Player Blog: Matt Wallace

Rising star Matt Wallace took time out of his preparation for his first British Masters supported by Sky Sports to write this week’s Player Blog, on his prolific Alps Tour record, his Major Championship goals, a memorable celebration with a marshal in Denmark, and much more…

It’s pretty cool to be in the same tournament as players like Rory McIlroy. You want to be playing with these guys on Sundays. I remember Jordan Smith doing it in South Africa at the start of the year alongside Rory and then he went on to win in Germany. It can only give you confidence playing with these guys.

I played with Danny Willett, Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick at the US Open and that was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been.

I’m a very confident guy, but with it being my first Major, at a US Open, I was certainly nervous. I normally don’t get like this though, because at the end of the day it’s just golf and if you’re confident in your game you can just fly. At the US Open I wasn’t too comfortable with my game at the time as well, and on a US Open golf course you need to be right on it.

If someone had said I’d be competing on the European Tour a few years ago I’d have said ‘no way’. Only because of how hard I’d worked before and it’s all snowballed into one huge year. I’m now riding off that success and I’m playing much better golf than I did last year. My level has gone up massively and that’s because of my coaches and my team. Everyone behind the scenes have given me the best opportunity to play good golf and I’ve got it all rolling into one.

I was 18 when I worked in a Hollister clothing shop. I’d just finished school and knew I wanted to play golf but didn’t know the route to go down. I had two years of golfing and working at Hollister, before going out to America. I always wanted to go to university and then the opportunity came along, so I had a year out there. I played well and got into the England squad, which was great as I always wanted to play for England and represent my country. I then turned pro and I’ve learned more as a professional than I ever did as an amateur. Something I’d say to many amateur golfers is don’t be afraid to turn pro. Learning from the pros was better for me than what I was doing as an amateur.

My management company have still got an email from me asking for a job in management. In 2015 I was working harder than I’d ever worked before, but working on the wrong stuff, which makes it worse. I was up at five and on the range, practice and play all day and then in the gym. I’d do it constantly, but just wasn’t getting better. I said to a few of my friends that I was giving up. A couple of guys said to me ‘you can’t give up, keep going.’ This was when I was 30th on the Alps Tour and losing for fun.

I remember leading a tournament, one clear going down the last and everything was in great shape. It was one of the wider fairways, but my swing just didn’t hold up and it went out of bounds and I lost by one shot. I knew it was nothing to do with my head, just about the mechanics. Two months later in Egypt I won after spending time with my former coach Matt Belsham, who coaches Alex Noren.

I think everyone has gone through a struggle at some point. Obviously the top guys are good enough to compete at the top level anyway. The way I’ve done it has been quite rapid. I feel like I’ve dealt with it well, because I’m playing some good stuff now. I went through a spell of six missed cuts, but there were things going on outside of the golf course that now I realise have to be in place.

I had a great run on the Alps Tour, winning six times in 2016. The first few wins were hard work paying off and then my confidence picked up massively. I didn’t play as well, but my putter was on fire for the last three of the five. Then with the sixth I felt really good going into the event and everything fell into place and I won it by quite a way.

It’s the best I’ve felt by a mile. I played my first two European Tour events in between them as well. I was on the Alps Tour and not looking like getting off it for three years, but knew I had the ability to come off it and play well. After three or four wins I played two events on the European Tour, then went back and have felt great ever since.

My first round scoring average must have been something like 64 or 65, so I was up there. I remember in my fifth win I’d just come back from my first European Tour event and I shot eight under on the first day and people were saying ‘can you not just go away?!’ That gave me a massive buzz, knowing I could shoot scores and be at the top.

What happened in Kenya helped me to win in Portugal and that’s why I’m here now. I played well there this year and was leading going into the final round. I didn’t win, which was a setback, because whenever I’d been in a position to win on the Alps Tour I had. That knocked me back, but I knew I hadn’t played well enough, so that gave me the urge to get better and that’s why I did so well in Portugal. I had the lead there and I thought ‘I’m not letting this go.’

Robert Rock has picked up the coaching baton and has taken me up another level. He’s teaching me things that work on the golf course and he knows what needs to be done. I wondered how it would work with Rocky, but he just said ‘Leave it with me’. I spoke to him on the Wednesday of the Irish Open asking if he’d coach me and he agreed. He said to send him some swings and he’d look at it and come back to me the following week. He got back to me and said ‘I’ll see you on the range at seven in the morning on Friday’. I was off at eight and he was off at two in the afternoon. That set the level and I thought that this guy could help me massively.

My first coach said ‘you must be a really good chipper and putter, because your swing is poor.’ That’s what I wanted to hear at the time because I wasn’t comfortable with how I was hitting it. When I first came out here my putting was the best part of my game by a mile. I used to save myself on rounds just by putting. I’ve got Dave McNeilly on my bag, who has caddied for a lot of guys. I asked him once to select the best player with each club that he’s caddied for and he said Callum Shinkwin was the best driver, Nick Price the best iron play, Seve with chipping and Nick Faldo on putting. I said to him ‘I want to get in there somewhere!’ He said I’ve got a way to go, but I’m getting up there on driving and the putting.

My dad played rugby for Wasps and my mum was a very good long jumper as well, so sport runs in the family. My sister was very good at netball and javelin. My dad used to push me hard in golf and I didn’t understand why because I was doing fine, but now I do. Now I’ve probably overtaken him in how much I push myself and the roles have actually reversed. My niece plays golf too. She’s only 11 and really good, but left-handed so it’s difficult to get her clubs. She’s got a phone and she’s always messaging me saying ‘Good luck’ and ‘my friends saw you on tv’, so it’s pretty cool.

The big goal is to win a Major, and I’d love to be on a Ryder Cup team, because I feel that’s where I’d do well. I love team sport and have played them my whole life - I just love the atmosphere and dog-eat-dog grind of beating someone else. It’s also the top level – if you’re playing in a Ryder Cup you must be playing well. Outside of that I want to win something like the British Masters, but that only comes with doing the right things and preparing as well as you can. You can’t have any unanswered questions.

That moment with the marshal in Denmark was off the cuff. I was playing some great stuff and was seven under. I hit the best drive of my day, but it just didn’t move and from the tee I thought it was plugged. The marshal fell over, moved the grass and we saw it. It wasn’t like I tackled him to the ground. One of my friends Ben Spencer plays for Saracens and he said ‘you’ve got a good tackle on you!’ The referee was there and my caddie found out the time was four minutes 58 seconds, so it was very lucky. I actually made bogey on the hole, but emotions come out sometimes in golf. I holed a 30ft putt on the last hole of the week and I just put my hands in the air. It was the same with the marshal, I just jumped on him and someone caught it on camera!

 
I played Le Golf National this year and, mark my words, it’ll be one of the best Ryder Cups that we’ll see. Not only are the Americans playing unbelievably, but the Europeans won’t back down and will have a good side. The amphitheatres around the last four holes will make it amazing. If Mr Bjørn is happy to give me a ticket I’d be there 100 per cent, even just to carry the towels or clean his shoes, I’ll happily do it!