The Tarheel Tour Interview with Matt Cannon

Matt Cannon is the Tarheel Tour’s all time leading money winner with $217,700 in total earnings. He has won 15 times on the tour in less than six seasons including the 2007 Warrior Open. He currently stands in second place on the 2007 money list having made $50,215. We caught up with Matt after the Southern Open.

You started the year in a little bit of a slump, which really spanned most of the 2006 season and the first few events of 2007. Your game’s really heated up in the last month. What’s been the difference lately?

Matt Cannon: The difference really is getting back into the competition. In the winters I don’t play much. I just kind of play with my buddies here and there but then I started getting back into tournament mode and now I’m making the right decisions on the golf course. Also my body has started feeling better. I don’t have many aches and pains. For some reason at the beginning of this season, my back just wasn’t holding up. Now I can just kind of concentrate on attacking a golf course like I used to.

You are the proud father of a two-year-old son, Blake. How did having a baby affect your ability to practice and focus on golf? Do you think that contributed to your struggles?

Matt Cannon: Yeah definitely. Your priorities change after you have a child. Golf is obviously not number one anymore. The most important thing really is just being home and hanging out with your child and your wife and helping out. Golf, it really took a backburner. You don’t focus as much, you’re not practicing as much, so it definitely does affect your scoring ability but it’s all worth it in the end.

You are considered one of the top developmental tour players in the country but have failed to make it past the second stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. Why do you think that you have struggled at Q-school, and what will you try to do differently this fall?

Matt Cannon: Oh gosh, Q-school is just such a difficult road. You have to be playing well for a whole month to get through. There are so many great players that have to play their way onto the PGA Tour. It’s just one of those things. In Tour school you have to be peaking at the right time and you have to play well for a whole month. Tournament golf is just so much easier. You have one hot week and you win a golf tournament. Tour school is just gruelling. You have to play well for a full month to get your card. You have got to play golf and you’ve got to play well at the right time and unfortunately I haven’t done that yet.

Do you do anything to try and prepare for Q school differently or do you just try and maintain the same routine?

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Matt Cannon: Maybe that’s what I’m doing wrong. I really don’t do anything different. I just kind of go about it like it’s a regular golf tournament. I think it hurts to make it a big deal out of it and try to work harder and hit more golf balls. Maybe that’s not the right way to do it but I go into it like it’s just a regular golf tournament, so maybe I should change and practice a little bit more and prepare a little more. The last few years I’ve just kind of gone into it just like it’s a regular golf tournament.

You have had one of the most distinguished careers of anybody playing the Tarheel Tour, past or present. What would you say in your professional career is your biggest accomplishment? What are you the most proud of?

Matt Cannon: Oh gosh. I would say this last win I had at the Warrior, because I had so many things to battle through. I had injuries and having a child. I really had to grind it out with my physical therapist, Andy Nelson, for probably a full year really until I got my body working again. So probably the last win was my biggest accomplishment just because it took so much to do it. It wasn’t like before a few years ago. It just seemed so much easier to win. I was in better shape, I was hitting it better, but the last two years were just terrible. I played just horrendous because my body was just was not holding up. I couldn’t really hit anymore than a bucket of balls and play 18 holes. If I did anymore than that, I’d wake up the next morning; my back would be cooked. I’d say the last win just because I had to battle through a lot of things.

Matt you are considered to be one of the best putters in the history of the Tarheel Tour, especially from 15-feet and in. What do you work on when you practice your putting?

Matt Cannon: It’s funny you ask because for the last ten years I never had to really work on my mechanics and my putter. I actually did lose my putter for all of last year. I putted awful and I put it on video and worked on getting the putter going more straight back and straight through instead of whipping it way inside and getting handsy. I really just work on using my back muscles and my shoulders and trying to get those hands out of it. You’ve just got to rock the shoulders and get all those fast twitch muscles out of your putting stroke.

Having played the Tarheel Tour since 2002 and having won 15-times, do you still get nervous when you are coming down the stretch in contention?

Matt Cannon: You always get nervous on the last four or five holes. If you have a chance to win, you just try to go about your pre shot routine. You’ve got to stay in the present. I think that’s the key to tournament golf. Winning a golf tournament is not really about thinking about the outcome, just thinking about the task at hand and being able to really focus on your mechanics shot-by-shot and putt-by-putt. If you get ahead of yourself or behind yourself, you’re cooked. You’re not going to perform. When I’m coming down the stretch it’s all about staying in the present. When I get nervous that’s what I try to work on.

You have played the Tarheel Tour since it’s inception. What is the biggest change you have seen in the tour over the past few years?

Matt Cannon: You just have so many more players that can win out there now. It used to be ten, 12 players and now it’s probably 50 players that can win. The competition has gotten so good on the Tarheel Tour the last few years it’s amazing. Partly we have great golf courses and the guys do a great job running the Tour. It’s just that the Tour’s exploded. The quality of play is what I would say has changed the most.

What are the biggest differences that you see between the young guys coming out of college and the more experienced players like yourself?

Matt Cannon: I think the younger players don’t really take into account the percentages in playing tournament golf. They just kind of wing it and go for everything. After you’ve played for as long as I have played, there are green light situations and there are yellow light situations where you’re just trying to get the ball in play or get the ball on the green. A lot of the younger players now look like they just go for broke all the time, off the tee and into the green while the older players only attack at times. They don’t attack all 18 holes and I think that’s the key. That helps your scoring average in the long run. You might get hot week one week but I think if you play percentages when you play golf, I think you’re better off in the long run.

What are your goals for the rest of the season?

Matt Cannon: My goal is really just to keep playing the way I’m playing right now. I just want to go through it and hopefully get on the PGA Tour. That’s what everyone’s goal is.

Thanks for the time Matt. Good luck the rest of the way.

Matt Cannon: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Don’t work too hard.