Smylie Kaufman Talks Matt McCarty's 1st PGA Tour Victory

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00:00The new winner on the PGA Tour, Matt McCarty.

00:07And this is a guy where, you know, we want to take this in a number of different directions,

00:11but we've talked a lot this last season just about, you know, the crop of guys coming off

00:17the corn fair or guys that are ready to make an impact right away.

00:21Matt McCarty, he earned his tour card this season via the battlefield promotion.

00:28Three wins on the on the corn fairy tour, only the 13th guy to do that.

00:32And this was it was actually if you look at his his season on the corn fairy tour this

00:37last year, if you cut it off like the first part of the year at June 2nd after a miscut

00:43of the UNC Health Championship, believe I have this correct.

00:45He missed four cuts in 12 starts.

00:48He had two top fives, but really nothing other than that better than a tie for 26th and then

00:53just flipped a switch kind of June on.

00:56He wins the Price Cutter Charity Championship in late July.

01:01He wins a Pinnacle Bank Championship in mid-August and then Albertson's Boise Open at the end

01:06of August wins that to stamp it, earn his tour card.

01:10This is a guy that they were showing stats here on Golf Channel after the win this week.

01:13The Black Desert Championship won one in his third start on the PGA Tour, so one of the

01:20fastest to ever do that.

01:21They also shoot photographic.

01:23Garrett Kigo did that a couple of years back at Congaree's second PGA Tour start.

01:27So Smiley, just reflections on a guy that looks like he stripes it pretty good.

01:32Yeah, well, this week he's he's 26 years old out of Santa Clara, grew up in Scottsdale,

01:37Arizona.

01:38So this sort of desert mountainous golf kind of suits him well.

01:41What do you see out of Matt that makes you think of what kind of impact he could have

01:45on the PGA Tour this season?

01:46Well, I think it just kind of shows where the depth is in the pro game.

01:51We talk so much about the top and fixing the highest level of the game.

01:55And when you see a player that, you know, is a relatively unknown player coming into

01:59the Korn Ferry Tour season, playing his golf at Santa Clara, this isn't a player that,

02:05you know, was playing at Georgia or playing at, you know, a top school.

02:08Santa Clara is a school I can't even name you another player that's played at Santa

02:13Clara.

02:14I'm sure there's probably been plenty of great players, but, you know, what what comes to

02:17mind is is very light.

02:19So, you know, for for a player like himself to to get as hot as he did, you know, in the

02:25middle of this Korn Ferry Tour season, the stat that I saw that interests me was after,

02:31you know, right around June 9th, he was 10 under par or more in 13 straight events.

02:36So this guy was just making a ton of birdies every single week.

02:39So he's been playing incredible this entire summer.

02:43And you know, winning's not easy, right?

02:46He won three times on that tour, which is an incredibly competitive tour.

02:50You said the 13th time for for a guy to do that.

02:55It's impressive.

02:56And I think what my takeaway from just watching Matt get the victory is that it's a storyline

03:03that I'm interested in.

03:04I'm interested so much in these Korn Ferry Tour players to learn more about them sooner.

03:10I feel like this Korn Ferry Tour season, when it finished, I'm ready to see this next

03:16crop on the PGA Tour.

03:18And if it weren't for Matt's battlefield promotion, we wouldn't be seeing him unless he was getting

03:22sponsors invites.

03:23So this is a conversation I want to get into in a in a in a second.

03:29But let's just look at the PGA Tour in this and and how he fits in this ecosystem now.

03:37Right.

03:38So he's now in the winner's category.

03:41He's got no worries about his schedule now.

03:43He's got no worries of a reshuffle that he may have had to deal with next year.

03:47So he's in a great spot now that he's won, which is obvious.

03:51He's now got a master's exemption.

03:53But what does he not have?

03:55He does not have access into the signature events.

04:00Is that correct?

04:01Like he's not even in Pebble Beach.

04:02He's not in RIV.

04:05So that's the confusing thing to me about all of this, right, is that we're having,

04:11you know, the biggest, arguably one of the biggest tournaments that the professional

04:17game offers being the masters awarding an exemption for a player winning this event

04:23in the fall.

04:24But also the PGA Tour isn't rewarding players winning to getting in their own big event.

04:31So that's where the disconnect is for me in all this.

04:35It's like, hey, I want to see Matt McCarty on the elite PGA Tour events.

04:41And I want to see these new faces playing this fall.

04:45But we're just in a tug of war right now of trying to figure out where everybody fits.

04:50It's a game of Tetris.

04:52And right now, I just think this Tetris game is a bit confusing.

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