Speaker 1: The guys from paying They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
Speaker 1: hit any shot.
Speaker 2: I kind of want. We're gonna be able to tell
Speaker 2: some fun stories about what goes on here to help
Speaker 2: golfers play better golf.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Proving Grounds Podcast. I
Speaker 1: am Shane Bacon, joined by Marty Jerts and Matthew Pavon
Speaker 1: is with us. I know the year has been pretty
Speaker 1: fantastic for you, a big twenty twenty four, obviously getting
Speaker 1: the win at Torrey Pines. But how has this season
Speaker 1: been for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's incredible so far. I mean, just having the
Speaker 3: opportunity to play here in America full schedule, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: And as you said, he could then started the best way,
Speaker 3: so a lot a lot of tournaments come in, but yeah,
Speaker 3: so far, it's just incredible.
Speaker 2: Age thirty one, You've kind of followed a little different
Speaker 2: journey than a lot of players on the tour, right
Speaker 2: kind of. You know, it's quote unquote journeyman on Challenge Tour,
Speaker 2: deep World Tour. Not a lot of Americans you know,
Speaker 2: new of you unless where they were falling, you know,
Speaker 2: international play quite a bit. How much golf had you
Speaker 2: played in America leading up to your transition joined the
Speaker 2: tour here in the fall and this year.
Speaker 3: I mean not much. The only thing I knew really
Speaker 3: about America is I came when I was seventeen after
Speaker 3: high school. I practiced for a year in West Palm.
Speaker 3: We have a French brother there, Thomas Lovey, who played Radaka,
Speaker 3: one of the biggest names in the French golf. So
Speaker 3: I spent some time with him in West Palm, and
Speaker 3: I get to know a little bit the culture of America.
Speaker 3: How big is sports in America, and also how beautiful
Speaker 3: and great are the facilities to practice, to be fair,
Speaker 3: and then more and more growing up, got few quality
Speaker 3: to play. The US Open. Agreement between DP and PGA
Speaker 3: Tour make me play two times the Barracuda Championship, so yeah,
Speaker 3: little opportunities to play before, but not many.
Speaker 1: I mean you you've kind of had your moments Stateside
Speaker 1: over the years. You mentioned being seventeen, obviously playing in
Speaker 1: the US Opening, playing well back in twenty eighteen, I
Speaker 1: think you had a top twenty five that year. Are
Speaker 1: you now adjusting to kind of the American lifestyle what
Speaker 1: do you like about it and what do you miss
Speaker 1: about France?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's all about learning. It's slightly different,
Speaker 3: for sure, but I think that country is just such
Speaker 3: an amazing country for spots and for high performance stuff.
Speaker 3: The way you guys think, you guys raise your your
Speaker 3: kids you are raised too, is really different.
Speaker 1: But in what way is like? What's different in terms
Speaker 1: of like that specifically? Because I got two little kids,
Speaker 1: so I'm inntioned in your thoughts.
Speaker 3: It's just so much positivity. Really, it feels like nobody
Speaker 3: has limits. You guys believe strong, believes dreams big, and
Speaker 3: this is not what we are teach when we we
Speaker 3: home and we grow up. So it's it's a little
Speaker 3: bit different, and I think it's just an awesome way
Speaker 3: to live.
Speaker 1: I mean, you obviously become a professional golfer, that's what
Speaker 1: a lot of young kids dream of being. How are
Speaker 1: your parents as you were growing up and you were
Speaker 1: thinking about competing as a junior golfer and then obviously
Speaker 1: getting into the professional ranks. How was it personally you
Speaker 1: going through that as a kid in France?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was nice.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I am very lucky that my two parents are sports
Speaker 3: sports guy. My mum is a golf teacher. My dad
Speaker 3: played football as a professional, was captain of the main
Speaker 3: team of Bordeaux, won the French championship back back in
Speaker 3: the days, so we were. I was a lot into sports.
Speaker 3: They had a lot of positivities and values through sport.
Speaker 3: I think sports teach a lot of great values for life.
Speaker 3: And this is the way I grew up. And obviously
Speaker 3: it got me a little bit into competition. Competition mind
Speaker 3: so no, was just the right way to grow up
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 2: How did how did your parents, being both in sports
Speaker 2: and coaches, helped formulate how you approach your practicing, structuring
Speaker 2: your time. I know in your interview after you want
Speaker 2: a toy, you talk a lot about thinking your team.
Speaker 2: You know, so who is on your team and what
Speaker 2: does that look like right now? In terms of you know, training, fitness,
Speaker 2: mental side of things. How do you how do you
Speaker 2: approach all that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is this is the thing I really changed
Speaker 3: over the last three years. Where when I started on tour,
Speaker 3: I didn't have a lot of sponsors and I kind
Speaker 3: of was a bit scaled to really invest all the
Speaker 3: money I had at that time into a team. But
Speaker 3: this is definitely what you have to do if you
Speaker 3: want to get the best out of your game. And
Speaker 3: I slightly sorry to be a team. I have an
Speaker 3: American physical trainer, Ben Sheer, who has a right a
Speaker 3: Cup players and Majors winner. My coach Jamie go also
Speaker 3: write a cup players, and like six or seven guys
Speaker 3: back in back in Europe. We are three playing on
Speaker 3: the PGA Tour putting coach which come from Norway. So
Speaker 3: I have a lot of international Yeah it's really international,
Speaker 3: but you know in friends, like the game is slightly growing,
Speaker 3: and I think for now maybe we don't have all
Speaker 3: the right people to teach everything. You know, we have
Speaker 3: good golf coaches, I'm sure about that, but maybe we
Speaker 3: are a little bit young into i don't know, into
Speaker 3: patting or into physical training or whatever, especially for golf.
Speaker 3: And because you don't have time to take people and
Speaker 3: try to grow all together, I've really decided to invest
Speaker 3: off what's the best year in America and in different
Speaker 3: other countries.
Speaker 1: When you're building a team. To Marty's point, how do
Speaker 1: you go I'm always amazed by this, like how do
Speaker 1: you go about it? How do you find the trainer?
Speaker 1: How do you find the coach like are you asking
Speaker 1: other players who they are work with? Like how does
Speaker 1: that go about? As you said, it's been a big
Speaker 1: part of your journey last.
Speaker 3: So the thing is, I'm really interested about performance, and
Speaker 3: when I see people playing great, I try to see
Speaker 3: what they do great and where they improved the most
Speaker 3: and stuff like this. And for my swing, I was,
Speaker 3: I mean, I am a faith player. I always played
Speaker 3: fade and I was missing left a lot. And I
Speaker 3: saw that guy Jamie Off and this Sullivan at that
Speaker 3: time write a cup player hitting super beautiful faith and
Speaker 3: at a lot of great faith players like Brendon Stone
Speaker 3: at that time, and also Lee Houghton, guys one on
Speaker 3: tour and been in the top hundred and even more
Speaker 3: top fifteen the world. So I was like, okay, that's
Speaker 3: the type of guy who shaped the ball left to right,
Speaker 3: so I might have to ask him to see my swing.
Speaker 3: And this is how we started. Ben Sheer, coach of
Speaker 3: Victor Perez, best French guy at that time, one on
Speaker 3: tour two or three times I think close to being
Speaker 3: the Ryder Cup had that that bad COVID year who
Speaker 3: stopped him. But same I talked to a lot to
Speaker 3: victor because his body of mine and uh, he saw
Speaker 3: changed on his physical physical training with Ben. So got
Speaker 3: to Ben and then putting I saw like I just
Speaker 3: look on my computer, who who are the best part
Speaker 3: on tour and tried to see if there is a
Speaker 3: tendency in between the coach they have and stuff like this,
Speaker 3: and little by little, this is how I create like
Speaker 3: a team in the last three years.
Speaker 1: Marty, this is like professional research.
Speaker 3: With this guy.
Speaker 2: Let's go with that exactly. Let's know some patterns here.
Speaker 2: That's great. So how how long? I mean, obviously you
Speaker 2: you you got your win wired to wire win at
Speaker 2: the end of the last year, end of twenty three,
Speaker 2: the victory this year, When did you start putting those
Speaker 2: pieces in place with your team and start seeing some
Speaker 2: of the you know, the different results come out of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it went like, uh slowly but surely. Two years
Speaker 3: ago I had a season on tour get back to
Speaker 3: Race to Dubai finish like fifty years or something. Then
Speaker 3: the year after I got like forty years. So was improvement.
Speaker 3: And we always felt like I was closed and capable
Speaker 3: to win a tournament, but before you actually do it,
Speaker 3: you don't really know. And this is what I was
Speaker 3: missing last the last few years. And last year I
Speaker 3: was having like an average year Reaverage, like pretty close
Speaker 3: to the same same resort that I had the past
Speaker 3: few ones, and we were feeling we were getting closed.
Speaker 3: And finally that wind drops, and it kind of gives
Speaker 3: you freedom in your mind, give freedom to your staff
Speaker 3: because we all know that we are working in the
Speaker 3: right direction. We have more, you know, certainties about the
Speaker 3: work we've put on, and I give you just freedom
Speaker 3: to everybody. And then I since then I kind of
Speaker 3: keep rolling.
Speaker 2: Matt, tell us a little bit about I think one
Speaker 2: thing that we find interesting. We've seen this with Matt
Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick is the cross handed chipping. So tell us the
Speaker 2: story of how that came to be. It was fun
Speaker 2: watching you help some of those amazing up and downs
Speaker 2: a toy earlier this year.
Speaker 3: Yes, So the thing is last year, as an amateur,
Speaker 3: I had yips. I couldn't chip anymore. I was like
Speaker 3: thirty years in the French ranking and eight hundred in
Speaker 3: the world as an amateur, so pretty far far down
Speaker 3: below everybody. So I was almost close to quit golf
Speaker 3: because I was I was sure that without any chipping,
Speaker 3: you can't really compete as a high level. And just
Speaker 3: before the Q School on the app Store, which is
Speaker 3: the third division in Europe, I was like, okay, let's
Speaker 3: try to find something or I just quit. And what
Speaker 3: years is, by the way, twenty fourteen or fourteen, And
Speaker 3: I started chipping like one handed, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: that's better. I don't have yips. But it's like one
Speaker 3: time show. What I'm long when it's straight is what
Speaker 3: I'm left once I'm right. So it's like two average.
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, I put reverse. I'm going
Speaker 3: to try to in padding is really close to a
Speaker 3: bump and run with an eight iron. So I started
Speaker 3: with an eight iron with the same grape as my
Speaker 3: pudding and I hit a few shots and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: I'm not scared to hit the ground. I'm not scared
Speaker 3: to the contact. I don't see any movements in my
Speaker 3: hands or whatever. And it started like this, good with
Speaker 3: the aid, went to the wedge. Good with the wedge,
Speaker 3: fifty eight. Good with the fifty eight. I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: no more fear, so open the face, close the face,
Speaker 3: draw the ball, flop it the different lines, tight grain
Speaker 3: against everything, and I was fine, and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden I had again that's the world freedom. I had
Speaker 3: some freedom because I wasn't scared to miss a grain
Speaker 3: and before every time I had the irons to play,
Speaker 3: I was marching away from the fire because if I
Speaker 3: was short sighted, it's pretty much a boggie right away.
Speaker 3: I wasn't scared anymore to play the path fives in two.
Speaker 1: Because would you would you lay up on purpose just
Speaker 1: so you didn't.
Speaker 3: Have to chick. I was looking, I was aiming to
Speaker 3: some of the trips sometimes because in the bunkers I
Speaker 3: was fine. But if I was missing, if I was
Speaker 3: missing my shot in two on the part five on
Speaker 3: the tie line, it could be one fat one thing
Speaker 3: to put and you end up with a six. Right,
Speaker 3: So it was Yeah, it was tricky, and also being
Speaker 3: having so much relief from that fears, from those fears,
Speaker 3: I I just played with so much freedom Since then.
Speaker 1: Marty, have you ever done it? I know you're a
Speaker 1: guy that tinkers around. Have you done cross it before?
Speaker 1: Because I do feel like it does spin. I think
Speaker 1: it spins better if you ever give it a try.
Speaker 1: Do you never messed around with it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I just just a few times you know, but but
Speaker 2: not seriously. But I'm now I'm tempted. It's one of
Speaker 2: those things. Now we loved Shane, and I love coming
Speaker 2: on and interviewing all of you guys because we end
Speaker 2: up going back and try and stuff on our own.
Speaker 3: But it's nice. I mean, as you said, I think
Speaker 3: to be fair on really I'm not talking about stuff,
Speaker 3: but really on some some really easy things and just
Speaker 3: pop up the ball in the Yeah, I think you
Speaker 3: can really have a lot of thin compared to H
Speaker 3: left left right now?
Speaker 1: Have you ever gone back? Have you ever gone back
Speaker 1: to see what it looked like the other way?
Speaker 3: No, because to be fair.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see it.
Speaker 3: I'm starting to mastering it more and so I don't
Speaker 3: want to see how it's like texting an next girlfriend.
Speaker 1: I'm like, they're doing.
Speaker 3: It is it is. I have less fear than before,
Speaker 3: so I can wedge because before I was also very
Speaker 3: scared on two shots about like forty fifty yards. Now
Speaker 3: I kind of play the normal, so it's fine, but
Speaker 3: I won't I won't ever go back to uh normal.
Speaker 2: For the every day golfer. We now have a club
Speaker 2: for that called the Chipper.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Heavy lightweight, you can do crosshanded putting, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: you got you got every the listener has some options
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you learn English? I'm always interested about
Speaker 1: this with international players because a you obviously got to
Speaker 1: learn another language, and but you've got to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: enough doing stuff like yes, when did you learn it?
Speaker 1: How did you learn it? And when did you start
Speaker 1: to feel comfortable enough to speak publicly?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's just high school. I think also
Speaker 3: that's bad because I'm just shooting at my country. But
Speaker 3: I think the way we learn English in France is
Speaker 3: probably not the best. It's really like, you know, theory,
Speaker 3: it's like learning a lot of words, but not really
Speaker 3: talking and using. So I think it kind of sucks
Speaker 3: because you have to practice it. You have to talk,
Speaker 3: you have to use it. It's just of just learning
Speaker 3: lessons and writing down, writing, you know, on paper. But
Speaker 3: I think I had good basics, and after I went
Speaker 3: to America for a year when I was seventeen, and
Speaker 3: when you're kind of alone in the new country, there
Speaker 3: are no way you can escape, so you have you
Speaker 3: can't learn it, No, you have to learn it. You
Speaker 3: have to talk to people at least trying, and this
Speaker 3: is by trying and making mistakes that you become better.
Speaker 3: It's like in golf and everything, and this is the
Speaker 3: way I learned it more and more, and afterwards, when
Speaker 3: you become professional and you try so much, the only
Speaker 3: language you really talk is English.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about your country, specifically with golf, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking about how old you must have been
Speaker 1: in ninety nine during that Open Championship. I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: were six seven years old. What was it like consuming
Speaker 1: the Vandervelt experience and what did that do for you
Speaker 1: in terms of wanting to continue to play golf and
Speaker 1: get obviously into the competitive side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I wasn't looking at the TV at
Speaker 3: that time. I wasn't really into golf. I really have
Speaker 3: a look on one app of what happened with Jean,
Speaker 3: like only maybe ten years ago. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: it is really sad to see finished like this, But
Speaker 3: at the same time it's also inspiring because what he
Speaker 3: has achieved this week was pretty big and we don't
Speaker 3: have any French golfer major winners so far. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: the guys who get close like Jean and Tomas Leave
Speaker 3: also lost to pay off against Ernie els is really inspiring,
Speaker 3: and it is really those guys who drives you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now I want to go back a little bit to
Speaker 2: your chipping in and look at your wedges right, and
Speaker 2: your your wedge setup is a little unique compared to
Speaker 2: other tour players because you play a fifty eight degree
Speaker 2: right and then you play a fifty two bent to
Speaker 2: fifty one. So I think a lot of folks would
Speaker 2: look at that, including myself. A boy, that's a big gap.
Speaker 2: And then you have more clubs down at the bottom
Speaker 2: end of your bag, which we'll talk about, right, So
Speaker 2: have you always played kind of a fifty two to
Speaker 2: fifty one and then a fifty eight And do you
Speaker 2: feel like you're you have the ability to control your
Speaker 2: speed and your your your distances to be able to,
Speaker 2: you know, cover any gaps that might have as a
Speaker 2: you know, relative to other players that have you know,
Speaker 2: a forty eight fifty two fifty six sixty for example.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question. I thought a lot about
Speaker 3: maybe adjusting this. It's just the way I grew up.
Speaker 3: I always I grew up the last fifteen years using
Speaker 3: just a fifty two fifty eight, So you get more
Speaker 3: and more comfortable with two clubs. I've been trying a
Speaker 3: little bit of fifty six in the middle. Just get
Speaker 3: something a little bit different, like fifty to fifty six
Speaker 3: and fifty eight or sixty. And the thing is, it
Speaker 3: felt like I had almost too much options, so I
Speaker 3: didn't know which shot I should choose, Like should I
Speaker 3: play a little fifty six or a full fifty eight
Speaker 3: or stronger fifty eight or strong fifty six or small
Speaker 3: fifty two. And I was like, same for the chipping,
Speaker 3: should I use the fifty two bump and run or
Speaker 3: should I just play a fifty six or I was
Speaker 3: a bit confused, and I was like, I have too
Speaker 3: much options, which sometimes great because when you're on the cheap,
Speaker 3: it's either the fifty two or either the fifty eight.
Speaker 3: It's either I or low, let's say. So, I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's just the way I felt it. And I always
Speaker 3: like to to have like a highbrid all three iron
Speaker 3: or even both in my bag. So it might change,
Speaker 3: because I'm sure there are tournaments where it's it's better
Speaker 3: to have three wedges, yeah, but for now, I just
Speaker 3: feel comfortable this way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just so interesting because again, I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like four and even five wedges at times
Speaker 1: have become popular on the PGA tour, And to kind
Speaker 1: of simplify it, I do see players a lot of
Speaker 1: the time, and I'm not talking about pro players, but
Speaker 1: you know amateur players, even good amateur players, and you
Speaker 1: almost see them always carrying the two or three wedges
Speaker 1: up to hit a chip shot around the green. And
Speaker 1: I think sometimes the commitment is tough to really feel
Speaker 1: like you know exactly what kind of shot you're saying,
Speaker 1: and you're simply going this club's the low one, this
Speaker 1: club's the high one. You know exactly what you're gonna
Speaker 1: what club your pullem when're hitting certain shots.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's more like this. But as I said, I
Speaker 3: think I might go to fifty six sorry, at some point,
Speaker 3: because I think it is really nice in the traps.
Speaker 3: To be fair, fifty to fifty six is really nice
Speaker 3: club in the traps. And also, like for some wedging,
Speaker 3: give you like some like good numbers, one or two
Speaker 3: good numbers, yes, so so yeah, it might change. It depends.
Speaker 3: It will depend probably on the golf course I play.
Speaker 2: You're crosshanded chipping at what yardage do you switch over?
Speaker 2: Because Matt Fitzpatrick says it's right, like exactly fifty yards,
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's pretty.
Speaker 3: Close to Matt. I think the furthest I practice is
Speaker 3: like sixty sixty carry, but I don't to be fair,
Speaker 3: when it goes to sixty, I'm already back with the normal,
Speaker 3: normal grip. But yeah, most of the time is like
Speaker 3: I used to practice like five balls every distances every ten.
Speaker 3: So I go fifty eight twenty thirty, forty yards and
Speaker 3: then it was fifty two with I'll do again forty
Speaker 3: yards and then fifty sixty, and then from there I stop.
Speaker 3: I just go back to a fifty eighteen normal normal grip.
Speaker 1: I always love to ask players kind of goals for
Speaker 1: the year. I mean, you obviously have've already won on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, you played Greater August, the National. Did
Speaker 1: you have to readjust some of the goals for the
Speaker 1: season after you did so much early in the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not we we haven't really adjusted anything. It's
Speaker 3: just that I set up goals when I started the year,
Speaker 3: and I tried to go down the list and make
Speaker 3: them all.
Speaker 1: How many have you checked off far?
Speaker 3: I think almost almost all just hanging up. I wanted
Speaker 3: to get a win either here in America or back
Speaker 3: in Europe if I come back play later this year.
Speaker 3: So it's done. I wanted to make top seventy on
Speaker 3: the FedEx, so I think I'm pretty pretty okay with that.
Speaker 3: I wanted to make a cut in the Major, cut
Speaker 3: in the Major. So yeah, it's pretty much pretty much
Speaker 3: all done. But after I have more goals about like
Speaker 3: process goals and those ones, I'm never really done because
Speaker 3: I really wanted to put more work and get better
Speaker 3: preparation before tournaments, so this never stops. So yeah, Actually,
Speaker 3: I think after Hawaii, I had nice top ten there
Speaker 3: and I said to my to my team that one
Speaker 3: of the goals I wanted to put in the list
Speaker 3: two is was to be to become Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 3: So that would be that would be something I'd be
Speaker 3: chasing till the end of.
Speaker 1: There a good race right now for Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: I bet if you can't make some of the players,
Speaker 1: a lot of first time winners.
Speaker 3: Right yeah, it's I think it's it's great even if
Speaker 3: you're not like twenty two anymore, you're thirty one and
Speaker 3: rookie of the PJ TO it's a nice goal. That
Speaker 3: would be really awesome to get it. And I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: the race is on with a lot of great players
Speaker 3: checking up super nice player. He's the guy who was
Speaker 3: sitting right next to me at the integration weekend with
Speaker 3: the PGATO in Hawaii. So yeah, it's it's just it's
Speaker 3: just fun. It's it's a fun race.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, how much do either you or your team
Speaker 2: are into like statistics? Is it? Do you guys deep
Speaker 2: dive on that front? Strokes gains stuff in different areas
Speaker 2: of the game. Are you more focused on your process,
Speaker 2: goals and your results or you factor in that in.
Speaker 3: Look, I'm really I'm really more into process with my team.
Speaker 3: Try to practice the best, very try to be very efficient.
Speaker 3: But the starts are here. I have a guy who
Speaker 3: does my studs in France for me, collects all my
Speaker 3: putts low I mean low side, high side, long shot, whatever,
Speaker 3: collects everything. So it's more like a tool that I
Speaker 3: use with my team to see where my game is,
Speaker 3: if we see any trends, and how we can adjust them.
Speaker 3: For example, putting is really important for me because the
Speaker 3: infos we got just give them with my I just
Speaker 3: give them to my putting coach and we tweak the
Speaker 3: programs because I'm the guy who every Monday, every Tuesday,
Speaker 3: every Wednesday, I have the same exercises to do. So
Speaker 3: Monday I have fiveise exercises to do. It's like one
Speaker 3: really basics, checking aim, bold, start, and then after I compete,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of games where you have to hold puts.
Speaker 3: So every Monday, same program, every choice to Tuesday the
Speaker 3: same program, and Wednesday same program. And depending on the stats,
Speaker 3: we kind of just like, have I missed a lot
Speaker 3: of shot puts? Have I struggled from far distances? Have
Speaker 3: I missed a lot of but low or high sight?
Speaker 3: And this is how we we tweak programs, and we
Speaker 3: we are just from tendencies.
Speaker 1: We see what's travel like been like this year? I mean,
Speaker 1: are you traveling? Are you are you hanging out with
Speaker 1: players that are international players, European players. Do you have
Speaker 1: guys who play practice rounds with each and every week
Speaker 1: or you kind of seeing who wants to go out
Speaker 1: and play? How's that been this year on the PGA tour.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know what really to expect. The thing
Speaker 3: is I had the same schedule that my two French
Speaker 3: fellow players, Barjon and Perez and by winning early, I
Speaker 3: didn't I didn't share a lot of time with them,
Speaker 3: so I got a a bit alone. But anyway, on
Speaker 3: my schedule this year, I really tried with my staff
Speaker 3: to make sure at every tournament I had someone with me,
Speaker 3: so either family, comment, either punning coach, either trainer, either
Speaker 3: fisio or whatever to make sure I'm never alone.
Speaker 1: Gotcha makes sense? How about Uh, we haven't asked you
Speaker 1: about the Olympics yet. I can only imagine you were
Speaker 1: talking about goals for twenty twenty four. That was one
Speaker 1: of the very very high feels like you're you're headed
Speaker 1: that way, but a I mean, you know, you think
Speaker 1: about Ryder Cup years for your European players, and you
Speaker 1: think about I gotta make the Ryder Cup. But have
Speaker 1: an Olympics in France and you're playing the way you've
Speaker 1: been playing. What is that like? Kind of imagining that
Speaker 1: moment as you kind of get prepared for later this year.
Speaker 3: No, no, this is this is unbelievable. I can be
Speaker 3: I can't be proud enough to be to be part
Speaker 3: of this Olympics is huge. I watched them since I'm kid.
Speaker 3: I even had the PlayStation game when when I was
Speaker 3: when I was younger, was a tea athen Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know, two thousand and something. But yeah, so we
Speaker 3: we grew up with this, watching it on TV with
Speaker 3: my parents, my brother. So it's just just so cool
Speaker 3: to to be part of it and also part of
Speaker 3: the French you know, athletes. We have so many great,
Speaker 3: great athletes with lots of medals, so being part of
Speaker 3: that family is pretty special, and even more when you're
Speaker 3: going to represent your country on your own.
Speaker 2: Sorry, what's the golf course like there? And what do
Speaker 2: you what do you think the world's gonna think of?
Speaker 2: Just the atmosphere for the Olympics this year.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. I don't know, like how big could
Speaker 3: be the crowd over there. The thing is, the golf
Speaker 3: is a little bit out Paris, so it's not like
Speaker 3: the best place in the world to us, I would
Speaker 3: say a golf tournament. But the golf course itself is awesome.
Speaker 3: I mean, we had the Ryder Cup over there. It's
Speaker 3: really really nice golf course. It's it's tough. It's gonna
Speaker 3: be a very good test for sure. The only bad
Speaker 3: thing for me is like I never played great over there.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's six six French Open and made the cut once. Different,
Speaker 3: so this is yeah, it's different. It's Olympics and no cuts.
Speaker 3: So this is for show one I'm not gonna miss.
Speaker 3: But no, I think it's gonna be also playing different
Speaker 3: because it's in August. In the past few years we've
Speaker 3: been playing the French Open a little bit later in
Speaker 3: the year, more towards September and October when it's wet.
Speaker 3: So no, I think it's gonna be it's gonna be nice.
Speaker 3: I think all the player are gonna like the place.
Speaker 1: You better hit it straight, right, that's the goal there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a golf of course, you better hit it on.
Speaker 2: A straight Yeah.
Speaker 3: You have a lot of water and that stretch fifteen
Speaker 3: fifteen to eighteen, it's it's pretty tough, probably one of
Speaker 3: the toughest in the world.
Speaker 2: I would say, man, I want to talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about your gear, your driver. One thing we've seen
Speaker 2: with it that our drivers become very forgiving is that
Speaker 2: players can play them longer. We're a big fan of
Speaker 2: doing this with our everyday golfers at the Ping Proving
Speaker 2: Grounds when they come in with our max Max ten
Speaker 2: k that now, because it's so forgiving you can play
Speaker 2: it a little bit longer. I'm very interested looking at
Speaker 2: your specs off your driver. You play at forty six
Speaker 2: inches yep, right at the limit. How did that come
Speaker 2: to be? And was that an idea you had when
Speaker 2: your team where you're trying to get a little bit
Speaker 2: more speed, a little bit more distance. What's the story
Speaker 2: behind forty six inches? Is your spect?
Speaker 3: So it started with just training to get the middle
Speaker 3: of the face. I don't know why, but at the
Speaker 3: moment in my curry, I had a lot of heels. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So we started to cut the driver to get a different,
Speaker 3: different club and try to get more center shot. And
Speaker 3: in the end it was almost the opposite. I was
Speaker 3: still doing heils and heels and hills, so I kind
Speaker 3: of get back to a normal driver, started to hit
Speaker 3: it better. And two years ago I was just trying
Speaker 3: to it's always a club that I've hit it pretty straight. Uh,
Speaker 3: And we were looking for a little bit more speed,
Speaker 3: and I was like, Okay, should we try a different
Speaker 3: shaft or should we try I don't know, just shutting
Speaker 3: the face a little bit because I was trying. I
Speaker 3: was I felt like I was swinging the club and
Speaker 3: in the end the option we had is just to
Speaker 3: lengthen the driver to create a little bit more speed
Speaker 3: and not touching the loft all the all the shaft,
Speaker 3: and I found out that it was It was perfect
Speaker 3: for me. It got a little bit more more speed.
Speaker 3: And which is more impressive is that I started to
Speaker 3: hit the ball more in the middle of the face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're using the length a little bit. You
Speaker 2: started to get to work on your centeredness of contact.
Speaker 2: I think one other interesting thing you do is you
Speaker 2: play the driver in our flat positions, so it's three
Speaker 2: degrees flats in our flat dot position. So hopefully by now, Shane,
Speaker 2: the listeners know that the PGA Tour average driver length
Speaker 2: is not forty four and a half like I used
Speaker 2: to be. Yeah, we got winners like that. You're playing
Speaker 2: it right at forty six inches is quite fun Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, As I said, I don't know, it's funny.
Speaker 3: Like I struggled for years to really get the middle
Speaker 3: of the face with the driver, even if I was
Speaker 3: hitting the boat quite straight, and all of a sudden
Speaker 3: we kind of had more length to get. First, we
Speaker 3: wanted to get a little bit more speed, yeah, and
Speaker 3: a little bit more distance, and then Indian. It ended
Speaker 3: up that I had more speed and a better contact,
Speaker 3: so there was it was the right things to do.
Speaker 1: I know, you're a tattoo guy. We got a tattoo
Speaker 1: in mine coming up soon, like a new tattoo. You're
Speaker 1: gonna throw one up, like at the end of the
Speaker 1: year or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe, yeah. Olympic rings. Yeah, so that's been popular
Speaker 3: from that, Yeah, yeah, it is, it is popular.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So where are we going to go with that?
Speaker 3: It's tough. I don't know yet. I don't know yet.
Speaker 1: It's a moment by moment thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I don't know yet. I got like not
Speaker 3: many empty spots now, so I might go down on
Speaker 3: the legs.
Speaker 1: Now, when did you When did you get into tattoos
Speaker 1: and why were you into them? Was it a young
Speaker 1: young age thing?
Speaker 3: I think, because yeah, definitely not something who comes with
Speaker 3: a golf player. But my dad, as I said, was
Speaker 3: a soccer player. I don't know, it comes maybe from
Speaker 3: that side. Every soccer player back in Europe is tattooed.
Speaker 3: So it started like this and I don't know, you
Speaker 3: it's really addictive you make one. It was like more
Speaker 3: a teenager thing. I mean, I was twenty two, but
Speaker 3: it was more a teenager things. Let's say you get
Speaker 3: one and you're like, yeah, I like it, and then
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go out another one, and then again another one,
Speaker 3: another one, and he never stops.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite one?
Speaker 3: No, I don't, to be fair, Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: actually I have My favorite one is a I have
Speaker 3: one on my end call. It's my son's name and
Speaker 3: is the time of his birth. Very very that's the one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool, very cool. Mattie. Well, tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about your first trip to Augusta. You finished,
Speaker 2: you finished time for twelve awesome week that week. What
Speaker 2: was some of your favorite memories and how did the
Speaker 2: experience of playing there compared to maybe what you imagined?
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, so yeah, that's that's special week. Which is
Speaker 3: crazy is like I went there the week before practiced
Speaker 3: two days with Shane Lowry and I was really surprised
Speaker 3: because it was looking so open. Like I I arrived
Speaker 3: at the clubhouse, went on the first team and I
Speaker 3: was like, Wow, it's really open. I can see the
Speaker 3: second green down below. Everything looks soap and you can
Speaker 3: see the holes, you know, on the other trees. You
Speaker 3: can see everything, and really surprised obviously by the hills
Speaker 3: and the slope that when when you go up on
Speaker 3: the first team you see the first and you're like, wow, okay,
Speaker 3: there is like that miss massive ball and goes up.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was it was really special. And Shane
Speaker 3: was laughing on me and said, yeah, wait, wait, wait
Speaker 3: till next with your see is not that open. And
Speaker 3: now it was totally true because when you show them
Speaker 3: on Monday, it's already i don't know, like more than
Speaker 3: twenty thousand people that day and you can't see any holes.
Speaker 3: It's just like full of people right to left and
Speaker 3: it makes the thing much more tighter and you and
Speaker 3: just an awesome place. It's really really surprising. The first
Speaker 3: day of the practice round is really surprised myself. So
Speaker 3: it was good to go the week before get a
Speaker 3: little bit of, you know, taste, because the Monday was
Speaker 3: was really special. It was like you know when you
Speaker 3: bring a kid to Disneyland. It was exactly the same,
Speaker 3: the same feeling. But yeah, I mean that was that
Speaker 3: was a crazy week. You can really feel that place
Speaker 3: is special. When you hit the second shot into eleven
Speaker 3: from you town on the corner eleven second shot, then
Speaker 3: twelve and thirteen You're like, wow, okay, this is this
Speaker 3: is like the coolest three holes in the world. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What I find so interesting about players at the Masters
Speaker 1: is you guys aren't going to go to merch tents
Speaker 1: at normal golf events. You guys aren't gonna go shopping
Speaker 1: at normal golf events. But at the Masters, especially at
Speaker 1: first Masters, you might go shop. You're gonna buy stuff
Speaker 1: for your family. Did you shop?
Speaker 3: I did. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was the receipts substantial? Well, all your Tory money.
Speaker 3: Not a very small amount of my Tory money, but
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have so many six to buy. I
Speaker 3: don't know how many flags you get, like twenty thirty flags.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants one, so flags are big. Then you get
Speaker 3: inside and you see all the different shirts you can get.
Speaker 3: You have the all the different sweater, different style like sporty,
Speaker 3: you get the nice cashmi, you got everything. Then you
Speaker 3: go to club out those different logos, special ones, tea pocket,
Speaker 3: like a book with the way I write my notes
Speaker 3: with the Master's logo. It never ends up.
Speaker 1: I wonder. So like idiots like me that go to
Speaker 1: the Masters have friends that text and say buy me
Speaker 1: a shirt. Do you get friends that text you and
Speaker 1: say buy me this, buy me that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have friends and know the only friends I
Speaker 3: have everyone like.
Speaker 1: A random number on your phonel I don't know who
Speaker 1: this is.
Speaker 3: You have guys you havn't full ten years and say oh,
Speaker 3: can you grab me a flag when you go back.
Speaker 3: I was like, well, yeah, okay, I got a flag.
Speaker 1: Well, we really appreciate the time. It's been great chatting
Speaker 1: with you. It's been fun watching you play this year.
Speaker 1: I mean the game has been solid, not obviously not
Speaker 1: just at Torrey Pines, but kind of throughout the season.
Speaker 1: And we'll be rooting for you not just the rest
Speaker 1: of the year but into the Olympics. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: really really special. So thanks for the time.
Speaker 3: No, no pleasure anytime. And uh yeah it's a it's
Speaker 3: really real pleasure to be on that being femini.
Speaker 1: This is the Proving Grounds Podcast.