Matthew Wolff may be heading into the final round of the US Open with a chance to become only the second golfer win the event on debut, but – all things put into perspective – he stresses that “it’s just golf”.
“I put myself in a really good spot. I did everything that I could do up until this point. I promise you I’m going to try my best and, if I come out on top or not, it is what it is.
“But right now I’m just looking to go have a good time … and it’s just golf. Even though it is the US Open, there are a lot of things in life that are a little different right now and in the world you can see how many things are affecting us,” said the 21-year-old Californian, who turned professional last year and already has one PGA Tour win at the 3M Open in early July
Wolff carded a tournament low-matching 65 in yesterday’s third round and is five-under-par after 54 holes, two shots ahead of Bryson DeChambeau. The last golfer to win the US Open in his tournament debut was Francis Ouimet in 1913.
The worldwide battle with Covid-19 and ensuing hardships aside, Wolff revealed that his agent, John Moscatello of the Wasserman Media Group, was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.
“Even though it would be unbelievable to add my name to a US Open trophy, I think that the most important thing is realizing everything that’s going on and the people that I’m close with are … there’s some things happening with that. My agent, John, is struggling right now with his health … and I’ve been thinking about him a lot out there. He doesn’t want anyone to feel bad for him but, like I said, it just puts things in perspective. And I’m going to go out there, try to make him proud and go have a good time.
“I’m not sure if he wants the world to know, but he’s undergoing stomach cancer right now and he got diagnosed like three weeks ago or something like that. He’s probably going to be pissed at me for saying that, and he doesn’t want anyone to feel bad for him. The biggest thing that I can do is go out there, have fun and enjoy myself because he loves watching me play golf, but it is … it’s just an awful time,” shared Wolff.
South African veteran Louis Oosthuizen is in third place on one-under-par, a shot ahead of Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Americans Xander Schauffele and Harris English. Halfway leader Patrick Reed fell back with a 77 and is in T11 place o three-over-par.
