U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2025

June 9, 2025

Matt Vogt

Oakmont Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the interview area for the 125th U.S. Open Championship. I am joined by Matt Vogt.

Matt, just talk us through the last week of your life.

MATT VOGT: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, it's been crazy. That's kind of the crazy part about qualifying is you qualify, and you've got to get going; the U.S. Open is the next week.

We flew out to Walla Walla, Washington, for the qualifier. Kind of took a flier on it being a great course fit for my game. It paid off. Got about two hours of sleep on Monday night, just adrenaline and phone blowing up and soaking it all in. Then traveled home Tuesday.

Wednesday still had stuff to take care of at home, personal and professional stuff. Took care of most of that Wednesday as we could. Tried to hit a few golf balls. Packed Thursday, played a little bit Friday, got in here on Saturday. It feels like it's been about three years in about six days, but it's been incredible.

Q. What does it mean to qualify for this one that is so close to your hometown?

MATT VOGT: It means so much. Honestly, with the restoration work here at Oakmont and everything going on with the Open, I try not to even pay attention to it because I knew that it was an absolute pipe dream to get here. It is for the best pros in the world, let alone amateurs. So I almost didn't want to think about it too much.

I'm still trying to like soak it all in, but also not get too sentimental about it because it's incredible. I mean, where we're sitting right now is not far from where I just sat in the caddie yard waiting for people on the range, or we walked right up this path to the caddie shack, the porch right outside the clubhouse -- or outside the pro shop.

Even as I just talk about it now, I get sentimental on it. This place means so much to me. The members are incredible. Stanley Druckenmiller, prominent member here, provided me and a lot of the caddies with a scholarship to help with college. So I'm just indebted to this place, and I'm so grateful. I'm just so grateful honestly.

Q. How is the course playing differently from when you were a caddie here?

MATT VOGT: Well, the rough is about four inches higher, five inches higher. The rough's the biggest part. This course is so good all year long, and the rough is the biggest change or the biggest thing I've noticed.

When you caddie here too, you're not really viewing the golf course in the lens of like Tour-level golf, so that's been interesting too. I'm going around and thinking how I would play the golf course now at this point in my life, so that's been a bit of a change. Like I know everything that's going on, but not to the level of detail that you need to play in the U.S. Open.

It's been a mentally exhausting few days just starting to get to learn the golf course a little bit.

Q. What's it like to sign autographs?

MATT VOGT: I have a 15-month-old daughter now, and everyone knows about my dad's recent passing, so even the last few months, I feel like I've gone from -- in a way, from a boy to a man and like matured as a person and as a dad.

So the coolest part is seeing kids out there. They might know who I am, they might not. They just know I'm playing golf inside the ropes, and maybe they're thinking about doing it themselves someday or just chasing their dreams. They're probably out here with their parents and making memories and having experiences.

It's a true honor to be a part of that, to just see kids like that and, I guess, make a good impression on them here on the golf course. Yeah, I signed my first autograph this morning, and I'm like, okay, I've got to do this today? It's been awesome. It's been awesome.

Q. How much when you caddied here did you get to actually play the course? And what's it like reading the greens for yourself versus for somebody you're caddieing for who's like a 10 handicap?

MATT VOGT: So we got to play Monday nights, and honestly, we did not appreciate that as much as we should have. I mean, thinking about it now, we should have been here every single Monday, but I'd be lying if I said we were.

Tried to get out here most Monday nights and play till dark. Reading the greens now, just being a different person, player, golfer, I feel like, again, it's hard -- like sometimes using your eyes out here doesn't work. So trying to use your feet, trying to look from the sides really as you're walking up and around the greens, it's different than just maybe telling someone, a 10 handicapper, hey, kind of hit it up in here and have fun.

The restoration work, all these little fingers and little additions to the sides of the greens, those have changed some of the visuals around some of the edges of the greens too, so they get a little tricky. Some of them run a little bit away -- it might look like a bowl. Some of them actually start to curve away. So those fingers have changed and little restorations around the edges of the greens have kind of changed the visuals.

Just trying to kind of soak everything in as you walk up to the greens.

Q. Going back to you for Walla Walla, feels like three years ago probably, but it was a week ago, just having that trust that this course fits you based on the advice you got, how important was that trust, and how did that maybe give you the confidence to finish through?

MATT VOGT: Yeah, that's a good question. I think, if you can find any little edge in one-day qualifiers -- not just U.S. Open qualifying, but U.S. Am, U.S. Mid-Am, anything, if you find any little edge, I think you should take it because one-day qualifiers are really, really hard. It's just one day.

It did give some confidence. I got to shout out Wine Valley; that place is awesome. I talked to the guys in the shop when I went there, and I said, how did you guys get this? They said, we just wanted to do it. We want the publicity. We want people to know who we are.

People should take a trip to Walla Walla, drink a bunch of good wine, and play Wine Valley. It's was awesome.

It was firm, fast, long. So I knew that under those conditions, I could hopefully drive it really long and straight, hit really high long irons into those greens, and it paid off.

Knowing that in Ohio, Columbus, Canada, that's a murderers' row of Tour pros, and I have confidence in myself, but you try to get away from those guys as much as you can. Again, I'm fortunate that it paid off.

Q. For those of us that don't know the bones of your background and story, what kind of aspirations did you have to make this a living, and what pushed you to the real day job, if you will?

MATT VOGT: That's a good question. I really never had any aspirations of playing professional golf. I feel like just even in junior golf, like I was a pretty good junior. I went to Butler University and played very briefly on the golf team and then decided to focus on school.

Honestly, maybe I didn't dream big enough or maybe, I don't know, I just never quite had it. I played around a lot of guys who you could tell had it and had a chance to make a shot at professional golf. It never really crossed my mind.

Now I've said this a few times in some interviews, but trying to pursue amateur golf, trying to compete at whatever level that is and get to whatever level I can get to is just, it's almost like a challenge to myself, like what can we do? I don't know what that is. I don't have a specific goal this week. I don't have expectations, and I don't have the same going forward. It's just what's possible.

It's all because I love golf so much. I love the people that you come in contact with. I love the places that you end up. That's honestly what it's all about for me at this point.

Q. If I could just ask a follow-up just on the dentistry. What level, where are you at right now? Do you have your own office, your own practice? Are you part of a practice?

MATT VOGT: That's a good question. I started my own practice in 2018, and that was an insane amount of work obviously, just starting any business. I love my patients. I'd like to think they love me as much as they can love a dentist.

I've been very fortunate over the past seven years or so, our practice has grown. I work with another great dentist, an incredibly talented team, and that's afforded me, quite honestly, some opportunity to have some flexibility in my schedule to treat patients when I'm there -- if we divide the week between us two dentists, like to treat patients while I'm there and treat them very well and work very, very hard -- and have some flexibility in how I administer the practice and kind of make sure everyone is taken care of as far as all the stuff behind the scenes and still get out and try to pursue golf.

I also help other dentists through basically consulting to help them learn how to start and grow their own practices. So we don't learn that in school. We learn how to be great dentists. It's hard, and I hope to help people learn from my mistakes.

Yeah, that all kind of blends in together to form my life, I guess.

Q. You mentioned your dad. Obviously Father's Day weekend this weekend. Is that going to be on your mind at all? How difficult is that going to be for you out there?

MATT VOGT: It's definitely on my mind. Even walking up 9 fairway today after signing some autographs for some little kids, I kind of looked up and thought about it. Anyone who's lost a parent, you feel these brief spurts of emotion, I think, from time to time.

He had colon cancer. I wear the blue ribbon for that. Gosh, I say a prayer every night for people who have been affected by cancer. It's a horrible, horrible thing.

He got that diagnosis last year, and it wasn't good. Over the past few months before his passing, you could see it was starting to take a toll. So it's emotional, but honestly I know he's in a better place. He was beginning to suffer, and that's something no one ever wants to see.

Although I wish he was still here with us -- and yes, I'm sure this weekend will be emotional -- there's a sense of peace among our family, and I hope he's at peace as well because it was hard.

It's a unique time in my life where, yes, my father passed, and I miss him dearly, but I have this beautiful 15-month-old daughter and a wife who supports me in pursuing this and doing these kinds of things. I thank God every day for them. I really do. I thank God for everything in my life.

I think this weekend is going to be full of gratitude and hopefully some good golf too.

Q. Do you embrace those emotions when they come up throughout this week or throughout the last week?

MATT VOGT: I try. I don't know how to deal with all this. It's been a learning process, a lot of talking with my friends and coaches and the people who have helped me, not just in golf, but in life, on how to process things like that. I think there has to be some embracing of that.

I work with, Josh Nichols is my mental coach. I see him more as a friend than anything, but we talked on the way here in the car over the phone. I think, if you try to hide from what's going on -- like in my case, I've never played in front of more than 100 people, let alone 10,000. I think, if you try to ignore what's going on, it's like you're trying to fool yourself. Trying to hide and ignore emotions about what's going on out here I think would be maybe counterproductive.

So I think the theme of the week for me is to just be present and let those come as they may. Obviously once you get closer to hitting a golf shot, you've got to snap back into focus, and that's how I'm trying to handle it.

Q. Have you gotten any increased interest in the dental practice in the last week, any fun calls?

MATT VOGT: I think so. I can say this because Nick, one of the producers on Pat McAfee's show, he's a patient, but he told the word so he waived his HIPAA rights in that way. He gave me a call the next day and wanted to get me on Pat's show, which was a blast.

I think they've gotten a ton of inquiries. Again, I've got such a great team, I've got friends helping me out with all those messages and inquiries and said, hey, guys, forward those to Chris, my buddy, and make sure you stay focused on patients because that's what we're there to do in McCordsville, Indiana.

It's been a lot of fun, some patients reaching out and fellow dentists. I feel like there's so many people behind me this week -- Oakmont, Pittsburgh, dentistry -- it's been fun. Honestly, from a business perspective, that's not what it's about. We try to take good care of people, and if it brings us more great patients that we can help, awesome. It will give us something to talk about maybe in and around the office.

Q. Just kind of a follow-up to the attention you're getting this week. Why do you think your story resonates with people?

MATT VOGT: It's a good question. I've said a number of times this week that I'm not sure -- I don't know. I'm not sure why I'm talking to people. I'm not sure why there's so much interest and why it resonates, but I suppose maybe it's because people are inspired.

I guess that's one of my goals in doing all this this week, besides obviously doing the best I can in the golf tournament, is just to inspire some people, to let them know that it's never too late to try to pursue something in your life that you think is really cool and it's something you want to do that other people think might be foolish or might be a waste of your time or maybe don't believe in you. So maybe that's why.

Q. I'm curious, as a former caddie and also playing here in '21, have you ever gone into adjacent fairways off the tee? And being out there now for a couple days, do you see any opportunity post what Gil did?

MATT VOGT: Great question. There's not a whole lot of that this week. With the work that's been done, the restoration work, it kind of makes that a little less attractive going into the other fairways.

When I played in the 2021 U.S. Am, I did not play well, but I played the golf course before a bunch of rain hit. So when it's firm, those choices, I think, kind of go out the window. I'm sure the golf course will over the next few days, if the weather cooperates, will obviously be tuned up to the max.

We've looked at it in a few spots, but I think we're just going to stick to what the golf course tells you to do. That's what's cool about Oakmont is it's so well-designed in spots, it just says, hey, do this. Sometimes it means hitting it dead straight in between a lot of junk, and it's almost simple in a way. It's like you got to do this or consequences.

Q. Did you stop at the caddie shack and meet up with some of your buddies over the weekend?

MATT VOGT: The old caddie shack used to be like right behind the range, where the new range is here. I don't think it's there anymore. I was asking.

But we did go with a friend of mine who still is a caddie here yesterday to start to get some of the lay of the land of the restoration work that's been done, and I got a lot of cool messages on like Instagram from some caddies and members I've stayed in touch with.

Yeah, I'm proud to be representing the caddie yard this week for sure, no matter how things go.