Matt Wallace revealed he has refound his old "super confidence" after winning his first PGA Tour title at the 80th attempt.
"No matter how well you’re playing, if you don’t back yourself then no-one else will," he told Mirror Sport . The popular Londoner was inundated with messages from the likes of Paul Scholes, John Terry, Stuart Broad, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald after his victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship.
Wallace, 32, kept his celebrations "low-key" in the Dominican Republic before flying to the Valero Texas Open yesterday for his last chance to qualify for the Masters. The Manchester United fan was renowned for his uber-confidence as he won three times on the DP World Tour in 2018 and finished tied third at the 2019 US PGA.
But after reaching world No.23, he fell out of the top 200 and he only kept his full status on the PGA Tour this season after six LIV players were suspended. Now after nailing four birdies in the last six holes of his closing 66, the relieved and jubilant Wallace - like his football team - is a winner again.
"It's crazy, it hasn't even sunk in yet," said the new world No.117. "I didn't know it was my 80th, feels like I've been out here for years. Getting grey hairs now all the stress I put myself under in golf.
"It’s been really hard and there have been tough times because I just couldn’t put my finger on why I wasn’t performing even though I was putting in the work. It wasn’t happening. It’s because that was so hard that it feels as amazing as it does now.
"It’s mentally different. My physical golf compared with 2018 is better but in 2018, and coming off what I’d done and the wins since 2016, I was super confident in my ability and in myself and I lost that for a while.
"Even though I was playing better golf I just didn’t have the confidence anymore. In the last two weeks I’ve realised that I need to speak better to myself in my head and that better self-talk has helped me get across the line, after a good result last week (seventh at Valspar).
"No matter how well you’re playing, if you don’t back yourself then no-one else will." Winning in the Caribbean does not earn Wallace an invite to the Masters because it was an opposite-field event to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
But he finished third at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio behind Jordan Spieth in 2021. "I'm hopefully not going to have a week off because hopefully I can do this all over again and then get to the Masters,” he said.
"But if not, I'll be heading home and that will be really nice to take a trophy home. I haven't been able to do that for five years and I have been wanting to do it for a long time. I get to celebrate with my family and friends and my loved ones."
