Valspar Championship

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Palm Harbor, Florida, USA

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Matthew NeSmith

Quick Quotes


Q. Obviously quite the round yesterday, just the mindset coming out today and how you felt about it. If you could elaborate on getting through 18 holes.

MATTHEW NESMITH: Yeah, it's not really just to get through 18 holes. It's more so just to finish 18 holes. I still took my time. I still tried to hit the best shots that I could and I wasn't trying to rush out there. I wasn't trying to kind of make everything go fast and rush through it. I mean, I was just trying to enjoy the walk.

This is what I've dreamed of as a little kid, coming out here and playing in the final group, whether it be anything. I mean, on the PGA TOUR the final group is the coolest thing in the world, and to have that opportunity and to play well was great.

And I just tried to enjoy the walk. It's hard. It's obviously very hard. But I did a good job. I mean, the goal was to finish 18 holes and enjoy the walk and we did both of those things today, so I'm pretty happy.

Q. After yesterday's round, are you able, are you the type to come back out and think, how do I continue on that or do you just able to separate it, start fresh? It sounds like you're the type that's just --

MATTHEW NESMITH: It didn't matter today. Today was a completely new day and we were trying to put one foot in front of the other one and that was the entire goal of today. I think we accomplished that pretty well and I'm excited to try and do the same thing tomorrow.

Q. You made that front nine look really easy again.

MATTHEW NESMITH: Yeah.

Q. How do you do that?

MATTHEW NESMITH: I mean, it's just the golf course sets up well for me. If I drive it well, my iron play is the strength of my game, so...

And there's a lot of times where guys have to hit it, kind of they have to lay up, and we all have to play from the same spot, so that's my game. That's what I've always been really good at.

So the front nine just suits my eye. Hopefully we can go out there and do it again tomorrow. But it just suits my eye and I played some good golf.

Q. How do you feel like you handled the moments of adversity on the back nine? You really hadn't had any until 10.

MATTHEW NESMITH: Yeah. It's, yeah, it's fine. I mean, yeah, I played really good golf all the way through nine holes and probably some adversity's going to come, whether or not it be making bogeys or making pars or whatever. And I was totally okay with whatever happened. I mean, what did I make, four bogeys on the back? I'm not going to sweat it. I'm fine. I'm very, very happy to have accomplished my goal of playing 18 holes today and whether that included 18 bogeys, it didn't matter to me.

Q. Did you feel any more comfortable out there?

MATTHEW NESMITH: The last few holes, actually, the funny part is is I did actually feel pretty good with probably five or six holes to go. I didn't play very good golf, but it didn't really matter to me. I was just happy to be playing some really good golf and some big-time moments and we were just going to try and put one foot in front of the other and go from there.

Q. Building on that, as you look where you are through 54 holes, what role is attitude playing?

MATTHEW NESMITH: For me it's all of it right now. I've done some really great things on the golf course and off the golf course the last few months, and I haven't been able to let that shine through because I've been in my own way.

So to have this, I mean, nothing was going to be harder than yesterday for me. I mean, it was always going to be hard. Trying to follow-up a really great round with another great one, it's tough.

So to go out there and try and just relax and play golf was all I needed to do, and the golf would come. Everything else would kind of fall into place if I would just be who I am, enjoy the walk, enjoy having Mick around, enjoy everything that comes along with being in this kind of group being in this position.

So if you don't enjoy it and you want to run from it, then, I mean, it's just not, you need to do something else. It's obviously a little uncomfortable at times, but this is what I've wanted to do my entire life, so I'm excited.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
118410-1-1044 2022-03-19 22:18:00 GMT

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