a family spelling, typo on your birth certificate, the one T thing? MATHEW GOGGIN: It's a Tasmanian spelling is what it is. No, it's just -- I don't know, it's just the way it's spelled. To be unique, maybe. I don't know. I think everyone else spells it wrong. Q. Is there any thought at all -- curious on the thought process between Memphis or Columbus? MATHEW GOGGIN: The thought process was I don't really know if I'm in Memorial. I got through Memphis last year, and got through the qualifier, so I know both the golf courses. I didn't know one of the ones here and it got to the point where even if I'm in the Memorial Tournament I want to concentrate on playing here and I don't want to be here and rushing off trying to look at two golf courses and do all that. Just treat this tournament as the most important thing this week and not worry about the qualifying until Monday. Q. Are you flying Sunday night? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yes. Q. Commercial or private? MATHEW GOGGIN: Well, I don't know at the moment. It's commercial. 5:50 flight, I think. I might not want to get on that. (Laughter.) Then the next one is like 7 o'clock. So I'll just see. I'll just -- it's one of those sort of things that if you miss the flight it's a good thing. But ideally I would like to get in some time Sunday night so I can play 36 on Monday. Q. You going to play in Memphis next week too then? MATHEW GOGGIN: That's the plan at the moment, yeah. Q. When do you tee off Monday? MATHEW GOGGIN: I don't know. Q. It's not posted yet? MATHEW GOGGIN: Isn't it? Well, the ones for this week is posted here. I searched everywhere, but the USGA hasn't put it on. Q. I saw a 6:30 time, but I don't know if it's accurate. MATHEW GOGGIN: I hope so. The earlier the better in those things. Q. You talked about being really happy with the way you're playing because of the seven birdies. You're putting more stock in that obviously than what happened on the rest of the card. Is this -- do you think this is, at this point in your career, is this the best you've played or -- MATHEW GOGGIN: It's the most -- the last 12 or 18 months I guess I played quite consistently. Last 12 months. I had some chances at the end of last year to win. I've had some chances early this year. Definitely been more consistent knocking on the door if you like, chipping away at it. But, yeah, if I have 14 birdies over the next two days I think it will be a good weekend. Q. Were you in the water today? MATHEW GOGGIN: Couple times, yeah. (Laughter.) Q. Were those misjudges with the wind or -- MATHEW GOGGIN: 9 was the one where I sort of -- the day before it played so short and I hit it way over the green and that was a flier and I'm sort of looking at a shot and didn't really want to miss it long. And I sort of just decided to knock down the shot and just -- it just ballooned on me really badly. Actually didn't go in the water, it plugged in the bank, but it was under the hazard line, so ended up having to drop it. But -- and then 12 I had a bad shot. I was just trying to hit it in the middle of the green and kind of blocked it. The wind really hurt it. Looked like it was going in the bunker, ended up flying about pin high and skipping over the green in the water. Q. What club was that? MATHEW GOGGIN: That was a 6-iron. But that was a, that's a shot where I had, it just played so short that hole and it's very difficult when you haven't played, hit a lot of shots in there, to step up there and hit one less. You just don't know. That pin to me looking, I said, there's no way you can hit it. It either goes in the front trap or left trap or it goes over. There's no green there. But I think if you played the hole a few times you would have an idea of exactly what sort of shot you should be trying to hit in there. Just don't hit the one I hit. Q. Along with learning this golf course, with you playing more consistently the last 12 to 18 months you said, what have you learned about how you have to play to score? MATHEW GOGGIN: It's just fairways and greens. That's my strength. I'm a good ball-striker. I'm a good driver of the ball. I just got to get myself, just hit a standard each day. Go out there and have 12 putts under 30 feet for birdie and just play a good standard of golf. It's no -- there's no sort of secret to it. Obviously you can catch fire and putt great and have a lightning in a bottle type week, but that's not really what I'm looking to do. I'm just looking to be solid and be there at the end. Q. What was keeping you from that before this period of time? MATHEW GOGGIN: I think it was patience a lot of the time. I'm sort of a very impatient person and sort of when you come on TOUR and you expect the world and nothing really happens it can, you can find yourself becoming impatient. Impatient to win, impatient to do well. But as you get a bit older and get a bit more experience you start, I don't know, you just have a different approach, just a little bit more relaxed. You don't try and force it, you sort of let things come to you and then they tend to happen that way, more than you trying to go out there and wrestle it from the golf course. So that sort of thing has been the big difference I guess, just becoming a lot more patient and not becoming too excited or angry when things don't go right or go wrong. THE MODERATOR: If you don't mind running through the card. MATHEW GOGGIN: The first one was off the green. Probably hit an 8-iron. Thought it was a good shot. It was probably about 30 feet. And I holed that. Second, that was another 8-iron. Came up a little bit short again actually. Probably more like 20 feet. 25 feet. Holed that. Third, I hit a good pitching wedge to about 10 feet. Holed that. Five, I knocked it on the green for two. 2-putted. The second one was actually about five feet. I ran it a little bit past. 8, just misjudged the wind. Just hit it in the left trap. Actually thought the wind was off the left and it was a little bit off the right. Hit a reasonable bunker shot and missed about an 8-footer for par. 9, came up short in the water with a knock down 7-iron. Dropped it and sort of chipped it to about or pitched it to about eight feet. Holed it. 10, misjudged the wind with a 9-iron. Came up short, plugged in the face of the bunker. Hit a pretty good bunker shot to about eight feet and missed it. 11, hit a 2-iron into the trap, the green side trap, on my second shot. Had a relatively easy bunker shot. Hit it out to about eight feet short made that. 12, I hit it in the water. Made double. 13, I hit it sort of on the front right corner of the green, probably another 25-footer. Made that. 14, I hit a pitching wedge or a sand wedge, no a pitching wedge, sorry, a pitching wedge to about eight feet and made that. 16, I ended up on the face of the trap, actually sort of didn't roll down into the bunker, and had an awkward chip and I chipped it about 10 feet by and missed it. 17, hit a good shot straight over the green into the trap. Hit a decent bunker shot to about 10 feet and missed that. Q. Is it unusual for you to make only five pars in a round? MATHEW GOGGIN: Yes, it is. (Laughter.) THE MODERATOR: Okay. Mathew Goggin, thanks for your time and best of luck on the weekend. MATHEW GOGGIN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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