HOUSTON — To this point in his young career, Matthew Wolff has been a streaky sort. When the 22-year-old Oklahoma State product is on, he’s on. No matter what the conditions or circumstances.
With a pair of top-5 finishes in his last two starts, Wolff has clearly been on of late. So while others swooned in the face of the first real gusts at Memorial Park Golf Course this week, the California native was undeterred and continued to play his hot hand.
Using a 40-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole and some magnificent shots the rest of the way, Wolff briefly held the lead and eventually ended the third round of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open a single shot behind leader Scottie Scheffler. With just 18 holes remaining Wolff will look to capture his second PGA Tour title — the first came at the 3M Open in Minneapolis back in 2019. Scheffler is still seeking his first victory.
Wolff said Memorial Park is no picnic, but he doesn’t mind the difficult track.
“The course is playing really tough. The wind was definitely swirling, at least I thought. I was having a hard time figuring out the wind and that definitely cost me a few shots on 17 and on 7. So I think that was difficult, but I think it’s just firming up a little bit,” he said. “It’s making the fairways more important to hit because beginning of the week it was pretty soft because we had so much rain, so being in the rough wasn’t as penalizing, whereas being in the fairways now is just really important with how fast and firm these greens have gotten.
Climbing on Moving Day.
Back-to-back birdies move @Matthew_Wolff5 into the co-lead. pic.twitter.com/EAl8q1V9w6
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 13, 2021
“The course is playing hard. It’s a really long golf course, which suits into my game really well, but at the end of the day you’ve got to still execute the shots, and I feel good about my game and whatever that holds tomorrow.”
Wolff’s one gaffe came on No. 17 when he took a double bogey and relinquished the lead. But it makes little sense to get riled up over a setback, Wolff insisted.
When asked if he knew why nobody seemed capable of pulling away from the pack, Wolff said the muddy conditions seemed to even the playing field.
“I’m not really sure. I feel like I had a couple mud balls today, so I feel like that’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just unfortunate that we got a lot of rain at the beginning of the week. I feel like everyone just kind of had one or two at least today. That’s definitely affected it a little bit,” he said. “I’ve definitely left quite a few shots out there. I’m really happy where I’m at and going into tomorrow, but at the end of the day I feel like I should definitely be a lot lower than I am. I made a couple stupid mistakes, bogeys on a par-5 and then just not erring on the correct side on 17.
“There’s a lot of things that I need to clean up on, but at the end of the day I’m in a good position going into tomorrow. As frustrated as I want to be at myself, I have to let it all go and just stay focused.”
Meanwhile, Scheffler stayed steady on the back nine, using a pair of birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 to get to 7 under, a stroke ahead of a pack that included Wolff, Jhonattan Vegas, 36-hole leader Martin Trainer, Kramer Hickok and Kevin Tway.
“I’m fairly satisfied with my round. I kept myself in position. Things were kind of getting a little iffy there for me for a little bit. I felt like I was playing good golf and I was 1 over through 13 holes and I felt like I was playing a lot better than that,” Scheffler said. “Definitely nice to make a few birdies down the stretch to get things back in the red.”