LAS VEGAS – Matthew Wolff didn’t know.
Now he’s not sure he wanted to know.
“I hope you didn’t jinx me,” Wolff said.
Wolff shot his 10th consecutive round in the 60s at TPC Summerlin in the Shriners Children’s Open in Friday’s second round and moved into contention for the second consecutive year.
Wolff, 22, who won the 2019 3M Open in his third professional start, shot 67-69-68-65 in his debut in 2020 to tie for 18th. Last year, he shot 68-66-61-66 and lost in a playoff to Martin Laird. This year, he’s posted 64-67 to move to 11 under and stands two shots behind Sam Burns through 36 holes.
“I feel like I really like this course. I like the way it sets up. Everything feels really good in my game right now and hopefully I don’t break that streak this year,” Wolff said. “I’m just really happy with where my game’s at.”
He likes where his head’s at, too.
Wolff has openly discussed his mental-health struggles the past six months which have hurt him on and off the golf course and forced him to take some time off. But a small sampling of why he said he’s doing better on the mental side came on his 12th hole in the second round – at the par-4 third hole.
The latest of his 10-for-10 60s roll in Las Vegas included a triple-bogey 7 on the third hole when he found native desert area with his tee shot and compounded the mistake until holing out. Six months ago, the hole might have set Wolff off and led to more over-par holes. Instead, he came home with two birdies and four pars.
“The last six months I’ve been a roller coaster,” he said. “I had a good finish at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, but that was probably the only highlight of the last six months for me. And to be able to make a score like that and not let it affect me, not only, you know, my swing and my game, but also mentally, and I was able to stay in the present and make sure to bounce back and know that there’s plenty of holes left, there’s a lot of golf left, and just got to make sure to keep grinding and keep fighting, I feel like I made a lot of progress in the last six months, but more importantly, the last month.
“I’m really happy to be out here, enjoy being out here, and even if golf doesn’t go well, it’s better than being behind a desk.”
Wolff doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, doesn’t want to think about winning his second PGA Tour title and first at TPC Summerlin. He’s just thinking about his first tee shot in Saturday’s third round.
“I just try to take it shot by shot and do the best I can and whatever score I end up with at the end of the week, I’ll deal with that as long as I know I did my best,” Wolff said. “Just have to make sure to kind of minimize mistakes, and I know if I do that on the weekend, I’ll like where I end up at the end.”
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