Brandon

Matthews

The long-hitting Matthews opened with a 3-over 74 in Mexico, and things didn’t get any better Friday morning before he abruptly put an end to his week. Matthews was 4 over through six holes Friday, including a double bogey on No. 12, when he opted to withdraw. It’s his second WD of the wraparound season, as he also pulled out of the season-opening Fortinet Championship. In between the 28-year-old has sandwiched a T-38 finish at the Sanderson Farms and a pair of missed cuts, as Matthews has largely struggled since a T-3 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour in July that secured his ascent to the PGA Tour for this season.

Matthews backed out of the Fortinet Championship with a back injury. “It was one of those things I knew it was a long year. I didn’t want to push it because some of the pain I was having was back to when I had the heavy issues back in ’17. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t out for a month or two instead of just being out for that event and having a week and a half to rest and get married and do all that good stuff.” Not bad for the first competitive round as a married man. Matthews pelted 14 greens in regulation and caught fire with the flat stick, rolling home four putts from outside of 14 feet including a 14'9" eagle splash at the 14th and a 26'8" birdie bomb just after the turn at the par-4 third hole. Playing his seventh event on the big stage, this will be his first time posting inside of the top 20 after any round and could be his first time holding a lead if this 5-under number holds after the late wave takes to the course.

The big-hitting rookie found some trouble on his opening nine, most notably swallowing a double at the par-5 fifth after a poor tee shot. His shot tracer showed a 310-yard drive to unknown on the ninth hole and that was the last we heard from him today. The Temple alum is instantly going to be one of the longest hitters out on TOUR but he may not bring consistency to the table (33-for-68 in his Korn Ferry Tour career). This is not the way he likely wanted to start his first event as a PGA TOUR member but there is nowhere to go but up from here.

The 27-year-old Matthews, who earned his Tour card for the 2022-23 season via the KFT, said he liked his chances this week, telling media on Tuesday: “If I wasn’t here to win a golf tournament, I need to figure out a different profession. I feel like my game is at a point where I can win any given week if a couple things go my way and getting to that point where I can contend every week is my goal. If I play well this week, I like my chances contending and finishing towards the top there.” In February, Matthews won the Astara Golf Championship in Colombia for his first KFT win. He shot four rounds of 67 or better, including a birdie-birdie-eagle finish on Sunday to win by one over Ben Griffin and Ryan McCormick. The victory came one week after he finished T-2 at the Panama Championship, where he was one stroke behind winner Carson Young. Matthews finished 60th in the U.S. Open, where he was in contention for the first two rounds after shooting 71-69 at The Country Club.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said the 27-year-old Matthews. “Obviously it’s been a lifetime dream of mine since I was a little kid. It’s amazing that I’m in the moment that it’s true now.” The Temple alum has made nine cuts in 15 KFT starts this season, which includes a win at the Astara Golf Championship in February and a T-2 at the Panama Championship. He’s in Brookline, Mass., this week for the U.S. Open, where he’ll make his tournament debut at The Country Club, where he reached the quarterfinals of the 2013 U.S. Amateur. “There’s a lot of work to still be done,” said Matthews, who will return to the KFT after this week with an eye on the No. 1 spot in the points standings. “Everybody knows that the No. 1 spot means a lot. Hopefully we can continue to trend in the right direction … I think I’ve found a little something the last few weeks. If we can continue on this path, I think we’ll have a good shot for that 1 spot.”

The 22-year-old Gotterup carded rounds of 67-70 at Century CC and Old Oaks CC to finish at 3-under 137 and tied with amateur Caleb Manuel (69-68) from Topsham, Maine, for two of the five available spots. Eight players finished at 2-under 138 and played off for the final three spots. Surviving the 8-for-3 playoff were 57-year-old Tour veteran Fran Quinn (69-69), who was in the field alongside his son, Owen, South Florida’s Brandon Matthews (70-68) and Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen (67-71). His appearance at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., mark the second U.S. Open start for Thorbjornsen, who three years ago at age 17 became the second youngest player since World War II to make the cut at a U.S. Open. First alternate is Kelly Kraft (69-69), the former U.S. Amateur champion who was seeking his first U.S. Open start, with Texan Chandler Phillips as second alternate. Missing out in the playoff were high school senior Ben James, who’ll play at the University of Virginia this fall, Iceland’s Haraldur Magnus and Michael Sweeney.

The 27-year-old Matthews, who won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Astara Golf Championship in February in Colombia, stands fourth on the KFT regular-season points list, with the top 25 earning a PGA Tour card for next season. The win marked his first as a professional and came just a week after he finished T-2 at the Panama Championship. Matthews won twice on PGA Tour LatinoAmérica during the 2020-21 season and won the Order of Merit to earn his KFT card for the season. Known as one of the longest drivers in the game, he’s kept the driver out of the bag for two of the last three weeks, but it’s back for this week at TPC Potomac. “It’s just so painful to do because for me, I’ve been hitting my driver so well for the past few years,” said Matthews, who says he averages 330 yards with his “fairway finder cruiser.” “When I do have driver in the bag, obviously there’s a big advantage there, especially if I’m hitting it well and consistent and I feel good with it. So, I do feel good with it this week and it is nice to have that thing back in the bag.”

Matthews received a lot of social media attention last November when he needed to sink a putt to win the Argentina Open on the PGA Latinoamerica circuit. The putt came on the third hole of a playoff with the winner receiving an invite to the 2020 Open Championship. Matthews was distracted from noise in the crowd but later realized it was a man with Down syndrome. Matthews showed compassion instead of anger and now he’ll get a chance to showcase his skills on the big stage. Matthews is known for his length off the tee and he’ll be aiming for a top-10 finish this week which would continue his journey on the PGA TOUR. Otherwise, he’ll head back to the Latinoamerica circuit in 2020 where he has full status, and atttempt to climb his way back up the ranks.