Q. How does your thought process change, if at all, when you’re in the Playoffs, knowing each week might be your last if you don’t qualify for the following week?
“Fortunately this year, I’ve been guaranteed in from the start. That was quite nice compared to last year, yeah, and the year before. But I think it’s a tough one. I just, for me, the Playoffs, you can play pretty decent, and you can miss out on this week or you can miss out on next week, and you’ve probably been a little bit hard done to by how you’ve played rest of the season.
“I’m like a little bit uneasy with that. I think like if you’ve played well all year, you deserve to be, you know, kind of at the top or where you deserve to be. I think the Playoffs can kind of throw that out a little bit, which is a little odd to me.”
Matt Fitzpatrick (Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
Q. Is there any part that’s hard to accept that if Sepp Straka won last week, he would have gone to I think second place from starting around 41 or 42. Can you accept that?
“Yeah, it’s funny, my coach literally texted me that exact scenario. He said he can’t believe that he’s ahead of me. Yeah, I can accept it because I’ve had a great season and yeah, my reply was that I won the U.S. Open, so I’m fine. I’m happy. Like that’s fine.
“But yeah, it is difficult. In my personal opinion, I think I was laughing last year at the scenario that Collin had such a fantastic season, and he finished outside the top 20 or something on the FedEx, and to me that’s like unfair.
“And then likewise this year, Scottie has won four times, Cam has won three times, and those seven events aren’t, like, small events. They are some of the best events in the world, and they are behind Will now. Not taking it away from Will, but I think it’s a bit too much. In my opinion, those two should be kind of running away with it and it’s kind of a two-horse race, and now there’s more people in the mix, which I get that’s the whole point, the Playoffs, it’s exciting.
“But as a player, when you’ve worked hard all season to then not be rewarded for the whole season performance, yeah, it is a tough one.”
Q. I think it was Cantlay, obviously not last year, I think it was the year before, he went into the Tour Championship probably two or three in the ranking, threw an absolute stinker over four days and walked out of there 26th place. Is that fair, do you think, based on the way they reset and it’s one big tournament at the end; that if you just have your worst week of the year it’s costing you a lot of money?
“No, I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s fair. But life isn’t fair.
“No, I think, I get why it’s done, make it more exciting and throw people in the mix a little bit more. But in terms of people who deserve what their performances showed all year long, like you say, there’s two or three examples now that haven’t been rewarded for their play the whole season.”
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