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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC


July 12, 2012


Troy Matteson


SILVIS, ILLINOIS

THE MODERATOR:  Troy Matteson, thanks for joining us after a very solid career‑low tying 61 for you in Round One of the John Deere Classic.
Just some opening comments.  Obviously feels pretty good to be here this week.
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, you know it's always good to be here in the interview room because it means you did something good.  Haven't been in here in a long time, so it's good that I'm back in here, I guess.
Yeah, it was a pretty special day.  I've been playing pretty well, just not making a lot putts.  Just one or two key shots get way the last few weeks, and today that didn't happen.  I made a couple putts that were really, really difficult, and I had a bunch of other really, really good looks.
You know, any time you do that and your putting starts to come around you're going to make putts.  I didn't think it was going to be 10‑under, but definitely thought it was going to be good.

Q.  What were the key putts?
TROY MATTESON:  I made one on 10.  I actually kind of messed up 10.  I hooked it off the tee; 8‑iron to lay it up.  I would have liked to have got it down there further.  I hit a wedge from, oh, 129 or something and I left it up on top of the crown.  The pin is down below it today, so I probably had a 30‑footer with about eight, nine feet of break in it and made it right after the bat.
Then on 16, I just kind of left it a little right of the hole on 16.  You know, that's kind of one that's funny when the pin is left.  You can kind of get it hooking in there and it will get close.  I just hit it a little too straight.  I probably had another 25 feet or so and I just got my putt on a good line and it went in.  Probably would have gone four feet by, but it kind of slammed the back and went in.
Other than that I didn't have a lot of hard putts to make, but I just hit my long putts really well.  I scared the hole on 18 today from probably 50 something feet.  I just hit a lot of good putts.

Q.  Would you call it an explosive round our was it still kind of grinding?
TROY MATTESON:  I mean, I only got in trouble maybe once.  Maybe twice.  I got in trouble on 9.  Had to get up and down out the bunker on 9, on my last hole.  It was one of those where I hit the bunker shot so close it didn't feel like I was grinding.  If I had been like 1‑under coming into that hole I would have been grinding.
You know, the day was pretty smooth.

Q.  Did you see this coming?
TROY MATTESON:  You know, we made a joke when we started this round today.  We saw a guy with 7‑under on the leaderboard and we said, Gosh, why is it only 7‑under?
Then we saw Steve Stricker on the range and figured he was in the afternoon wave so we figured the low one was still coming.  We just didn't know it would be us.
You know, guys love playing here, love this course.  We like making birdies.  So many of the courses are so difficult now that we don't shoot the numbers that we used to shoot.  You know, a good example is Memphis.  They redid their greens and it used to be 20‑under would win the golf tournament.  Now if you can just shoot 12 or 14 you got a chance.
We like making birdies.  I know the fans love seeing birdies, they love seeing eagles, they like seeing guys go for it and knock it close.  This golf course is about that.  I think we enjoy that as much as the fans do.

Q.  You have to keep doing this now the rest of the week.
TROY MATTESON:  You know, I would take four 61s right now, but who wouldn't?  Yeah, maybe a whole bunch of us should go over there.
I'm a streaky player, so that's kind of been my M.O. throughout my career.  It's so difficult to play consistently out here on this tour.  Only a handful of guys can do it.  When you go look at their records, they finish between 15th and 23rd almost every time they play.  Not many guys do that.
Look at Tiger.  He won the tournament at Congressional and missed the cut next week.  Granted only missed it by one, but it's just difficult to do it week in and week out.  Ask anyone out here.  It's just difficult to be consistent.
A lot us are streaky players.  From time to time we go up and show or stuff, I guess.

Q.  Question on the four 61s:  Would that be good enough to beat Stricker?
TROY MATTESON:  Some years, maybe not all.  I think when he and Paul played so well the one year it just really opened everyone's eyes to the possibilities.
You know, like I said, we like making a lot of birdies, and there are a lot birdie chances and some eagle chances out there.  So it makes for a really fun week for most of us because most guys aren't struggling.  They're not trying to just trying to make pars or get it on the green.  Guys are trying to knock it close out here.

Q.  (No microphone.)
TROY MATTESON:  I think a little bit.  I think you do a little bit.  If you go and look at the guys who played today‑ and there were a lot of guys who shot between 5 and 7 under‑ I would venture to guess that a quarter of those guys are probably closer to shooting 10 than they are to shooting 3.
I think there are a lot guys out here with the possibility of doing it every day.  Some of that probably does happen.  I mea, you get rolling, 6‑under, and then all of a sudden you make a bogey on an easy hole that you think you should.  That's part of the game we play.  What should we have done or what could we have done?
So it does get to you a little bit.  It can derail you a little bit.  I think just staying really calm is the best you can do.

Q.  Any close calls?
TROY MATTESON:  18 I ran it over the edge from 50 feet.  Left one about two inches short on 15.  Let's see here, what other holes?  I ran one over the edge on 12.  I ran one over the edge on 3.  I mean, that's about it.  I mean, 9 the bunker shot almost went in.
Yeah, you could have squeezed some more out of it, but you could've also had an iron shot not go close and make an easy birdie.  There were a few easy birdies, too.
You always go back and think about what could have happened, but that's dangerous in golf.

Q.  At any point di you think Goydos with his 59?
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, I did.  I had 189 on the last hole and I had been hitting 7‑iron about 190, 191 every time I would hit it today.
I just said, Just try to hit the same shot, except it was a little into the wind.  I tried to turn it over and I just pull‑hooked it a little bit.  Believe me, I was trying to make my last one.  I just ran out of holes.

Q.  Seemed like this year you kind of struggled getting out of gates in the first round.  Have you had to change anything mentally?
TROY MATTESON:  You know, mentally what's really tough is when you know you're playing well or you're on the cusp of playing well and then you shoot an even par round.  I mean, last week I shot even par in the first round.  I've done a lot of that this year.
It's so much easier when you do shoot 3‑, 4‑, 5‑under.  There are a lot guys, like if you look at the guys that play, there are some guys that are really good Thursday/Friday players.  Granted they may not get what they want out of their week, but it's does make their week a lot easier.
I've always been one of those slow Thursday players.  It makes it tough.  It makes for a lot long Fridays, and then you have to work your way up during the weekend.  I think everyone has a different M.O.
It's always nice to get a good start.  If I could one thing different in my entire career, it would be to get a better start on Thursday.  Just makes everything easier.

Q.  (No microphone.)
THE MODERATOR:  Four times.  I know that just because I looked it up just before he walked in.
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, I was going to say, that's pretty impressive.  I didn't even know.
THE MODERATOR:  Most recently it was Deutsche Bank last year.
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, I remember that round actually.  Didn't think that one was going to go that good.
You know, it's a long way to go.  It's Thursday, so we'll just have to see what happens.  You know, it's not really a lead until it's like the 71st hole.  Then it's a lead, because chances are you're the only one left that can make a difference.
Right now you just go out and try to do the same thing tomorrow and the same thing on Saturday and the same thing on Sunday until it gets into a match play situation.

Q.  Have you got some good advice on this place?  You've had a couple good finishes here.
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, I really enjoy it here.  D.A. Weibring obviously with all of his course work and stuff like that, he would explain to us basically how to play the holes.  Let me preface that with my roommate in college was Matt Weibring, so just a note.  Yeah.
So he always talked so highly of this area and the people and how great a tournament this was.  He would always talk to us about how he designed the course and how he meant for it to play.  I do have a little advantage in that sense.
But it's a really well‑designed course.  You don't hear any guys saying anything bad about this course, which is rare.  Most guys like it.  They like it for the fact that a guy can go out, and if he plays pretty decent and keeps his nose clean, he can shoot a 3‑, or 4‑under round.  If he gets a couple things going he can certainly shoot lower.
It was nice to have some explanation on the golf course before I ever got here and just the area in general.

Q.  Does anybody ever complain about courses in general that are too easy?  Too many birdies?
TROY MATTESON:  The only time I've ever heard a comment where a course was too easy is if let's say the guys got there on Monday and they said it was brutally difficult, impossible, and then all of a sudden the tees were moved up or they cut rough down or something like that.
Let me tell you what, I've only heard that from one or two people ever.  Guys like to make birdies and eagles.  With the way course design has gone and how long they're making course‑‑ I mean, look at Congressional.  They've stretched it out to where you're playing across different holes.  They've stretched it as far as they can.  It makes for a difficult week.
What ended up winning there this year?  8, 9, something like that?  Usually that's brutally hard golf.  That means probably five, six, seven times around you're just trying to skate by with a par somehow.
So I've never heard too many guys say something like the golf course is too easy.  They really like the fact that you can come to this golf course and 17 presents the possibility of an eagle, and then 18 you got to hit you a good shot off the tee so you have an easier shot into the green, so...

Q.  What about the idea of a course that uses all the clubs in your bag or all the aspects of your game?  Would you say that this falls into that?
TROY MATTESON:  Yeah, because it was designed by a player, a top player that's played for many years on tour.  I think that's why it's the way it is.
A lot of the great course designers were not necessarily great players.  I think out here, D.A. wanted to see you hit an iron off a tee or, well, hybrid off a tee or 3‑wood off this tee, driver off this tee, or maybe a driver if you cut it.  He likes giving you chances.  Short par‑4 on the back.  You move it up, you got a chance to knock it on the green.  You could also hit 2‑iron off the tee.
He gives you a lot of different options to play the holes.  It's not a one‑dimensional golf course.  With the green complexes designed the way they are, chances are you may have to hit the flip shot out of rough as much as you may have to hit the chip‑and‑run up those shaved hills.
So you do end up using a lot of your game on this course.
THE MODERATOR:  All right, Troy.  Great playing.  Keep it up.
TROY MATTESON:  Thank you.

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