The golfer shots 67 in the first day at The Open Championship
Hi there, Matt. Congratulations. Share of the lead as we speak. What did you do particularly well today? Uh it just felt like I did everything well. Um you know, just uh drove it well. Approach play was good. Um and chipped and puted well. Yeah, it was just an all round good day. How challenging was it when the rain came in? Um yeah, obviously made it more difficult. uh probably more annoying than anything obviously with um you know the gusts were changing and and the wind was kind of dying when the rain came and then um but yeah for for the most part I thought it was you know pretty consistent out there and and obviously got around well and a great atmosphere as well with the Irish fans. They really stuck with everybody. Yeah, totally, totally. You know, this uh this tournament always has the best fans uh obviously even more so probably over here as well and um you know, they just understand golf so well and um good shots are rewarded with lots of clap so uh it’s always a good thing. Would you say this is one of the absolute best courses on the open schedule? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think this this place is is fantastic. I think um you know I’ve been lucky enough to to play u multiple open um you know open venues now over the course of my career. I think um there’s a there’s a couple that haven’t been played for a while that I absolutely love uh as well. So it’ be nice to go back to those two. But I definitely think this is is up there. Talk us through 16. Yeah, a bit of luck obviously. Um you know sometimes you need that you know you need that. So, um, I thought I could play a bit aggressive after watching Foxy and Hideki leave him a bit short. Um, and obviously it just came out a little bit hotter than I anticipated on the perfect line. So, you’ve got open record your previous best finishes here coming back here. Were you aware of that? Yeah, I knew I I knew that. Yeah, I I don’t um Yeah, the open venues haven’t necessarily been great to me. I’ve not necessarily play been playing great when I’ve come here either. So, um yeah, I I feel like I was I like this golf course. I think it’s a very fair test. I think, you know, it rewards good golf shots. I think sometimes Lynx doesn’t do that to you. I think there’s plenty of courses that that that we play or I’ve played in Lynx golf that don’t necessarily do that. Um but I think this is, you know, it’s a fantastic golf course. And you come in here form as well. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously playing well n recently. So Matt, the kind of climb back to form recently. Can you just describe what that’s been like and what tweaks or adjustments you’ve made to your game to get to this? Yeah, obviously I felt like it it was um you know pretty low point. Um uh I think for me it’s kind of like yeah just just changed my technique with my hands. Um got to understand you know my tendencies a lot better. um what I needed to do uh to fix that and um you know I kind of unfortunate circumstances in a way well very unfortunate circumstances really but um started working with Mark Blackburn and um you know he he’s given me given me a lot of time and um I feel like you know just a bit of change of information has made me understand myself a little bit better and um from from there I feel like um I’ve just had more consistency you know And and from there, from consistency, you can kind of build confidence and um kick on. What was the low point? Uh the players this year. Yeah, the the players this year, it’s it was um you know, really bad. And and even Valero, the kind of couple weeks later, I I just didn’t I couldn’t find the face uh with the ball. So, it was just um not good. You’re quite an analytical player. like when you’re trying to figure out your game, does that make it easier to get back to a good place or more difficult in a way because you’re kind of always Yeah, I mean in in a way it probably makes it easier because I know what I need to do. Um you know I um during the whole like my driving and had actually improved this year compared to last year so that was fine. Um but putting and chipping were off and you could argue I probably spent you know bit too much time looking for my game uh rather than working on that. So, I didn’t feel like that part of it was far away and I wasn’t necessarily worrying about that. It was just the, you know, the approach play that I know needed massive improvement. Had you ever been in a position like you were at the Burn? No. No. That’s like as that’s as low as I’ve been in in um yeah, as as I felt in my career, but statistically it could be the worst as well that like run that I’ve played as well. So, um yeah, I just didn’t didn’t feel good or know where it was going. What was the turning point for you? Uh RBC. Yeah, RBC. That’s when I I saw Mark for the first time. And um he kind of, you know, um with advice from my trainers, Andrew and um and Luke, it was um on how like my body is like I have really long arms, so that’s got to be factored in in what what we’re working on. And um that that point kind of everything changed with my approach play. Anyway, made a lot of changes off the court from the last year or so. Do you feel the benefits are coming from that now? You feel you have to make those changes? Um, yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s obviously it’s a hard one. You know, my my team has has changed a lot since since 2022. Um, there’s obviously varying reasons for for that. You know, I have obviously done that because I believe it’s in the best interest of myself to to to get better. you know, I feel like that’s the direction I needed to go into improve my game and whatever aspect of the changes it was and um it’s easy to sit here and say, you know, had few good rounds and it’s like there that’s why. But there there’s there’s always more to it than that. And I just feel like um it’s definitely helped me. I feel like it definitely helped me a lot. Um, but I wouldn’t say, you know, I’m not putting it all down to, well, yeah, changed my team and and that’s why it’s it’s a, you know, it’s a combination of everything and it is also a team effort as well. So, um, yeah, a bit of both. Why do you think you haven’t had success at this major? Uh, I honestly I don’t really know. I I wouldn’t say I particularly um I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoy playing Lynx golf. like I don’t I don’t feel like um it’s just a grind all the time, isn’t it? You know, and and I and I like a grind, but like sometimes it’s a grind with low scoring and and that’s what I find difficult. I I like hitting it to 30 feet and making a par and that’s yeah, great par. Do you know what I mean? So I think with here if you if you look at previous I was looking at winning score here. Shane was obviously six ahead, but it was, you know, 12 under would have got you top five or something maybe. So, so, you know, so like I think for me, I don’t necessarily see Lynx golf as like, oh yeah, this is super easy. I can breeze around in four under. You know, I’ve shot four under today. I’ve holding eagle port. I’ve chipped in and and like I still feel like it’s a grind out there. So, um I don’t know if it’s just the way I see the game. Um might be differently, but I feel like I’ve got the shots to play well. Like I hit it as low as anyone out here, so you should stay out the wind. Um but I just don’t think it’s necessarily as as easy as, you know, some of these guys make it look. Thank you very much.
