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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 21, 2010

Matt Bettencourt

TORONTO, ONTARIO

LAURY LIVSEY: We'd like to welcome Matt Bettencourt into the interview room. Matt, you're fresh off of a win in Nevada at the Reno-Tahoe Open last week. You've had sort of an interesting year, no Top 10s and then you win last week. Can you talk about your season a bit?
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. It's been an up-and-down. I was battling a couple of injuries. Had a shoulder problem at the end of last year and had a little bit of work done to that.
Just at the start of the year I just wasn't feeling good. My shoulder was stiff, and felt like I couldn't release the golf club at all. It took quite a while to recover, and finally felt like at the U.S. Open I was able to swing the club comfortably without any pain.
And you know, it's just been a matter of getting my timing down where I can release the club and getting some putts to fall, and finally everything's starting to click a little bit. And you know, a win's a win, so I'm happy to have that last week, for sure.
LAURY LIVSEY: Now here you are in Canada. Can we take some questions?

Q. Take us through, if you will, that kind of weird finish where you I guess missed the putt and then watched -- I think I got that in the right order. Watched Bob miss it, Bob Heintz?
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. You know, I had a two-shot lead on 18, and I started to hit a hybrid, and I was trying to hit it toward the left bunker and play. And I blocked it off to the right, and he hit a great 3-wood down the middle of the fairway, and I was on the greenside bunker in two. I saw him hit it to about three and a half, four feet from the hole, and I knew I had to get it up-and-down, but at the same time I had a difficult bunker shot, it was a long bunker shot. And if I got too aggressive going over the green, there was a great chance I was going to make double bogey. So I was figuring, hey, he's going to make a birdie. Worst case, I make a bogey and go to a playoff.
I hit a good bunker shot to like maybe seven feet, and I didn't hit the putt quite firm enough and it broke off, and I was standing there talking to my caddie, and I was like, hey, we gotta regroup right now. We gotta go back to 18.
And you never pull against anybody at all. My heart goes out to Bob. He hit a good putt, just maybe a little bit too hard, and when I saw it miss, I was kind of in disbelief. I was like, oh, my gosh. I just won. This is crazy, because I had already changed my mindset going back to the 18th tee.

Q. What do you think about -- there has been some critics in the past about these so-called opposite events. You did say a win's a win, and obviously the two years' exemption two years plus.
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah.

Q. Do you think about that most guys that had the option would have been at St. Andrews playing?
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. And I would have as well if I had that option to be at St. Andrews.
But you know, the Reno-Tahoe Open is a great tournament. It's a beautiful place. You know, I'm split on those events. I kind of think, you know, I personally would like to see -- I think it would be better for the Reno-Tahoe Open to have a fall finish there. The field would be much stronger and you could tie it in with the Frys tournament in San Jose and then to the Justin Timberlake in Vegas right afterwards.
In my opinion I'd rather see just one tournament per week. I think it's better for golf, especially with having a major like that.

Q. There's been a lot of people complaining about this tournament being played right after the British Open. I guess we got nothing to complain about considering what you just said about Reno-Tahoe.
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. It's strong. I think it's a great thing to have it right after the British Open. You know, we're catered so well out here, and now there's a great charter flight back from the British Open directly here makes it so convenient to get here.
Then you put St. George's one of the top golf courses we're going to play all year on the PGA TOUR, arguably one of the top two, I think. This place is phenomenal. So I'd love to see a tournament here for quite a few years.

Q. (Indiscernible) --
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah.

Q. -- might be really high on St. George's. What do you like about it, though?
MATT BETTENCOURT: You know, I like the setup because it's difficult but yet fair. It's going to reward a good ball striker.
So many times we go play these tournaments, seems like there's not much rough. It's kind of wide off the tee and you can kind of spray the ball and get away with it.
Here it's going to penalize you so much. You have to be so precise and keep the ball below the hole. I just don't see a lot of low scores out here.
And to me it's more fun and entertaining to see 6-under, 8-under par winning versus 28, 30-under par. Seems like that's happening too much.
I tell you what, I do not see double digits out here. I think maybe 6 to 8-under par, something like that will win come Sunday. Depends on the setup, but it's just a very difficult, fair golf course.

Q. At Reno-Tahoe, did you hear much about Graham DeLaet's course record on Saturday?
MATT BETTENCOURT: It's so funny because I was in the last group and Robert Garrigus and I were just about to tee off and we'd seen that Graham was 9-under par through 17 holes. I was like, wow, what golf course is he playing? I mean it's incredible.
And I've played with Graham a few times; great guy, and he's so talented. And it just blew my mind. I was like, wow, he's probably going to birdie the last hole, and he sure did. And 62 is just insane out there.
I mean, you know, we figured he'd probably be in the Top 5 coming into the day. I think he was in third place. So I mean that's just phenomenal.
Shows you, just make the cut. Anything can happen. Saturday is moving day, and he moved better than anybody else all year, for sure.

Q. Can you explain your -- excuse me for having to ask this, but your playing up here on the Canadian Tour. You are sort of partial member. You play parts of a couple seasons?
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. I played I think two years on the Canadian Tour, wow, maybe like 2005, 2006, somewhere in there. And I loved it. I mean I love Canada. I like everything about it. The golf courses are phenomenal. Just the people are so friendly and nice and make you very welcome.

Q. Did you play the charity event that was here, the Birdies For Kids, just out of curiosity?
MATT BETTENCOURT: On Monday?

Q. No. Back in your Canadian Tour days. There was a charity event here. I think it was in '06. You didn't play?
MATT BETTENCOURT: I did not, no. Was there here at St. George's?

Q. Yeah.
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. I wish I would have.

Q. Matt, have you played the -- you've played this course already.
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. Yeah. I played nine last night or ten holes last night, nine this morning.

Q. Can you tell me what you think of the 14th hole, the Kodak Challenge hole, as far as the difficulty factor compared to some of the other Kodak Challenge holes over the season?
MATT BETTENCOURT: Yeah. To me it seems like it's a little bit more generous than some of the holes off the tee, on this particular golf course.
But I tell you what, the second shot's very demanding. I mean you gotta hit it in the fairway, first of all, or you're going to make a bogey. That's just the way it is. You know, if they put the pin back left, you're going to hit some high scores there.
I would say it's probably one of the top two or three most difficult Kodak holes we play all year. Generally seems like we get a birdie hole for that. This week's going to be nice to make a par on there. If you make a birdie, you're going to gain some ground, which is really good. It's important. It's just a really beautiful hole. There's so many great holes out here.
LAURY LIVSEY: Anything else? Matt, thanks for coming in.
MATT BETTENCOURT: Thank you, guys.
LAURY LIVSEY: Appreciate it very much.

End of FastScripts

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