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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 7, 2011

Matt McQuillan

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

THE MODERATOR: All right. I'd to introduce Matt McQuillan to the interview room here at the John Deere Classic. Matt, great round today. You started off with a couple of bogeys, but then got off to a great round and got to 7-under. If you want to go through your round and then we'll take some questions.
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. I hit it in the trees with a 3-wood off the first hole, so I didn't really know what to expect for the day, but I chipped in for eagle on 2 and hit it in a bad spot on 3 and made another bogey, but from there on it was a pretty flawless round.
THE MODERATOR: What was your club on the eagle?
MATT McQUILLAN: I hit a hybrid just over the green and had a pretty simple chip and got it on the right line.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. Questions.

Q. After starting like that you just shrugged? I mean you're even after (indiscernible). What's the mindset from there?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, I figured I got my great stuff and bad stuff out early and just tried to make some good swings, and I was putting very well leading up to this and was able to make a lot of putts today.

Q. You're looking for your second cut here on TOUR. Did you do some of the things today that you did when you made your first cut?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. It's been so long ago, I don't know for sure what I did back then. But yeah, I -- my first tournament I kind of went in free-wheeling, didn't really expect too much, just tried to feel comfortable on the week, and that's kind of what I did today as well.
I've been struggling all year, and I've been trying to grind it out, and I figured trying to start a tournament where it's just free-wheeling, don't really care what happens, and it worked out today.

Q. What got you back into golf recently and how long did you step away after kind of a rocky start to your career?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah, I played the Canadian Tour and mini tours for a number of years, five or six years, and just kind of wasn't playing well and was running out of money, and just wasn't having really much fun at all with the game. And took two years off and worked locally in my hometown, and after about a year working I realized golf wasn't too bad.

Q. What were you doing for employment?
MATT McQUILLAN: I was a bartender/server. So yeah, it was good to take a good break and realize how great playing golf is, and I was able to find a supporter, and they were able to get me back out on TOUR playing.

Q. Does a process like that teach you some humbleness, some humility and just how hard it is to do this?
MATT McQUILLAN: It is. It's very difficult, and to stay positive and patient has been the key for me. I'm out here playing with the best players in the world, and on the best golf courses in the world. So it's very tough to stay positive and patient. But I just figure I'm out here, I qualified to get out here, so trying to have fun and make some birdies.

Q. What do you attribute today to? Does the course fit your eye or after what you've done recently and today?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. I got here on Monday and played the Pro Am, and practice round on Tuesday, and yeah, the course sets up very well for me. It's not an overly long course if you can drive it well, and there's a lot of wedges, and my wedges were really sharp today.

Q. Those two years that you were off, was that '08 and '09?
MATT McQUILLAN: I believe it was '07, '08.

Q. And what did you do? Tended bar?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. Yeah. After I got my support from Kingston, I went out and qualified for the Canadian Tour again and played a year out there and then moved on to the eGolf, played full time on the eGolf Tour in '09 and '10, I believe. And then yeah, I took a shot in the dark at Q-School. I was playing well toward the end of the summer and got hot at the right time and was able to survive the grind of Q-School.

Q. I've asked, there are six Canadians out here now. Is it hard to grow in Canada with your short season and not be comfortable in hot weather?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, I played hockey growing up. I never really got into golf until 12 or 13. And I would balance between golf in the summer, hockey in the winter. And then come 15, 16 I pretty much had to make a choice. I would get knocked around the ice because I stopped growing or stick to golf. So I stuck with golf, and yeah, was able to have a good junior career and then on to college.

Q. How long is golf played up there actually?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, we usually get started about May, and if we're lucky, we could play into November, early November.

Q. How has the pressure been like knowing you made that first cut and then several tournaments since then where you haven't made the cut? What's the pressure been like trying to keep your eligibility on TOUR going forward beyond this year?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. There's a lot of pressure when you have -- when you've put on the season I have. But my support group, they just keep telling me a lot of the guys out here make all their money in about six weeks on TOUR.
So there's still a lot of golf left in the season and just all you can do is try to stay positive and patient. And that's just been my attitude.

Q. You talk about your support group. Is that most of the Canadians?
MATT McQUILLAN: No. No. I have my own support group. Just like parents from back home, coaches, managers, agents, stuff like that.

Q. To go back to the tending bar days, do you put it in your head when you're there that you want to be a pro, but here you are working? What's going on in your head at that point?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, like I said, I wasn't really having too much fun with golf back in '05, '06, wasn't playing well, and it was actually nice to try something different.
I'd been competing, playing competitive golf since I was 12 or 13. I didn't really know anything else. I didn't really know the working world or anything. So yeah, to take a step away and realize how great golf really was, I was fortunate enough to get that support from back home to get back out here.

Q. To clarify, was there a restaurant you worked at?
MATT McQUILLAN: Bar/restaurant. Yeah.

Q. And the name of the town?
MATT McQUILLAN: Kingston.

Q. What was the name of the restaurant?
MATT McQUILLAN: Foorno.

Q. Two-part question. When you did leave, had you more or less put the whole idea of golf to rest for good or did you know you were taking a break and going to come back again later, and the second part is when you're playing well the way you want to play how would you describe yourself as a player?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, the first part, I -- obviously I didn't know if I was going to be taking golf up for good. I just had enough of it and decided to take another path, and honestly I didn't really know if I was going to get back into it or not.
And the second part, I've always been a grinder. I usually play well on tough courses. I don't really make a lot of birdies, so today was kind of a surprise, but yeah, I'm usually pretty good tee to green, and get it up and down pretty regularly.
However, with the swing changes earlier on in the season, I've really struggled hitting greens. And if you don't hit greens out here, you're going to struggle. But the swing changes are starting to come along and hit a lot of greens today and the putting was good.

Q. Was the turnaround more a mental switch or physical, mechanics?
MATT McQUILLAN: Mechanics. Yeah. My swing was really based on timing, and when it was good, it was good. When it was a little off, it was -- you just couldn't compete out here. So I decided to make the change and it's been a long time coming, but I've been seeing positive results and sticking with it. So hopefully this tournament can turn it around.

Q. How eager are you to see if you can back this up come tomorrow?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah. I'm very excited for tomorrow. Obviously I'm in a pretty strange place right now for having not played really any good rounds this year. But I put up a good round today, and it seemed kind of easy, so I'm just going to try and follow that into tomorrow's round.

Q. To follow up on that, is being excited about a good round kind of a distraction? Are you better off when you're not excited as a player?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yeah, yeah. I think you can ask anybody out here. Their good rounds are when everything just comes easy, they're thinking clearly, they're not in a rush, and good things just seem to happen.

Q. Going forward, having posted a good number today, will that take you out of the mindset that allowed you to do it today? Will you be too excited? Can you feel too good to play well?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, yeah. It's about managing your emotions. If you get too excited, then you start racing, you're not thinking clearly and taking your time. So tomorrow I'm just going to try and do what I did today, go out and kind of free-wheel it and see what happens.

Q. What was the highest level of hockey you played? Who do you idolize in golf? I mean who was there in Canada to look up to?
MATT McQUILLAN: Well, obviously Mike Weir was -- is the greatest Canadian golfer. He pretty much set a benchmark for us young Canadian golfers that we can actually compete out here.
And you see more and more starting to qualify for the TOUR, and I think you're going to see more and more in the next coming years.

Q. Is that when you got excited about the game, when he won the Masters?
MATT McQUILLAN: Yes. Yeah. That was pretty fun to watch. I had just played Augusta a month before he won. I went to the University of Georgia and the men's team gets to play there. So I played March 2nd of '03 just before Mike won, and yeah, it was pretty cool to see.

Q. What was the highest level of hockey that you played?
MATT McQUILLAN: Double A.

Q. What position?
MATT McQUILLAN: Left wing.

Q. Any birdies or any shots that stood out in your round today?
MATT McQUILLAN: Obviously the chip-in on 2 was great. But yeah, nothing really in particular. I was just really steady with my wedges today. And yeah, nothing really jumps out.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. Well, thanks a lot, Matt. Good luck tomorrow.
MATT McQUILLAN: Thank you.

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