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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2011

Troy Matteson

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

MARK STEVENS: Troy Matteson, great 27-footer for birdie at the last to get to 6. That also projects you at No. 3 in the FedExCup points. You've got a lot going on. Why don't you talk about your round.
TROY MATTESON: It was kind of interesting this morning warming up. I would have said if I could have kept it under 80, I would have been doing pretty good. It just was not that good of a warm-up this morning. Bogeyed my first hole right out of the gate, and that didn't really set the tone very well for the day.
So I looked at my caddie and said, look, we've just going to focus on making some birdies. The birdie count hasn't quite been where we needed it. Before you know you, it the first hole we birdied was a long par-4. Then we birdied 17, then we birdied 18. It's kind of like, well, this day is turning around a little bit. We're making the turn at 2-under.
Then we went to the front side and hit really close to a hard pin on 1, probably hit it a foot from the hole and made birdie there. And then hit a really close one on the 3rd hole to about two and a half feet, made birdie there. Didn't birdie the short par-4. And then birdied the par-5, hit a chip in there probably to three or four feet and made a long putt on 9, so, I mean the day was pretty much making a few short putts and making a long one at the last.
Pretty interesting round for me with how I was going into the day.

Q. When you've got a bad warm-up, what usually happens more often, that you go out there and not play well or that you go out and for whatever reason you end up playing well, and is there any rhyme or reason for either one happening?
TROY MATTESON: You know, I think with this tournament, obviously where I'm at, if I don't play well I'm not going to play next week. So I look at it like the end of the school year. The end of the school year is almost here, so let's just see what happens. Your expectations probably lower a little bit. Then all of a sudden you make a few birdies, and it's like, well, that's not too bad. Then you make a few more, and by the end of the day you're thinking, gosh, how in the world did that day turn out the way it did. So it's probably more expectations lower a little bit and you don't try to get as aggressive as you normally would when you're playing well.

Q. Last week Harrington and McGirt were talking about how they were playing loose because they didn't have anything to lose; they were behind. Also, though, is that part of maybe what you were able to do, too, play a little bit loose because you've got nothing to lose, really?
TROY MATTESON: I think so for me on two fronts. Like I said, I'm not in next week yet, but my card is pretty much -- should be locked up. I don't know if it's mathematically locked up. Obviously with certain guys not playing and making a lot of money, obviously that pushes the 125 number up. But I'm pretty sure I'm okay there. So to me it's kind of like you really don't have anything to lose.
That's exactly what you see with guys through the Playoffs. I know there's a few guys in there that have had a bad year so far, and now all of a sudden they look like they're going to Atlanta if they keep playing consistently. It's a really interesting deal with the FedExCup just because it gives anyone a chance.

Q. I suppose at this point you're probably a big fan of volatility, right?
TROY MATTESON: Yeah, I want it to be as volatile as I can. I think it was the first or second year that they had the FedExCup Playoffs, I was probably 77th going into the first tournament, and I missed the cut by one and dropped outside of this tournament, and this was one of my favorite tournaments to play, and you know, I really want to make sure I go to Boston. So I packed my bags after that on Friday, thinking, well, I'll just be going to Boston, then all of a sudden I looked on the list and I had dropped like 27 spots missing the cut. That was the year it was the most volatile, and then they started tapering it back from there.
I wish it was even more so the other way so you could move further. But I'll take it for what it is. If I finish where I'm at right now, I'll be plenty happy.

Q. And you know exactly where you need to be?
TROY MATTESON: You know what, there's so many factors that go into that, I don't know if it's a 15th or a 21st. I mean, with every guy making a birdie or a bogey, it really sways it. You know, you just try to get as high as you can. Sometimes at the end of this week you're almost surprised what would get you in the next week some years, and then other years it's a lot -- you have to play a lot better than you think.

Q. Not knowing your bio by heart, what's the farthest along you've gotten in the Playoffs?
TROY MATTESON: I think one year I might have finished in the 50s. I want to say maybe in the 50s. I don't know, I made it to the third event, but I can't remember. See, the first year on TOUR they didn't have the Playoffs, so I can remember playing the last event. It's been a few years. But I would say somewhere in the 70s. I haven't had any real good finishes.

Q. Are you still living near Atlanta?
TROY MATTESON: I don't live in Atlanta anymore. I live in Austin, Texas, because we had our first, and we figured it would be better to be around family and close to grandparents. But to make it to Atlanta and end your year there because I've spent so much time there and lived there for so long and I went to school there, it would be huge. I'd have more than one person there (smiling).

Q. What makes you like Boston so much?
TROY MATTESON: You know, I've been coming up here for a while, and I've got a friend that's out in Hyannisport, and he owns a restaurant out there. I get up here to fish a couple of tournaments a year. It's just a nice place. This time of year the weather is perfect. It just reminds me of fall because in Texas right now I think we're like on 35 days in a row of over 100-degree weather. We might have actually broken that today or yesterday, I'm not sure. But it's been really hot.
So the weather is perfect; the people are nice; I've got friends up here. It's just a nice place for me to be.

Q. How would you describe your year this year?
TROY MATTESON: Lackluster. It's just been one of those years where I've somehow managed to make enough money to keep my card. I just haven't -- I've had some chances, I just haven't done anything with it. You know, if a few putts drop on Saturdays or Sundays, this might be a really different year this year. It I would have hit it better this year it might have been a different year. If I could have just had three shots at the right place this year, it would be -- I might have doubled what I've made. It's just one of those deals where you've got a chance to finish fifth and you finish 13th or you've got a chance to finish 13th and you finish 48th, you've got a chance to win and you don't.
It's just one of those years, and I'm not the only guy that's having that kind of year. Obviously there's a lot of us out here. But closing the deal is the biggest thing on the PGA TOUR. You know, sometimes it's being 48th on Sunday shooting 8-under and moving up to 6th, and all of a sudden your year changes.
I would say for me I've just had a few more of those finishes way back in the pack than I have where I've finished way ahead of where I thought I might finish.

Q. Any specific tournament?
TROY MATTESON: Puerto Rico I lost in a playoff, and then it seemed like I had a string of chances there after that on Sunday, maybe not to win, but certainly -- like Reno was one of them. I had a real good chance to finish third or fourth there and just ended up finishing back. I made a couple bogeys coming in, and you kind of lose your focus a little bit and then all of a sudden you finish 30th, and it happens fast.
But the same thing can happen the other way, and that's what you're really playing for, those few times that you succeed. I don't know the stats, but I'm pretty sure that your average Tour pro probably -- he probably succeeds about one out of 50 or one out of 100, somewhere in there, so every 50 tournaments you play, hopefully you do something with it. But I'm getting up to that 50 mark, and I haven't done anything yet. Hopefully we'll push through.
MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Troy. Good luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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