Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butch podcast. We normally come
Speaker 1: to you every Wednesday, coming to you Thursday. This week
Speaker 1: I was up at the LPGA Tournament of Champions and
Speaker 1: this week's guest LPGA player Matilda Castren. Twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: was kind of the big breakout year for her. She
Speaker 1: won on the LPGA Tour. That year, she won on
Speaker 1: the Ladies' European Tour. That year, she made the Solheim
Speaker 1: Cup they won. She played her golf college golf at
Speaker 1: Florida State, where she was a seven time winner. And
Speaker 1: one of the things I want to try and do
Speaker 1: with the pod is is get as many players and listen,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to talk to the superstars and golf right,
Speaker 1: all the household names and stuff, but I think it's
Speaker 1: important to just talk to players on whatever tour and
Speaker 1: just kind of get their story and kind of get
Speaker 1: their perspective on what's going on in professional golf. Matilda
Speaker 1: is you know, she's not flying around on private jets
Speaker 1: and building big giant houses, just a regular tour player
Speaker 1: who's a winner, who's won a Solheim Cup and just
Speaker 1: trying to win as many golf tournaments as she can.
Speaker 1: So really cool interview. I got to sit down with
Speaker 1: her a couple of weeks ago, really like her golf
Speaker 1: swing and really like her story. But before we get
Speaker 1: to that, let's talk about our friends at Cobra Golf.
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Speaker 1: Like I said, Matilda Castrin cool story places the LPGA tour.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for everyone to hear her story. So sit
Speaker 1: back and enjoy this one. Matilda breakout year in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one on the LPGA, twenty twenty two and now
Speaker 1: into twenty twenty three. What do you feel like it's
Speaker 1: been different about the last couple of years, because obviously
Speaker 1: you win your first LPGA in the same year that
Speaker 1: you win on the LED, and it's kind of one
Speaker 1: of those years to where it's like, Wow, you know,
Speaker 1: you win a couple of tournaments and kind of you're
Speaker 1: on a bigger stage. What do you feel like this
Speaker 1: year was like for you? Because I looked at some
Speaker 1: of the stats and it looks like you didn't necessarily
Speaker 1: hit the irons as well this year is maybe you
Speaker 1: did the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, definitely, my my iron shots were a
Speaker 2: lot worse than last couple of years. Really off the tea,
Speaker 2: I kind of struggled not all year, but most of
Speaker 2: the year, So that didn't put me in the best
Speaker 2: position to hit a great shot into the green. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it was a lot of expectation from myself
Speaker 2: and I kind of let the expectation of others also
Speaker 2: get to me. I kind of took a lot of
Speaker 2: pressure on that, and I mean I had some goals
Speaker 2: this year that that I didn't accomplish. I wanted to
Speaker 2: play in the Solheim, I wanted to play in all
Speaker 2: the majors. I didn't get into the US Open, so
Speaker 2: I was kind of like chasing a lot of that,
Speaker 2: and I ended up playing a ton of golf and
Speaker 2: I feel like I kind of exhausted myself.
Speaker 1: It's a catch twenty two, right. When you're not playing well,
Speaker 1: there are times where you want to take time off
Speaker 1: to maybe practice or just say, hey, listen, I'm going
Speaker 1: to do a reset. But when you're not playing well
Speaker 1: and your status isn't great and you look at how
Speaker 1: many tournaments you've got of the course of the year,
Speaker 1: have to sometimes keep playing when you're not playing your best.
Speaker 1: And I think that's something that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize is it can get really difficult when you
Speaker 1: get into these difficult times of the year because sometimes
Speaker 1: you just say, listen, I want to break. I'm going
Speaker 1: to take a couple of weeks off. But the season's
Speaker 1: right in the middle of it, and the tournaments are
Speaker 1: kind of coming thinking fast, and you have a timeline
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, i haven't got enough to the
Speaker 1: best start this year, so I've got to keep playing
Speaker 1: when I probably need a break or a reset for
Speaker 1: the next couple weeks exactly.
Speaker 2: I mean trying to qualify for the Songheim. I knew
Speaker 2: I needed to play certain events and I knew that
Speaker 2: captain was going to be at some of them and
Speaker 2: I needed to kind of show my best.
Speaker 1: Then, you know, on the PGA Tour they call that
Speaker 1: Wrighter cup itis, right, So you have those guys that
Speaker 1: are kind of have that year it's a Wright Cup year.
Speaker 1: They're near the right cup there, they're being talked about
Speaker 1: as somebody that could make it. They're probably going to
Speaker 1: have to get a pick, and then you're running out
Speaker 1: of two ornaments. You know that there are spots available
Speaker 1: and you're trying to play your best. What's that like
Speaker 1: from do you feel like sometimes that's a situation to
Speaker 1: where the goal can sometimes almost get in the way.
Speaker 1: It's something that you can want so much. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were so many people this year, both on the
Speaker 1: men's and the women's side, that wanted to be on
Speaker 1: the Solheim Cup, that wanted to be on the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 1: and towards the end of the year they actually don't
Speaker 1: get it done because they're putting a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on themselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you have, like, you know what you
Speaker 2: need to do and it just doesn't really the more
Speaker 2: you want it, you just have to kind of put
Speaker 2: them on the back burner. I tried to tell myself
Speaker 2: it's a result of you know, doing the daily things well,
Speaker 2: and like that's not it's my goal, but I shouldn't
Speaker 2: only focus on that. I should focus on going to practice.
Speaker 2: I'm doing my little things that I do every day,
Speaker 2: and just tried to play a good golf and the
Speaker 2: tournaments and not just focus on the end goal. But
Speaker 2: I think it was really hard for me to get that,
Speaker 2: like into my brain. I was still just thinking of
Speaker 2: the rankings, and even though I try not to look,
Speaker 2: it was still.
Speaker 1: In my mind so possible not to look.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, obviously I really really wanted to play
Speaker 2: in Spain. I haven't played a so Home Cup in Europe,
Speaker 2: so I was really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: But do you feel like I remember saying this to
Speaker 1: Brooks Cup and when Brooks was starting out on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour and he hadn't been on a Ryder Cup before,
Speaker 1: and then he got on his first one at Hazeltee.
Speaker 1: I kept saying to him, you will never not want
Speaker 1: to be on one of these after you experienced the
Speaker 1: Solheim Cup. For you as an experience, having tasted that
Speaker 1: and been a part of that. What's that experience like
Speaker 1: and what does it make you? What are the things
Speaker 1: that you like about the Solheim Cup that make you
Speaker 1: say to yourself, Okay, I have to be on the
Speaker 1: next team. What is it about those weeks that are
Speaker 1: so so unique in so special.
Speaker 2: I love the team spirit. I mean Team Europe we
Speaker 2: had such an amazing energy and the bus is going
Speaker 2: to turn them up to the golf course and like
Speaker 2: playing together practice rounds. Everyone is just like there for
Speaker 2: this same goal, and the energy is just so amazing.
Speaker 2: And I remember being there and telling myself I never
Speaker 2: want to miss it and I want to play in
Speaker 2: all of them, and I thought, for sure, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do it. And it's not that simple. You've got
Speaker 2: to play really amazing and earn your spot in the team.
Speaker 2: And I mean, I still have it in me that
Speaker 2: I don't want to miss it again.
Speaker 1: So and the pressure in Solheim Cups very much like
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup. It's a very different pressure than you
Speaker 1: feel week to week on the LPGA Tour, because first
Speaker 1: of all, you've got a team, you've got captains, you're
Speaker 1: playing for something bigger. What's that pressure like? And when
Speaker 1: you first experienced it. When did you say, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is a completely different feeling, pressure wise than what I'm
Speaker 1: used to in stroke play events.
Speaker 2: The first tea on the first day, we're the first match,
Speaker 2: me and Anna, and she hit the first t shot
Speaker 2: and I was like, dank, God, she's hitting the first
Speaker 2: tea shot because I was so nervous. You know, number
Speaker 2: one and ten the tea box were together at Enverness
Speaker 2: and the stand is behind and there's just so many people,
Speaker 2: the energy, everyone's screaming and the music is loud, and
Speaker 2: it's just so different than anything I've ever experienced, than
Speaker 2: any other tournament I've ever I'm ever gonna play in.
Speaker 2: So it's just an immense amount of pressure. You're not
Speaker 2: just playing for yourself, like the success and the failure
Speaker 2: is for the team. So it's just so much more.
Speaker 1: I've said this before on the pod, and I got
Speaker 1: to experience this in Rome a couple about a month
Speaker 1: ago for the US team. My favorite things about Ryder
Speaker 1: Cups and soul Hunt Cups are no different those late
Speaker 1: in the day matches to where there's really only a
Speaker 1: couple of matches on the golf course, maybe there's only
Speaker 1: one the entire team is there, all the team carts
Speaker 1: are there, all the caddies are there, all the wives
Speaker 1: and spouses, everybody is there, and you're all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you feel like, okay, it's I feel like this
Speaker 1: is something really really bigger than I am. But it's
Speaker 1: like a traveling circus. The US team will be on
Speaker 1: one side, you all will be on the other side,
Speaker 1: and you're all going down normally it's kind of opposite
Speaker 1: sides of the fair way with the kind of the
Speaker 1: traveling entourage, and you get to watch these final matches.
Speaker 1: I always think that those are very very special moments.
Speaker 1: And when you're in a you get to watch a
Speaker 1: match that your team is in, you know, on whatever
Speaker 1: side you're on. When you get to watch a match
Speaker 1: that maybe they're one down going to sixteen and they
Speaker 1: flip it, you can feel that energy change. I think
Speaker 1: more than any golf event I've been around. Solheim Cups,
Speaker 1: Ryder Cups, are they turn on? They turned so quickly
Speaker 1: on momentum. Yeah, what's that like? When you're when you
Speaker 1: feel the momentum building on your side and then when
Speaker 1: you miss a par putt and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you get back down to square and you can feel
Speaker 1: the momentum shifting.
Speaker 2: I mean, momentum is everything in match play. You can
Speaker 2: be three down, but if you have it going for you,
Speaker 2: you make a couple of birdies, you can kind of
Speaker 2: you feel that, hey, like you have an upper hand
Speaker 2: against the opponents. It's kind of you can tell that
Speaker 2: their confidence is kind of maybe crumbling a little bit.
Speaker 2: They're not so sure about it anymore. And you have
Speaker 2: like five holes to go, and you know, things can
Speaker 2: change so quickly. I mean, if you're three down after
Speaker 2: nine holes, that doesn't mean anything in match play. So
Speaker 2: that's just really the exciting part of it. Like you
Speaker 2: you can you always have a chance as long as
Speaker 2: there's holes to play, you always have a chance.
Speaker 1: When you're in a team competition and you've got a partner,
Speaker 1: are you someone that immediately goes into okay, this is
Speaker 1: my partner, this is my teammate. I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: their input for reading putts, for reading greens, for clubs
Speaker 1: selection or stuff. Because a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: the you know, like rarely do we see great partnerships
Speaker 1: that kind of embrace that, but there were a lot
Speaker 1: of I mean, just in looking at some of the guys,
Speaker 1: I mean, some of the guys just they do their
Speaker 1: own thing. And there are players that really like having
Speaker 1: a partner and really like asking questions. And then there
Speaker 1: are players that say, listen, I'm just gonna do all
Speaker 1: this on my own. So what type of player? When
Speaker 1: you were on the soul Hum Cup did you say, okay,
Speaker 1: you're out first with Anna nord Quist? How quickly did
Speaker 1: you say okay, hey, take a look, what do you
Speaker 1: think about this? Or did you kind of do your
Speaker 1: own thing?
Speaker 3: It was kind of in between.
Speaker 2: So I knew she obviously she's very experienced and she's
Speaker 2: a veteran, and she knows what she's doing, so I
Speaker 2: know she's probably not going to ask me for much help.
Speaker 2: But I knew she was there if I needed anything.
Speaker 2: There were obviously some like game plans we went through,
Speaker 2: like Part fives, where to put her on the layup
Speaker 2: or whether like if it was a tough shutout of
Speaker 2: the bunker, like where would she like to would she
Speaker 2: like for me to go for it, or maybe put
Speaker 2: ourselves in a more strategic position. So we're kind of
Speaker 2: in between. I don't think we read any pots together,
Speaker 2: but there were some of those during the game decisions
Speaker 2: that we did make together, and she was she always
Speaker 2: made herself available for me. She told me she's there
Speaker 2: if I need anything, And a couple of times I
Speaker 2: think she noticed that I was kind of like I
Speaker 2: had a couple a couple of holes that I wasn't
Speaker 2: doing so great. So she came up to me and
Speaker 2: was like, hey, you got this, and like gave me
Speaker 2: a little bit of a confidence boost. And that was
Speaker 2: great because she's someone that I really look up to.
Speaker 1: So when we look at the men, it's been, you know,
Speaker 1: since two thousand. I mean I was at was in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. Is the last time the US men's
Speaker 1: team for the Ryder Cup has won on foreign soil.
Speaker 1: You were part of a Solheim Cup team that won
Speaker 1: in the US. How is that different, because I think
Speaker 1: there's I almost think it's it would be cooler to
Speaker 1: win one on foreign soil. I mean, obviously, winning in
Speaker 1: Europe is an amazing experience, right, and you've got the
Speaker 1: crowd on your side, But when you're actually able to
Speaker 1: go over to the US and you actively feel like
Speaker 1: you're hitting shots and making putts that are actually silencing
Speaker 1: the crowd, that must be really a cool, cool feeling
Speaker 1: when you're on the golf course. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the crowds were really quiet in the end
Speaker 2: because there were no European fans during COVID. Nobody could
Speaker 2: come in. Not even our families were able to make
Speaker 2: it over.
Speaker 1: So it really was just the team, the captains and
Speaker 1: the caddies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like some of our spouses were there.
Speaker 2: But in the end of the last last day, it
Speaker 2: was very quiet and it was so satisfying because I
Speaker 2: mean we were underdogs that week, like we weren't really
Speaker 2: expected to win. Nobody, we didn't have any fans and
Speaker 2: on us oil. I mean, it just made us so
Speaker 2: much better.
Speaker 1: So you got your first PGA Tour win in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, first female from Finland to win on the LPGO.
Speaker 1: I think it's very important when we look at countries
Speaker 1: that aren't, you know, the big, big golf countries. Finland
Speaker 1: is not a big golfing country. It doesn't have a massive,
Speaker 1: massive history. Miko Elinan, who I used to work with,
Speaker 1: won the British am won a bunch of tournaments in
Speaker 1: Europe and stuff. He was kind of the flag bearer
Speaker 1: for Finnish golf. Do you feel like, do you feel
Speaker 1: an extra sense of responsibility now that you've won as
Speaker 1: the first female on the LPGA Tour from Finland, because
Speaker 1: I think it's huge for developing golf in smaller golf countries.
Speaker 1: Everybody's idols are for you. It's easy for your idol
Speaker 1: to be, you know, on a Anka or Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: or something. But I think it's really important to have
Speaker 1: people that you can look up to, that you can say, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously I'd like to be the next Anica Sore and
Speaker 1: Sam I'd love to be the next Cary Web. But
Speaker 1: I'm thirteen fourteen years old right now. I live in Helsinki, Finland.
Speaker 1: Here's someone that is from where I'm from. They grew
Speaker 1: up in the same place that I did. I think
Speaker 1: that's really important for the younger generation to see people
Speaker 1: like yourself. You know, female junior golfers in Finland now
Speaker 1: have someone They say, listen, she's one on the LPGA Tour,
Speaker 1: she's one on the led, she played on a Soul
Speaker 1: High Cup. That's who I want to be. I don't
Speaker 1: want to necessarily be somebody that I'll never get a
Speaker 1: chance to meet that's from the United States or from
Speaker 1: somewhere else. I want to be the next Matilda. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean it's really cool to hear some of the
Speaker 2: juniors tell others that they want to be like me.
Speaker 2: I mean, the last couple of years has been really
Speaker 2: amazing to like build that platform and it's just an
Speaker 2: honor for me to carry the finished flag on tour
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Get to do it in the Olympics as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I hope to do it again, and I
Speaker 2: hope to achieve bigger and better things as well. And
Speaker 2: I want to be that person that the juniors will
Speaker 2: look up to and they kind of see that they
Speaker 2: can do it too. Because I was the second finish
Speaker 2: player on the LPGA. There was a lady called Mini Bloomfish.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, So I looked up to her and
Speaker 2: she was kind of my role model when I was
Speaker 2: a little girl, and I knew she played out here,
Speaker 2: and that was kind of why I wanted to come
Speaker 2: to the States and play. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's my point. I think when we look at developing
Speaker 1: golfers and people say, well, it's not a big golf market,
Speaker 1: I'm always looking at, Okay, who are the players coming
Speaker 1: out of that system? Right that other people can kind
Speaker 1: of look up to and you have someone that say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can make it because they made it. They're from
Speaker 1: where I'm from, and I think, you know, I heard
Speaker 1: somebody say something. Everybody thinks if you think that, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't make it, everything stacked against me.
Speaker 1: They always say, listen, if somebody from where you're from
Speaker 1: has made it, that means that there is a pathway
Speaker 1: that you can go out and try and do some
Speaker 1: of the same things. The golf season in Finland is
Speaker 1: not long, right, how many months would you say the
Speaker 1: finished golf season is.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're lucky in hell, thinky you get
Speaker 2: May till October, which is not terrible, but it takes
Speaker 2: a while for the golf course.
Speaker 3: To being good.
Speaker 1: I mean in Finland it can still be snowing in
Speaker 1: May it could be, and then the further north you go,
Speaker 1: the season obviously is really really shrunk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so golf is not being you know, ice hockey
Speaker 2: is huge other when sports. So I'm just really happy
Speaker 2: to see that golf is growing in Finland. There's more
Speaker 2: juniors coming out. There's a guy, Sammy Valimachi who just
Speaker 2: got his agatory first finished golfer. So there's some really
Speaker 2: exciting things happening, a lot of good momentum, and I
Speaker 2: hope it just keeps growing.
Speaker 1: You made the jump from Finland Plager college golf at
Speaker 1: Florida State one six, seven times seven times, seven nights seven.
Speaker 1: What's the difference would you say between winning in college
Speaker 1: because obviously multiple winner A lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: girls go to college and they never win anything. So
Speaker 1: to have that type of career second team All American,
Speaker 1: but to win seven times you can't fake that, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you can get lucky and win once,
Speaker 1: but to win multiple multiple times in college is huge.
Speaker 1: What is the difference between do you think winning in
Speaker 1: college and then making that jump having now won in
Speaker 1: Europe and on the LPGA, what do you feel like
Speaker 1: the jump is or is there no jump? Is it
Speaker 1: just I mean we always say listen, it's golf, right,
Speaker 1: It's golf the collegiate level versus the LPGA level. The
Speaker 1: only difference is the stage is bigger, right, the stakes
Speaker 1: are bigger, You're playing for more, But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it's still just golf. Did you notice
Speaker 1: a difference between college golf and professional golf?
Speaker 2: I did, and I had my first couple of years
Speaker 2: as a professional were not great. I kind of had
Speaker 2: like this, I don't know, culture shock. Maybe I played
Speaker 2: on these.
Speaker 1: Just kind of freaked out when you got there, or
Speaker 1: were like, Wow, it's a bigger stage, or put too
Speaker 1: much pressure on yourself.
Speaker 2: Oh, there were a lot of good players, because I
Speaker 2: was when I was in college. There's not that many
Speaker 2: girls to complete and compete against.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's normally one at each school, Right, You're not rarely,
Speaker 1: and this happens in men's college golf as well. Rarely
Speaker 1: do you have four just absolute superstars playing every week
Speaker 1: on the same team. And ladies golf is no different.
Speaker 1: You're going to play tournaments where there's really probably you know,
Speaker 1: if there's fifty sixty people playing, there's really only a
Speaker 1: small amount of people that are really going to have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to win the tournament.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, when you make that jump from college to the
Speaker 1: professional rank, then everybody's good. Right, do you feel like
Speaker 1: you can sometimes? You know, it's funny. I had Joe Scovern,
Speaker 1: Ricky Fewler's old caddy and now caddies for Tom Kim,
Speaker 1: and he said one of the things that he noticed
Speaker 1: about Tom is he didn't seem even though he was
Speaker 1: a rookie and just getting his first month, he didn't
Speaker 1: seem like he was kind of freaked out about being
Speaker 1: on tour. And he he said something that I thought,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to get your opinion on this. It's
Speaker 1: easy to get lost on tour. When you're a rookie.
Speaker 1: You can come out, you can try stuff, you can
Speaker 1: you have more access to stuff.
Speaker 3: It can be intimidating.
Speaker 1: It can be intimidating because I think you can sometimes
Speaker 1: you can overpractice, you can bounce around with coaches, you
Speaker 1: can bounce around with caddies. Was that the culture shock
Speaker 1: you were talking about, where you're like, okay, and here's
Speaker 1: the other thing. Nobody tells you how to be a
Speaker 1: professional golfer. Right. There's no school you go to. They
Speaker 1: don't take, there are no classes you take, and nobody
Speaker 1: really sits you down and says, Okay, you've come from
Speaker 1: playing college golf. Now you're going to try and be
Speaker 1: a professional. Whether you're on the Semetra Tour, whether you're
Speaker 1: on the LED Wherever or the LPGA, it's different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean everyone was so good, so if I
Speaker 2: didn't have a great week, instead of being still in
Speaker 2: the top twenty. In college, I would miss the cut
Speaker 2: and not make any money. So that was really shocking
Speaker 2: to me, and it kind of like it affected my confidence.
Speaker 3: But after a couple of years I worked through it.
Speaker 2: And then I got to the LPGA, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's the same thing, but now it's just like a
Speaker 2: step above.
Speaker 3: Everyone's just a.
Speaker 2: Little bit more better or a little better than the
Speaker 2: previous stage I was in. So I think I was
Speaker 2: really comfortable on the LPGA because of that. I had
Speaker 2: already gone through like this tough time in my career,
Speaker 2: and I just kept on playing golf and kept.
Speaker 3: On doing what I was doing.
Speaker 2: And I have a really good friend who helped me
Speaker 2: a lot, Kelly ten She's been on tour for ten
Speaker 2: years now, I think, and she helped me a lot
Speaker 2: my rookie year just to kind of learn the ropes.
Speaker 3: And yeah, that was a huge help.
Speaker 1: When you, I mean, in looking at your like I said,
Speaker 1: I look at your stats from last year versus twenty two.
Speaker 1: One of the other things was this was a year
Speaker 1: where you missed a bunch of cuts. I think you
Speaker 1: missed ten cuts. Last year you only missed two when
Speaker 1: you are missing cuts. Was it a year to where
Speaker 1: you just weren't playing good and you're missing the cuts
Speaker 1: by a lot, or was this a year to where
Speaker 1: you're like you're missing cuts by one shot and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't really play that poorly, but I missed another cut.
Speaker 1: And it's how you get out of that kind of
Speaker 1: spiral thing thing because you, like you said, you can
Speaker 1: get you get on the no cut train, right, You
Speaker 1: can just you can start to get on that train
Speaker 1: to where you know Thursday you don't really really play
Speaker 1: that great, so you know Friday you're basically going to
Speaker 1: be playing the whole day right on the cut line, right,
Speaker 1: and you know it, right, you know whether you're teeing
Speaker 1: off early or you're teeing off late on Friday based
Speaker 1: off what you did the day before. You're looking at
Speaker 1: the scores, you're like, Okay, this is going to be
Speaker 1: one of those days to where now I'm starting on
Speaker 1: Friday knowing that I need to shoot a good score
Speaker 1: today to make the cut. Talk to me about that situation,
Speaker 1: because that can go one of two ways, right, you
Speaker 1: can start to press too early, or you can use
Speaker 1: that I'm always fascinated when players are knowing going into
Speaker 1: Friday they are on the cut line. Sometimes you go
Speaker 1: you shoot sixty six or you shoot sixty eight, and
Speaker 1: you don't really, but it always seems like when you
Speaker 1: have that run to where you're missing cuts and you're
Speaker 1: right on the cut line, everything that go wrong goes wrong.
Speaker 1: Every break that you don't need to have, that you
Speaker 1: need to have, you don't get Did you miss a
Speaker 1: lot of cuts this year by one or two? Or
Speaker 1: was it just not really playing that great?
Speaker 2: Early in the year I missed a few cuts just
Speaker 2: by one three I think it was three in a row.
Speaker 1: So frustrated.
Speaker 2: It was so frustrating. But later in the year, I
Speaker 2: just I wasn't playing well enough. I really struggle getting
Speaker 2: out of the tea box, like no matter what club
Speaker 2: was in my hand, I just I just really struggled.
Speaker 1: Did you when you got up on the tee was
Speaker 1: it as much a mental Did it become as much
Speaker 1: a mental thing as a physical thing to where you
Speaker 1: haven't been driving it great? Even though the fairway can
Speaker 1: seem wide open, all you see is the trouble. Was
Speaker 1: it that type of thing to where you're standing up
Speaker 1: there and you're not freely swinging, you know, just standing
Speaker 1: up and saying, listen, I'm not worried about the outcome,
Speaker 1: or did you feel like you had the handbreak on
Speaker 1: and you were a little bit worried and that I.
Speaker 2: Was always worried about the outcome, and it was it's
Speaker 2: been really hard getting out of that mindset.
Speaker 3: And some days it would be great.
Speaker 2: I would I could shoot six under, and then some
Speaker 2: days I'll maybe hit three fairways and that's it. And
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter if I'm if it's the widest fair
Speaker 2: one in the course or the tightest one. It just
Speaker 2: it's a mental thing. And that's kind of what I
Speaker 2: struggled with this like late summer. And yeah, it's it's
Speaker 2: really tough.
Speaker 1: People always say, I mean, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: old cliches, you drive for show, but you putt for dough.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to play competitive golf at the
Speaker 1: elite tour level, if you can't drive the golf ball, yeah,
Speaker 1: it makes things exponentially just so much more difficult.
Speaker 2: I was just asking to have it in play and
Speaker 2: I couldn't, and that just made everything else so difficult.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you feel like it was how much of it.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the poor driving this year in
Speaker 1: twenty three, But so how much do you feel like
Speaker 1: that was technique and how much do you feel like
Speaker 1: that was execution the way that your mental approach was
Speaker 1: Because I think it's always I mean, we're all predeposed
Speaker 1: as golfers to think everything that we do wrong is technique, Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: I gotta go to the range and technique, But you're
Speaker 1: also saying that you're going to the golf course with
Speaker 1: the driver and you're just hoping to get it in play.
Speaker 1: So how much this year and if you had it
Speaker 1: to do over again, would you say, Okay, let me
Speaker 1: maybe switch how I was thinking and see if that
Speaker 1: maybe worked as opposed to just more technique, more technique,
Speaker 1: more technique.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I worked on both my mindset and
Speaker 2: technique and everything really that I could have. But what
Speaker 2: I would change is I would go back and not
Speaker 2: play as much. I felt like I was just pushing
Speaker 2: too hard and kind of like on the edge of
Speaker 2: a burnout. So I just had a lot of anxiety
Speaker 2: even just go into the course. I mean, practice one
Speaker 2: would be great. I'm relaxed, I'm having fun, and I'm
Speaker 2: playing really great, and then the tournament would start and
Speaker 2: I'm just like and then and then.
Speaker 1: Playing golf, and I think this is other, this is
Speaker 1: something else that's really important for everyone listening. It's much
Speaker 1: easier to play good golf when you're in a good
Speaker 1: mental space and you're thinking clearly, you're thinking positively. It's
Speaker 1: hard when it's all. I also think it's hard when
Speaker 1: golf isn't fun. And I think when you you're, like
Speaker 1: you said, you're grinding through all of these weeks, You're
Speaker 1: you're you're missing cuts, you're tired, you're not having a
Speaker 1: lot of fun on the golf course. You need some
Speaker 1: weeks off, but you have to keep playing. And it's
Speaker 1: that balance of okay. And so when when you're in
Speaker 1: that space mentally, how do you try and get through
Speaker 1: it to where you're like, Okay, this isn't this isn't fun.
Speaker 1: I'm not having any fun. I need a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks off, But I can't take any time off.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard. What do you do?
Speaker 2: Like, you can try different doing different things. I always
Speaker 2: think if you're just banging your head against the wall,
Speaker 2: you need to get out of it and do something
Speaker 2: completely different. Like maybe try adding someone in your team
Speaker 2: and maybe they could be helpful, like a new new coach,
Speaker 2: or just getting your mindset, like on a different track,
Speaker 2: because wherever you're going is not working.
Speaker 1: That's always, I mean, it's always. It's interesting to listen
Speaker 1: to that from a player's to tandbook because as a
Speaker 1: coach standpoint, you know, I have been you know, I've
Speaker 1: worked with players I thought we were on the right track,
Speaker 1: they were struggling on the golf course, and they will
Speaker 1: come to you and say, listen, I just need I
Speaker 1: just need to make a change. And it's always frustrating
Speaker 1: for me because I'm always like, man, if you just
Speaker 1: if you just stick with this, grind it out, you're
Speaker 1: not that far away. But like you said, sometimes you're
Speaker 1: just like, listen, I just need a just need a reset.
Speaker 1: I just need to reset. And and the majority the
Speaker 1: times in the professional game, that's either the coach or
Speaker 1: the caddy, right, those are the two because and I
Speaker 1: always say this people, you can't fire yourself, right. This
Speaker 1: isn't a team sport to where you can come home
Speaker 1: and say, okay, well I did my job today. I
Speaker 1: shot sixty six, but she shot over par and she
Speaker 1: shot over par so the team didn't play well. Right,
Speaker 1: That's what happened in college and in professional golf. It's
Speaker 1: just you, right, You're the only person that can affect
Speaker 1: the outcome. Are those difficult conversations when you do have
Speaker 1: to say to caddies and coaches, hey, this isn't working out,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm going to try and make a change.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, then I actually didn't make a
Speaker 2: change that big this year, but I did tell my coach, like,
Speaker 2: whatever we've been doing, we need to just try to
Speaker 2: find something else for me to focus on. I didn't
Speaker 2: fire anybody, But.
Speaker 1: I also think that's really something that's important, Matilda, that
Speaker 1: I always say to players. I think sometimes players can
Speaker 1: get into the trap of working with someone and the
Speaker 1: coach that they're working with is telling them to do stuff,
Speaker 1: and I think sometimes it's important to do what you
Speaker 1: did and say, listen, I don't want to I don't
Speaker 1: want to break up, right, I don't want this relationship
Speaker 1: to end. I still want to have you on my team,
Speaker 1: and I still want to have you on my coach.
Speaker 1: But we've got to go in a different direction, right,
Speaker 1: We've got to try some other things. And maybe you can.
Speaker 1: Are you someone that wants a lot of information from
Speaker 1: your coach or you someone that wants minimal information? Because listen,
Speaker 1: I work with three players, but two of the players
Speaker 1: I work with, Dustin Johnson and Brooks kept they want
Speaker 1: as little information as possible, right, And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of times to where as a coach, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: if I could get in here and just but the
Speaker 1: way they work and the way they operate that they
Speaker 1: just aren't those type of players. So you, as the player,
Speaker 1: what are you looking out? What do you want from
Speaker 1: a coach? What do you want from your instructor?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm they want to get better and that's
Speaker 2: the main goal, and I don't want a lot of
Speaker 2: different things thrown in my direction. So as little information
Speaker 2: as possible and as effective as I can and as simple.
Speaker 2: I want to keep it simple. I don't want to
Speaker 2: overcomplicate things. And sometimes if there's too much information, that
Speaker 2: kind of overwhelms me. So I'm the same way, like,
Speaker 2: I just want little information and let's keep going that
Speaker 2: way and nothing.
Speaker 1: So when looking at twenty twenty four, are you someone
Speaker 1: that is a goal person or you someone that writes goals? Down.
Speaker 1: Are you someone that is going to look at the
Speaker 1: stats from this year and say, okay, let me go
Speaker 1: ahead and sit down with my team and say, okay,
Speaker 1: this is obviously the data tells me this. Or are
Speaker 1: you someone that says, okay, listen, I'm going to write
Speaker 1: down what my goals are. There are players that I've
Speaker 1: worked with your books always writes down as old goals
Speaker 1: and never tells anyone what they are.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So, and when he always used to go New Year's Day,
Speaker 1: he said, he used to always go to the beach
Speaker 1: and he would get up early and he would go
Speaker 1: down and he would just go sit on the beach
Speaker 1: and he would write down what his goals were. And
Speaker 1: I've worked with him for almost ten years now. I've
Speaker 1: never known what any of his goals are.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: So are you a goal person? Do you write stuff down?
Speaker 1: Does that help you? Does that not help you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I do write my goals down.
Speaker 1: I think that has a lot of power, doesn't it
Speaker 1: to write it down? So you have to look at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you write something down January first, of something that
Speaker 1: you say you want to do, what your goals are,
Speaker 1: the things that you want to change by June. You
Speaker 1: can also see if you can also look back at
Speaker 1: the statement you wrote and check in with yourself and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: what have I done and hold. I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I think writing your goals down
Speaker 1: are really powerful. Yeah, because if you write it down
Speaker 1: that's coming from you, yeah, and then you can go
Speaker 1: back and look at it and say, Okay, well I
Speaker 1: wrote this down on the first of January. What am
Speaker 1: I doing wing Yeah, to try and fix this.
Speaker 2: I mean, I write my goals down, I go through
Speaker 2: them with my coaches, and then we figure out what
Speaker 2: do we need to do to accomplish these goals. What
Speaker 2: do you need to have in my daily life to
Speaker 2: make this goal happen? So I think it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can write down your goals, but if you don't
Speaker 2: know how to get there, that's totally that's next level.
Speaker 2: You need to know what you need to do on
Speaker 2: a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis where you want
Speaker 2: to be by March next year. And that's what that's
Speaker 2: what we do with my coaches.
Speaker 1: Lastly, we're going to go through all the elements of golf,
Speaker 1: driving the ball, iron, play, short game, and putting. So
Speaker 1: you can take one person on the LPGA Tour to
Speaker 1: come drive the golf ball for you. Who are you choosing?
Speaker 1: I mean, who do you play with where you just say, Man,
Speaker 1: if I could drive a golf ball like that, my
Speaker 1: life would be a hell of a lot easier.
Speaker 3: I think I'd have to choose Nellie.
Speaker 1: I mean, she just drives me. I mean it's far,
Speaker 1: she doesn't miss fairway, she hits it miles. I mean
Speaker 1: she's an unbelievable driver of the golf.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for iron play, I choose myself. When I'm at
Speaker 2: my bed, I think like that, Yeah, that's really my strength,
Speaker 2: and I'm working hard to get back there.
Speaker 3: I want to be in that from last year.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, one hundred and thirteenth. But I
Speaker 1: mean that's where I think the stats are powerful. People
Speaker 1: don't realize. I mean you just look at it and
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, I'm hitting sixty five percent of my
Speaker 1: greens this year and last year I'm hitting seventy one percent.
Speaker 1: That might be one or two greens per round. But
Speaker 1: if you come off the golf course and you just say, okay,
Speaker 1: just if I can hit one, maybe two more greens
Speaker 1: around the stats go the other way and your confidence
Speaker 1: goes up a lot too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also the proximity whole, Like twenty twenty one, I
Speaker 2: felt like I was always hitting it so close, and
Speaker 2: even the courses I had really small greens, I felt
Speaker 2: like I was. It wasn't a big deal to me.
Speaker 2: I think I was top three in greens per a round.
Speaker 2: So yeah, trying to get back there. I know I'm
Speaker 2: really good at that, and I know I have it
Speaker 2: in me.
Speaker 1: Just the short game on the LPGA Tour. Whose short
Speaker 1: game do you look at it and you just say, man,
Speaker 1: give me some of that?
Speaker 3: Um Harley Yojo Kim.
Speaker 2: Yeah. She every time I play with her, she makes
Speaker 2: at least one chip off.
Speaker 1: The green Lydia coos short games. Lydia Yeah, dirty as well.
Speaker 3: I mean she putting.
Speaker 1: I mean she's a pretty good part. So I mean
Speaker 1: putting wise, who are you taking for putting?
Speaker 3: I think I choose Lea.
Speaker 1: I mean she just I mean she has what my
Speaker 1: dad calls grape putters. Have their putts have to go
Speaker 1: in look right, even when they miss putts, their putts
Speaker 1: look like they're going to go in, look like they
Speaker 1: have the right speed. Are you someone Matilda likes the
Speaker 1: die your putts in the hole, or you someone that
Speaker 1: feels like you're an aggressive kind of more kind of
Speaker 1: forceful putter.
Speaker 2: When I'm putting a I'm definitely more aggressive. The ball
Speaker 2: goes in with more speed. So that's what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: We're not going to let you go without giving us.
Speaker 1: You don't have to tell us all of them. You
Speaker 1: can keep somewhere for yourself, but give us one of
Speaker 1: the goals you've got for twenty twenty four. What's something
Speaker 1: that you want to share with us to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is something, because it's gonna be out there now.
Speaker 1: So you've actually said it.
Speaker 3: I think you can probably guess it.
Speaker 1: Drive the ball better, no, well, high soul high. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the next two years we've got a two year cycle.
Speaker 1: Everything in twenty twenty four and twenty years. Oh you guys,
Speaker 1: they only have one year. That's right, you only have
Speaker 1: one year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this year we're getting on that back on that
Speaker 2: opposite side of the men's really okay.
Speaker 1: So the COVID thing kind of condensed everything and switch it.
Speaker 1: So now you guys, so just this year okay, hmm,
Speaker 1: it's the goal.
Speaker 3: Obviously, I want to drive the ball better. That's going
Speaker 3: to help me get there.
Speaker 1: Drive the ball better, and another Solheim Cup that you're
Speaker 1: hoping to play in America. So I mean you've got
Speaker 1: to be a pick because I mean you've won one before.
Speaker 3: Right, we'll see.
Speaker 1: Great to talk to you about, Matilda.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I think everybody's going to be watching and looking for
Speaker 1: that kind of form from twenty twenty one. Get after it.
Speaker 1: Drive the ball better. Yes, well, thank you, good to
Speaker 1: talk to you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So that was Matilda Castro And like I said, everybody
Speaker 1: that plays professional golf kind of has their story, and
Speaker 1: I think she was really really honest about you know,
Speaker 1: last year in twenty twenty three wasn't the best year
Speaker 1: that chanced And listen, it's hard to keep producing year
Speaker 1: after year after year. And that's what the great players do, right.
Speaker 1: They make golf look easy, they make winning look very
Speaker 1: very easy, and you think that you're just going to
Speaker 1: be a winner and keep winning all the time, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't turn out like that. And I think
Speaker 1: getting a perspective from Matilda on you know, not the
Speaker 1: best year that she's had last year and how she's
Speaker 1: trying to come back from it, in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: She talked a lot about driving the golf ball and listen,
Speaker 1: everybody that's listening and trying to improve their game. The
Speaker 1: tour players are trying to do the same thing. They
Speaker 1: struggle with the same things we all struggle with. They
Speaker 1: have good days, they have bad days. They have days
Speaker 1: where they hit a good days where they don't hit
Speaker 1: it great. And I think the more everybody that's trying
Speaker 1: to get better at golf, the more you can hear
Speaker 1: that the best players in the world are trying to
Speaker 1: do the exact same thing that you're doing. We're all
Speaker 1: in the same boat. We're all just trying to improve
Speaker 1: our golf, hit better shots and improve our scores. So
Speaker 1: really really cool for everyone to listen to Matilda, and
Speaker 1: she was pretty candid, so I want to thank her
Speaker 1: and definitely a player that I'll be looking at in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Thanks everyone for listening, Rate review, subscribe
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Son of a which comes
Speaker 1: to you every Wednesday. We'll see you next week.