McKINNEY, Texas – Matt Wallace hated missing the Masters in April but he learned a few important lessons from watching it on TV. Interestingly, he didn’t take pointers from watching world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s dominant performance.
“It’s difficult to take a lot from him because he’s playing unbelievable golf,” Wallace said.
Rather, Wallace has tried to mimic the focus of Swedish sensation Ludvig Aberg and it worked wonders in the opening round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Wallace birdied his first three holes and five of the first six out of the gate to race to the top of the leaderboard and shoot 8-under 63 at TPC Craig Ranch for a one-stroke lead on Thursday.
“It’s the dream start you want for any round and from there my mindset was to take care of my business, take care of my shot and not care so much about what the outcome is but just put the best move that I can on it,” Wallace explained.
It’s been a disappointing season for Wallace, who has recorded just one top-25 finish to date and took three weeks off in April to rest his left shoulder, an injury he blamed on “overplaying.”
“Then I slept on it funny at the Cognizant (in early March), and I had to go and get it looked at straightaway. I thought I was going to be out for about six weeks,” he said.
Wallace called his season “terrible,” but he’s been playing long enough to know it’s a long season and there is so much golf to be played.
“I’ve been so far away from where I’ve wanted to be and how I’ve wanted to play that it feels terrible. It’s probably not terrible but it must feels that way,” said Wallace, who claimed he felt a round like this was brewing after his iron play last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “I came in this week with that belief. Things have felt like they were turning around. I know what I can do in this game.” Statistically, Wallace enjoyed his best ball-striking round of the season, and his 63 marked a career-low round.
Overnight rain into the morning delayed the start of the tournament for one hour and officials instituted preferred lies in the fairways for the opening round. That and soft conditions and little wind meant par took a beating.
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.