MAJOR PLAYER

to watch the tournament a few times as a kid. Although a lot of fans were pulling for Jordan [Spieth], I felt like I had a lot of support out there given my connection with the place.

You seemed very calm out there during the nal round at Hilton Head, when Jordan Spieth kind of reeled you in. Is that something that comes with having a Major in the bank, or is it just the way you operate these days?

The big thing for me that I feel like I’ve learnt when I play well is just having patience, just letting it happen, and just giving myself time.

At the end of the day, the nal round is over 18 holes. If you caught up in ve holes, things can change in the next three holes. I just felt as long as I could be within two shots going into the back nine, I was in with a shout. I know I can play the back nine well. Hilton Head is a hard golf course. You’ve got to hit good golf shots at the right times, and fortunately for me, I made a great putt on 15, great shot on 16, again, good shot on 17 and good shot on 18 and just managed to get in the playo and went from there.

How has your life changed since your US Open win last year?

Yeah, obviously it changed my life massively. I guess I felt like I was going to be pulled in a million di erent directions – do this, do that, do this – and although I’ve been asked to do more things, at the same time it’s kind of just learning to say no and saying yes to things that I feel are valuable. Doing what’s going to help me and my pro le, as well as helping my sponsors and the commitments that I’ve made with them, rather than trying to please everybody all the time. One thing it has done is made me realise is that my time is really important. So, managing my time better is one of the lessons I’ve learned. I feel like I’m getting better at it. I’ve been playing on tour for like nine years now. It’s di cult to get the balance right –you make some bad decisions and you make some good decisions. It’s just how it goes.

You’re currently up to an all-time high seventh in the world rankings. How far do you think you can go and how do you reset your goals when you’ve got a major on your CV?

The goal is always to try and get as high up the world rankings as I can, and that comes from working hard each week and trying to improve. Outside of that, my main focus is on winning tournaments and performing well in the majors. How pleased were you with your performance at the Masters?

Yeah, it was a probably about as good a week as I played to that point of the year, given the neck issues that had been troubling me at the start of the season, so getting in a top-10 was a positive week and I felt like I was in a good place with my swing. The weather was an issue and was it was rather stop-start. I lost a bit of momentum just when I thought things were going well, and that kind of stopped me in my tracks, but that was the same for a lot of players that week.

How has your added length o the tee helped with your overall play this season?

It’s allowed me to hit less club into holes at some courses than I used to, and that certainly hasn’t harmed my chances of scoring well. I’ve also been able to take certain bunkers out of play that before would have been a problem. Keeping my driving distances up is a constant work in progress, as if I stop doing any of my speed training work it quickly shows up on the golf course, so it’s something I need to work on pretty much all the time.

Fans will have noticed that you ip your grip on certain shots around the greens. Can you explain your thinking behind your crosshanded chipping?

Normally if I’ve got to land it inside 30 yards, I’ll chip cross-handed. Outside of that, I tend to go with a normal grip just because I can’t really get the clubhead speed. I also can’t get the spin from anything outside of that or if I have to play a high shot I can’t get the spin, either, going cross-handed. That’s when I might have to go to a normal grip.

Rory [McIlroy] is due to be ned $3m by the PGA Tour for missing the RBC Heritage, which was of the new designated events which the top PGA Tour players are required to play in. Are you concerned that you are going to have a play a schedule that might not actually suit your game and your plans in order to meet the demands that the PGA Tour is now placing on you?

Sure, I think that is de nitely a concern. In terms of myself playing certain events I’m not really worried about that. If I have to go and play events that I’ve not really played before, that’s not really an issue. I think the big thing that has been talked about a lot with the players is that we want to play less. I do think there’s too much golf, regardless of what level you’re at. Having 53 tournaments in a 52-a-year cycle is ridiculous. It’s too much golf.

I just think people probably need a break from it. They could watch golf every week from January to December. That’s why I think having fewer tournaments, but getting the best players together more often, is the obvious way to go.

Does having some of the LIV golfers coming back into the elds for the Majors add something extra that is missing from the regular events?

Yeah, of course, absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. If you win a major and they [LIV golfers] are not allowed to play, there’s always going to be an asterisk next to that win, whether you like it or not. I think it’s good for the game that they’re playing in those events.

There has been a lot of talk about the DP World Tour becoming little more than a feeder tour for the PGA Tour, especially with the introduction of playing rights for next year’s PGA Tour for the top 10 players in this season’s Race to Dubai points list. Some would argue that that has been the case for the last 20-odd years, but how do you see it as someone who has come on that journey?

The way I see it is that guys want to play for more money and guys want to play against the best players. There’s more money on o er on the PGA Tour and there are more of the best players too. That’s just kind of the long and short of it. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and everything that came with it, Europe has struggled and a lot of things have changed. They [the DP World Tour] were in a good shape before

WHAT’S IN MATT’S BAG?

: Titleist TSi3 (9°)

FAIRWAY WOODS: Ping G430

MAX (3, 15°), Ping G410 (7, 20.5°)

Ping i210 (4), Ping S55 (5-PW)

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design

SM9 (52°, 56°, 60°)

PUTTER: Be inardi BB1 Fitz

Titleist Pro V1x that, with eight Rolex Series events with $9m prize funds, and then, all of a sudden, the pandemic comes along and wipes most of that out. I think we’ve got four of those big money events now, plus the DP World Tour Championship.

Obviously, there’s another player in the game that’s kind of hindered that even more, which is obviously a big factor. I do think that the strategic alliance between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour is a good thing, but at the same time I feel like there probably needs to be a little bit more done from the PGA Tour’s perspective to help out in Europe. As things currently stand, I feel like the relationship is probably a little bit one-sided.

Someone needs to gure out how Europe [the DP World Tour] can co-exist with the PGA Tour, as well as grow. Perhaps there should be more PGA Tour events in Europe and stu like that. I don’t see an issue in that. No o ence to some of the places that we go to in the States, but Rome or Paris are pretty nice places to be to playing a golf tournament. If the PGA Tour is committed to growing the game globally, it can’t just be like, the DP World Tour has got Europe covered so we don’t need to bother with that.

How would you feel as a European golfer just starting out playing on the European circuit?

I think you can de nitely make a nice living playing on the DP World Tour. Probably not so much if you’re nishing in the middle of the pack on the Challenge Tour every week, but I think you can have a really nice life playing on the top tier in Europe. You can play 25 or 26 events a year and if you play okay, you keep your card every year and tick along, and that would certainly make a nice living.

What is your schedule like in terms of playing in Europe this year?

My rst one’s going to be the Scottish Open in July, followed by The Open Championship at Hoylake, and then I’ll play the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in September, and hopefully I’ll play the Dunhill Links Championship with my mum again in October.

You obviously had a bit of a starring role in Net ix’s Full Swing series. How did you feel like you came across in it and how do think it will help in broadening golf’s appeal?

For me, watching the Formula 1 Drive to Survive series really got me into Formula 1 for the rst time, so if that’s going to have the same e ect in golf, which it has the potential to do, then I think that’s really exciting for our game.

It’s obviously exciting for me as well in terms of raising my pro le, but it’s something we’ll just have to see in terms of how it resonates with the wider public and how it develops. I’ve not watched all the episodes, but I thought mine was really good, of course!