Matilda Castren

It's the Son of a Butch podcast. We normally come to you every Wednesday, coming to you Thursday. This week I was up at the LPGA Tournament of Champions and this week's guest LPGA player Matilda Castren. Twenty twenty one was kind of the big breakout year for her. She won on the LPGA Tour. That year, she won on the Ladies' European Tour. That year, she made the Solheim Cup they won. She played her golf college golf at

No, I mean, definitely, my my iron shots were a lot worse than last couple of years. Really off the tea, I kind of struggled not all year, but most of the year, So that didn't put me in the best position to hit a great shot into the green. But yeah, I think it was a lot of expectation from myself and I kind of let the expectation of others also get to me. I kind of took a lot of pressure on that, and I mean I had some goals

It's a catch twenty two, right. When you're not playing well, there are times where you want to take time off to maybe practice or just say, hey, listen, I'm going to do a reset. But when you're not playing well and your status isn't great and you look at how many tournaments you've got of the course of the year, have to sometimes keep playing when you're not playing your best.

I mean trying to qualify for the Songheim. I knew I needed to play certain events and I knew that captain was going to be at some of them and I needed to kind of show my best.

Then, you know, on the PGA Tour they call that Wrighter cup itis, right, So you have those guys that are kind of have that year it's a Wright Cup year. They're near the right cup there, they're being talked about as somebody that could make it. They're probably going to have to get a pick, and then you're running out of two ornaments. You know that there are spots available

Yeah, I mean, you have, like, you know what you need to do and it just doesn't really the more you want it, you just have to kind of put them on the back burner. I tried to tell myself it's a result of you know, doing the daily things well, and like that's not it's my goal, but I shouldn't only focus on that. I should focus on going to practice. I'm doing my little things that I do every day, and just tried to play a good golf and the

In my mind so possible not to look.

Yeah, I mean, obviously I really really wanted to play in Spain. I haven't played a so Home Cup in Europe, so I was really looking forward to that.

But do you feel like I remember saying this to Brooks Cup and when Brooks was starting out on the PGA Tour and he hadn't been on a Ryder Cup before, and then he got on his first one at Hazeltee. I kept saying to him, you will never not want to be on one of these after you experienced the Solheim Cup. For you as an experience, having tasted that and been a part of that. What's that experience like

I love the team spirit. I mean Team Europe we had such an amazing energy and the bus is going to turn them up to the golf course and like playing together practice rounds. Everyone is just like there for this same goal, and the energy is just so amazing. And I remember being there and telling myself I never want to miss it and I want to play in all of them, and I thought, for sure, I'm going to do it. And it's not that simple. You've got to play really amazing and earn your spot in the team.

So and the pressure in Solheim Cups very much like the Ryder Cup. It's a very different pressure than you feel week to week on the LPGA Tour, because first of all, you've got a team, you've got captains, you're playing for something bigger. What's that pressure like? And when you first experienced it. When did you say, Okay, this is a completely different feeling, pressure wise than what I'm used to in stroke play events.

The first tea on the first day, we're the first match, me and Anna, and she hit the first t shot and I was like, dank, God, she's hitting the first tea shot because I was so nervous. You know, number one and ten the tea box were together at Enverness and the stand is behind and there's just so many people, the energy, everyone's screaming and the music is loud, and it's just so different than anything I've ever experienced, than any other tournament I've ever I'm ever gonna play in.

I've said this before on the pod, and I got to experience this in Rome a couple about a month

I mean, momentum is everything in match play. You can be three down, but if you have it going for you, you make a couple of birdies, you can kind of you feel that, hey, like you have an upper hand against the opponents. It's kind of you can tell that their confidence is kind of maybe crumbling a little bit. They're not so sure about it anymore. And you have like five holes to go, and you know, things can change so quickly. I mean, if you're three down after

When you're in a team competition and you've got a partner, are you someone that immediately goes into okay, this is my partner, this is my teammate. I'm going to ask their input for reading putts, for reading greens, for clubs selection or stuff. Because a lot of a lot of the you know, like rarely do we see great partnerships that kind of embrace that, but there were a lot of I mean, just in looking at some of the guys, I mean, some of the guys just they do their

It was kind of in between.

So I knew she obviously she's very experienced and she's a veteran, and she knows what she's doing, so I know she's probably not going to ask me for much help. But I knew she was there if I needed anything. There were obviously some like game plans we went through, like Part fives, where to put her on the layup or whether like if it was a tough shutout of the bunker, like where would she like to would she like for me to go for it, or maybe put

So when we look at the men, it's been, you know, since two thousand. I mean I was at was in nineteen ninety three. Is the last time the US men's team for the Ryder Cup has won on foreign soil. You were part of a Solheim Cup team that won in the US. How is that different, because I think there's I almost think it's it would be cooler to

I mean the crowds were really quiet in the end because there were no European fans during COVID. Nobody could come in. Not even our families were able to make it over.

So it really was just the team, the captains and the caddies.

Yeah, like some of our spouses were there.

But in the end of the last last day, it was very quiet and it was so satisfying because I mean we were underdogs that week, like we weren't really expected to win. Nobody, we didn't have any fans and on us oil. I mean, it just made us so much better.

So you got your first PGA Tour win in twenty twenty one, first female from Finland to win on the LPGO. I think it's very important when we look at countries that aren't, you know, the big, big golf countries. Finland is not a big golfing country. It doesn't have a massive, massive history. Miko Elinan, who I used to work with, won the British am won a bunch of tournaments in Europe and stuff. He was kind of the flag bearer

I mean it's really cool to hear some of the juniors tell others that they want to be like me. I mean, the last couple of years has been really amazing to like build that platform and it's just an honor for me to carry the finished flag on tour and you.

Get to do it in the Olympics as well.

Yeah, and I hope to do it again, and I hope to achieve bigger and better things as well. And I want to be that person that the juniors will look up to and they kind of see that they can do it too. Because I was the second finish player on the LPGA. There was a lady called Mini Bloomfish. Yeah yeah, yeah, So I looked up to her and she was kind of my role model when I was a little girl, and I knew she played out here, and that was kind of why I wanted to come to the States and play. Yeah.

That's my point. I think when we look at developing golfers and people say, well, it's not a big golf market, I'm always looking at, Okay, who are the players coming out of that system? Right that other people can kind of look up to and you have someone that say, Okay, I can make it because they made it. They're from where I'm from, and I think, you know, I heard somebody say something. Everybody thinks if you think that, oh, you know, I can't make it, everything stacked against me.

I mean, if you're lucky in hell, thinky you get May till October, which is not terrible, but it takes a while for the golf course.

To being good.

I mean in Finland it can still be snowing in May it could be, and then the further north you go, the season obviously is really really shrunk.

Yeah, so golf is not being you know, ice hockey is huge other when sports. So I'm just really happy to see that golf is growing in Finland. There's more juniors coming out. There's a guy, Sammy Valimachi who just got his agatory first finished golfer. So there's some really exciting things happening, a lot of good momentum, and I hope it just keeps growing.

You made the jump from Finland Plager college golf at Florida State one six, seven times seven times, seven nights seven. What's the difference would you say between winning in college because obviously multiple winner A lot of a lot of girls go to college and they never win anything. So to have that type of career second team All American, but to win seven times you can't fake that, right, I mean, if you can get lucky and win once, but to win multiple multiple times in college is huge.

I did, and I had my first couple of years as a professional were not great. I kind of had like this, I don't know, culture shock. Maybe I played on these.

Just kind of freaked out when you got there, or were like, Wow, it's a bigger stage, or put too much pressure on yourself.

Oh, there were a lot of good players, because I was when I was in college. There's not that many girls to complete and compete against.

Yeah, there's normally one at each school, Right, You're not rarely, and this happens in men's college golf as well. Rarely do you have four just absolute superstars playing every week on the same team. And ladies golf is no different. You're going to play tournaments where there's really probably you know, if there's fifty sixty people playing, there's really only a small amount of people that are really going to have an opportunity to win the tournament.

Yeah.

Right, when you make that jump from college to the professional rank, then everybody's good. Right, do you feel like you can sometimes? You know, it's funny. I had Joe Scovern, Ricky Fewler's old caddy and now caddies for Tom Kim, and he said one of the things that he noticed about Tom is he didn't seem even though he was a rookie and just getting his first month, he didn't seem like he was kind of freaked out about being on tour. And he he said something that I thought,

It can be intimidating.

It can be intimidating because I think you can sometimes you can overpractice, you can bounce around with coaches, you can bounce around with caddies. Was that the culture shock you were talking about, where you're like, okay, and here's the other thing. Nobody tells you how to be a professional golfer. Right. There's no school you go to. They don't take, there are no classes you take, and nobody really sits you down and says, Okay, you've come from

Yeah, I mean everyone was so good, so if I didn't have a great week, instead of being still in the top twenty. In college, I would miss the cut and not make any money. So that was really shocking to me, and it kind of like it affected my confidence.

But after a couple of years I worked through it.

And then I got to the LPGA, and I was like, Okay, it's the same thing, but now it's just like a step above.

Everyone's just a.

Little bit more better or a little better than the previous stage I was in. So I think I was really comfortable on the LPGA because of that. I had already gone through like this tough time in my career, and I just kept on playing golf and kept.

On doing what I was doing.

And I have a really good friend who helped me a lot, Kelly ten She's been on tour for ten years now, I think, and she helped me a lot my rookie year just to kind of learn the ropes.

And yeah, that was a huge help.

When you, I mean, in looking at your like I said, I look at your stats from last year versus twenty two. One of the other things was this was a year where you missed a bunch of cuts. I think you missed ten cuts. Last year you only missed two when

Early in the year I missed a few cuts just by one three I think it was three in a row.

So frustrated.

It was so frustrating. But later in the year, I just I wasn't playing well enough. I really struggle getting out of the tea box, like no matter what club was in my hand, I just I just really struggled.

Did you when you got up on the tee was it as much a mental Did it become as much a mental thing as a physical thing to where you haven't been driving it great? Even though the fairway can seem wide open, all you see is the trouble. Was it that type of thing to where you're standing up there and you're not freely swinging, you know, just standing up and saying, listen, I'm not worried about the outcome, or did you feel like you had the handbreak on and you were a little bit worried and that I.

Was always worried about the outcome, and it was it's been really hard getting out of that mindset.

And some days it would be great.

I would I could shoot six under, and then some days I'll maybe hit three fairways and that's it. And it doesn't matter if I'm if it's the widest fair one in the course or the tightest one. It just it's a mental thing. And that's kind of what I struggled with this like late summer. And yeah, it's it's really tough.

People always say, I mean, you know, one of the old cliches, you drive for show, but you putt for dough. But if you're going to play competitive golf at the elite tour level, if you can't drive the golf ball, yeah, it makes things exponentially just so much more difficult.

I was just asking to have it in play and I couldn't, and that just made everything else so difficult.

And yeah, you feel like it was how much of it.

Yeah, I mean I worked on both my mindset and technique and everything really that I could have. But what I would change is I would go back and not play as much. I felt like I was just pushing too hard and kind of like on the edge of a burnout. So I just had a lot of anxiety even just go into the course. I mean, practice one would be great. I'm relaxed, I'm having fun, and I'm playing really great, and then the tournament would start and I'm just like and then and then.

Playing golf, and I think this is other, this is something else that's really important for everyone listening. It's much easier to play good golf when you're in a good mental space and you're thinking clearly, you're thinking positively. It's hard when it's all. I also think it's hard when golf isn't fun. And I think when you you're, like you said, you're grinding through all of these weeks, You're you're you're missing cuts, you're tired, you're not having a

I mean, it's hard. What do you do?

Like, you can try different doing different things. I always think if you're just banging your head against the wall, you need to get out of it and do something completely different. Like maybe try adding someone in your team and maybe they could be helpful, like a new new coach, or just getting your mindset, like on a different track, because wherever you're going is not working.

That's always, I mean, it's always. It's interesting to listen to that from a player's to tandbook because as a coach standpoint, you know, I have been you know, I've worked with players I thought we were on the right track, they were struggling on the golf course, and they will come to you and say, listen, I just need I just need to make a change. And it's always frustrating for me because I'm always like, man, if you just if you just stick with this, grind it out, you're

I mean, of course, then I actually didn't make a change that big this year, but I did tell my coach, like, whatever we've been doing, we need to just try to find something else for me to focus on. I didn't fire anybody, But.

I also think that's really something that's important, Matilda, that I always say to players. I think sometimes players can get into the trap of working with someone and the coach that they're working with is telling them to do stuff, and I think sometimes it's important to do what you did and say, listen, I don't want to I don't want to break up, right, I don't want this relationship to end. I still want to have you on my team, and I still want to have you on my coach.

I mean, I'm they want to get better and that's the main goal, and I don't want a lot of different things thrown in my direction. So as little information as possible and as effective as I can and as simple. I want to keep it simple. I don't want to overcomplicate things. And sometimes if there's too much information, that kind of overwhelms me. So I'm the same way, like, I just want little information and let's keep going that way and nothing.

So when looking at twenty twenty four, are you someone that is a goal person or you someone that writes goals? Down. Are you someone that is going to look at the stats from this year and say, okay, let me go ahead and sit down with my team and say, okay, this is obviously the data tells me this. Or are you someone that says, okay, listen, I'm going to write

Okay.

So, and when he always used to go New Year's Day, he said, he used to always go to the beach and he would get up early and he would go down and he would just go sit on the beach and he would write down what his goals were. And I've worked with him for almost ten years now. I've never known what any of his goals are.

Okay.

So are you a goal person? Do you write stuff down? Does that help you? Does that not help you?

Yeah?

I do write my goals down.

I think that has a lot of power, doesn't it to write it down? So you have to look at it. Yeah, if you write something down January first, of something that you say you want to do, what your goals are, the things that you want to change by June. You can also see if you can also look back at the statement you wrote and check in with yourself and say, Okay, what have I done and hold. I think that's one of the reasons why I think writing your goals down

I mean, I write my goals down, I go through them with my coaches, and then we figure out what do we need to do to accomplish these goals. What do you need to have in my daily life to make this goal happen? So I think it's like, yeah, you can write down your goals, but if you don't know how to get there, that's totally that's next level. You need to know what you need to do on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis where you want

Lastly, we're going to go through all the elements of golf, driving the ball, iron, play, short game, and putting. So you can take one person on the LPGA Tour to come drive the golf ball for you. Who are you choosing? I mean, who do you play with where you just say, Man, if I could drive a golf ball like that, my life would be a hell of a lot easier.

I think I'd have to choose Nellie.

I mean, she just drives me. I mean it's far, she doesn't miss fairway, she hits it miles. I mean she's an unbelievable driver of the golf.

Yeah, for iron play, I choose myself. When I'm at my bed, I think like that, Yeah, that's really my strength, and I'm working hard to get back there.

I want to be in that from last year.

I mean, you know, one hundred and thirteenth. But I mean that's where I think the stats are powerful. People don't realize. I mean you just look at it and you're like, Okay, I'm hitting sixty five percent of my greens this year and last year I'm hitting seventy one percent. That might be one or two greens per round. But if you come off the golf course and you just say, okay, just if I can hit one, maybe two more greens around the stats go the other way and your confidence goes up a lot too.

Yeah. Also the proximity whole, Like twenty twenty one, I felt like I was always hitting it so close, and even the courses I had really small greens, I felt like I was. It wasn't a big deal to me. I think I was top three in greens per a round. So yeah, trying to get back there. I know I'm really good at that, and I know I have it in me.

Just the short game on the LPGA Tour. Whose short game do you look at it and you just say, man, give me some of that?

Um Harley Yojo Kim.

Yeah. She every time I play with her, she makes at least one chip off.

The green Lydia coos short games. Lydia Yeah, dirty as well.

I mean she putting.

I mean she's a pretty good part. So I mean putting wise, who are you taking for putting?

I think I choose Lea.

I mean she just I mean she has what my dad calls grape putters. Have their putts have to go in look right, even when they miss putts, their putts look like they're going to go in, look like they have the right speed. Are you someone Matilda likes the die your putts in the hole, or you someone that feels like you're an aggressive kind of more kind of forceful putter.

When I'm putting a I'm definitely more aggressive. The ball goes in with more speed. So that's what I'm trying to be.

We're not going to let you go without giving us. You don't have to tell us all of them. You can keep somewhere for yourself, but give us one of the goals you've got for twenty twenty four. What's something that you want to share with us to say, Okay, this is something, because it's gonna be out there now. So you've actually said it.

I think you can probably guess it.

Drive the ball better, no, well, high soul high. Okay, So the next two years we've got a two year cycle. Everything in twenty twenty four and twenty years. Oh you guys, they only have one year. That's right, you only have one year.

Yeah, this year we're getting on that back on that opposite side of the men's really okay.

So the COVID thing kind of condensed everything and switch it. So now you guys, so just this year okay, hmm, it's the goal.

Obviously, I want to drive the ball better. That's going to help me get there.

Drive the ball better, and another Solheim Cup that you're hoping to play in America. So I mean you've got to be a pick because I mean you've won one before.

Right, we'll see.

Great to talk to you about, Matilda.

Thanks.

I think everybody's going to be watching and looking for that kind of form from twenty twenty one. Get after it. Drive the ball better. Yes, well, thank you, good to talk to you.

Thank you.

So that was Matilda Castro And like I said, everybody that plays professional golf kind of has their story, and I think she was really really honest about you know, last year in twenty twenty three wasn't the best year that chanced And listen, it's hard to keep producing year after year after year. And that's what the great players do, right. They make golf look easy, they make winning look very very easy, and you think that you're just going to be a winner and keep winning all the time, and