Wallace ready to lay down marker
MATT WALLACE will be using a Manchester United ball marker at the Players Championship today to remind himself to keep fighting to the finish in Sawgrass.
England’s most upwardly mobile golfer, who has risen from No156 to 35 in the world rankings in the last year, kicks off his first full season of Majors with his debut at the unofficial fifth Major.
The cast list matches the big four – and the prize money exceeds them with £9.5million on the line at Sawgrass, including a cool £1.7m for the winner. It is a far cry from life on the low-rent Alps Tour for Wallace three years ago and the precursor to a season that will take in Pebble Beach, Bethpage, Portrush and, for the first time, Augusta.
“I’m thinking every single day about playing at the Masters but I also have other great events. I’m such a perv with golf that every single event I go to
I love,” he said.
“People would want to play all of these courses in their lifetime and I get to play all of them in a year. It’s pretty special.
“I’ve started off this season well and I know if I can keep getting better there will be some big things around the corner.”
Wallace has posted four top-six finishes in his past 10 events, including his first in the United States last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational when the United ball marker was called up after the incredible Champions League comeback against PSG.
“Whenever I look at it I go, ‘We fight to the end, no matter what’,” said Wallace. “I love a grind. The harder it is, the better for me. It doesn’t have to be pretty. My caddie Dave [McNeilly] likens me to Padraig Harrington a little because I can play 18 holes terribly and still beat the guy I’m playing with. I’ll take that.”
Harrington, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, is one of the figures Wallace has turned to in order to transform himself from third-tier pro into a serial winner who has triumphed three times in the past year.
“I had a bunker lesson from Padraig in Turkey because I was struggling a bit. I asked him if he could come over and have a look,” said Wallace.“We were on the range late, just the two of us with the lights on.
“The next week, in South Africa, I holed a bunker shot that got me up to fifth. Then I had an up and down at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the 17th in the final round from the trap and finished second.
“Why not take the best from the best and try to improve your game? I don’t see why other people don’t.
I take bits and pieces from the players I think are better than me. It’s how I work.
“I got some tips from Thomas Bjorn about wedges, which helped me massively
– he was kind enough to have a 10-minute chat about it.
“I played with Tommy Fleetwood at Wentworth and that was the best iron display I had ever seen, so I started working on that and won in Germany. I’m not scared to think these guys are better at these things than I am, but I’m sure they’d want some of my driving, my putting or my will to win.That sort of stuff you can’t really teach.”
Sawgrass is more suited to a ball-striking purist but Wallace feels Augusta will be the ideal fit for him. “I had
Glen
Murray,
Sergio’s old caddie, on the bag for two weeks at the end of last year and he said I have the perfect game for Augusta with my chipping and putting,” said Wallace.
“I do hit a fade with the driver and I asked him if that would be a problem off the tee but he said, ‘Absolutely not’. Jack Nicklaus did all right with a fade round there,
didn’t he?”
The harder it is, the better for me