Matt Boldys other passion: Wild forward brings his frickin good golf game to PGA Canada

The most memorable golf shot of Matt Boldy’s life came a decade ago, but the memory is still crystal clear.

He was around 12 years old, on a family vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with his mother, Jen, and older brother, Mike. Of course, golf was on the agenda. The Boldy boys grew up chipping in their grandfather’s backyard. They made their local, Boston-area course an unofficial day camp as they got older.

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“Hockey has always been Matt’s first love,” says his father, Todd. “But golf was No. 2.”

The way Mike remembers this particular round, his younger brother had broken one of his irons earlier in the day (the competitive fire/temper ran high for both boys in any sport they played). But Matt approached a 120-yard par 3, picked up his nine iron and gave it a ride.

“I was just swinging as hard as I could swing,” Matt says.

“He just skulled it at the green,” Mike recalls. “It went off the flag — and in.”

“I could see the whole thing,” Matt says. “Watched it roll into the hole.

“I’m pretty sure I ran after it.”

Now, it was not quite Stephen Curry’s crazy sprint celebration on his hole-in-one. But there’s a photo showing just how stoked the typically soft-spoken Matt was, squatting over the hole with his thumbs up and his smile as big as a hockey net.

“He’s never let me forget it,” Mike jokes, laughing.

“(Mike) was really happy for me,” Matt says. “Then pretty pissed because he still doesn’t have a hole in one.”

When Matt accepted a sponsor’s exemption to play in this week’s PGA Tour Canada’s CRMC Championship at Cragun’s Legacy Courses in Brainerd, Minn., it was only fitting he ask Mike to be his caddy. This is a bucket-list moment of sorts for Matt, still a hardcore golfer with a 1.1 handicap, and Mike will be on his bag, bonding over the highs and lows. They’ll be hanging for the week in a cabin on the lake, with a few Wild teammates tagging along, too. The ProAm starts Wednesday, with the tournament starting Thursday. They’ll know Friday afternoon if Matt makes the cut in the 156-player field, with a purse of $200,000 on the line.

“There’s not really any expectations for me, to be honest,” Matt says. “If I go there and play awful, I’m not a professional golfer. If I play good, it’s a good thing. I don’t really see it as pressure. It’ll be a fun week with my brother and some friends.”

Todd says Matt started playing golf at around 7 or 8 years old, when Mike was 12.

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They’d chip in grandpa’s backyard, then they got some initial training at the driving range before hitting the course. Golf etiquette was lesson No. 1.

“I had to get rid of all the swearing and throwing the clubs, slamming the clubs,” Todd says.

Matt Boldy at 8 years old did that?

“An 18-year-old Matt Boldy learned not to do that,” Todd jokes.

“I think it’s a Raymond Floyd quote that my grandfather stole: ‘They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken,'” Mike says.

Matt, now 22, says they spent time at several local courses, from Maplegate in Bellingham, Mass., to Glen Ellen Country Club in Millis. The kids got a membership to their local public course for Christmas every year, and that’s how they spent their summers. Jen would drop them off and then pick them up several hours later.

“We were so young, it wasn’t being processed that we were good,” Matt says. “We just wanted to be better than the other one. (Mike) cared about it more than me at the time. He took it to me a little bit more when we were younger, but as we got older, it’s gotten a little bit tighter.”

“We’re competitive in everything we do,” Mike says. “When we get together, we keep a little tally on who wins the summer matches. I won last summer, 4-2. He won the summer before. And he’s up 1-0 this year.”

Shouldn’t there be an annual trophy, like a “Boldy Bowl,” for bragging rights?

“That’d be pretty cool,” Matt says.

“I’m down for that,” Mike says. “I’ll have him pay for that one.”

The reason Todd got his sons involved in golf wasn’t for competition or kicks. A Boston-area detective for the Drug Enforcement Administration, he remembered how fun it was playing with his brother growing up. They had a Father’s Day round tradition. Now, Todd, Mike and Matt have one too, when possible. Todd treasured the five-plus hours of one-on-one time he got with Matt earlier this summer when they played a round together and had lunch.

“He kicked my ass and shot a two-under, but it didn’t matter,” Todd says, laughing. “I stopped competing with him long ago. But those are memories you remember.”

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There’s also a transferrable lesson that comes with playing golf. Matt played on hockey, baseball and lacrosse teams as a kid. Golf tapped into something else.

“You learn to put stuff behind you,” Todd says. “You learn the mental struggle with things, when things aren’t going right. It transfers to other sports, it transfers to life. That’s why we really got into it, why it’s such a great sport for any athlete. It’s a mental challenge against yourself.

“It’s a humbling game. Especially my golf game.”

Asked when he thought his golf game was really advanced, Matt pointed to his mid-teenage years, high school. He played competitively his freshman and sophomore years before joining the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His teammates from the U.S. NTDP, including Trevor Zegras and Cole Caufield, remember his game well.

From ‘Boldy Bars’ to bad dancing to a #mnwild turn, best friends dish on Matt Boldy’s rise to “star in the making”
Enjoyed collecting stories from @tzegras11 @colecaufield Jack Hughes Spencer Knight + @AlexNewhook_. @USAHockeyNTDP @BC_MHockey ($1 sub link) https://t.co/luBSZ1cEBQ pic.twitter.com/AuuXVkZyDY

— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) March 31, 2023

As for when Todd figured out Matt was special at golf, he knew earlier.

“They started an elementary/middle school golf team, and it was going to be for only seventh and eighth graders,” he remembers. “I called the coach and am like, ‘Why is it only 7th and 8th graders?’ and he said, ‘Well, because the kids are better.’ I said, ‘Greg, have you seen Matt play?’ They opened it up to sixth graders and Matt ended up being the No. 1 player on the team.”

Matt usually goes back to the Boston area for a chunk of the summer. This is the first one he’s spent primarily in Minnesota.

“I figured I’d try something different,” he says.

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Fresh off signing a seven-year, $49 million deal, he bought his first home this summer, a condo in Minneapolis. He’s spent most weekdays at the TRIA rink in St. Paul, skating and working out with teammates. But, most every day, he’ll end up at his local golf course, Olympic Golf Course in Eden Prairie. Former Wild defenseman Matt Dumba is a member, as is Jordan Greenway, along with new Wild signee Vinni Lettieri. Lettieri says the first time he heard the sound of Matt’s drive, his reaction was, “Holy smokes. That’s different.”

“He’s just so frickin’ good, it’s unbelievable,” Lettieri says. “I’m just happy to try to get into his head because he doesn’t really miss. It’s fun watching him hit the ball, he’s not far off from a pro — three, four strokes a round, that’s what makes a pro golfer a pro golfer. It’s really cool in his position to go on Canadian tour because it’s not often another athlete can play in another pro sport.

“I’ve played with a lot of great golfers through my years in pro, and he’s one of the best.”

Matt, who grew up on hand-me-down clubs from Mike, has a set from Taylor Made, thanks to his friends at Bauer. “It’s a pretty basic set,” he says. His typical favorite club is his driver, but he says that recently it “hasn’t been my friend.” His 60-degree wedge has been his most consistent club lately. “I’ve got a pretty good short game,” he says.

“He can crush the golf ball,” says Mike, who works as a mechanical contractor in safety compliance. “He’s got me in that department. But he’s got a very sneaky-good putter. I don’t know if it’s just against me he makes all the putts, but if he needs to make a putt, he will.”

The brothers’ short game was groomed at Glen Ellen back home. They’d get the last tee time of the day and stay until dark hitting bunker shots. They’d keep hitting until they couldn’t see anymore. “We turned it into a strength,” Mike says.

Matt has been to bigger tournaments, including attending the PGA’s U.S. Open last year in the Boston area. He’s played some really nice courses, like Old Sandwich Golf Club in Plymouth, Mass., and Friar’s Head in Riverhead, New York. Initially, Wild teammate Ryan Hartman was invited for the pro exemption for this Brainerd tournament, but he couldn’t attend so Matt was the next man up.

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No matter what, the brothers are determined to make it a fun event. Mike, who recalls Matt being his caddy for a couple of events when he was a teenager, is excited to return the favor.

“(Matt) has given me some good reads every once and a while,” Mike says. “I’m not really going to tell him how to play the golf course. I’m just going to hand him the clubs and be there for moral support — in case it goes downhill.”

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic, with photos from David Berding / Getty Images and courtesy of the Boldy family)

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