Junior Brandon Matthews recorded his third straight victory last weekend at the Princeton Invitational, where he finished 1-under-par 69 for the tournament. During the previous two weekends, Matthews placed first at the Met Intercollegiate and Furman Intercollegiate, respectively.
The latest win was Matthews’ eighth of his Temple career – tying him with Geoffrey Sisk for the program record. Matthews attributes much of his success to self-confidence.
“Trusting your work ethic and what you’ve been doing,” Matthews said. “I worked really hard on my short game and my putting.”
Matthews opened the Princeton Invitational last weekend with a 2-under 68 on Saturday at Aronimink Golf Club and finished with a 1-over 71 at Merion Golf Club Sunday.
The pace of the greens was considerably different between the two courses, which caused the DuPont, Pennsylvania native to make some changes around the cup. Nevertheless, Matthews grinded out his final round at Merion on Sunday en route to another victory.
“It was just a little difficult to adjust to the green speed,” Matthews said.
Senior Pat Ross added that the greens were particularly difficult to judge at Merion on Sunday.
“It was hard to make putts if you had a little tap-in you were afraid it would bump off line,” Ross said.
Matthews made par or better on 31 of 36 holes in the event, as he was able to showcase his improved short game.
“You’re seeing all that hard work that he’s put in come to fruition but in no way shape or form am I surprised in any way by his results,” coach Brian Quinn said.
What stands out to Quinn, he said, is consistency within Matthews’ game. During his winning streak, Matthews has not gotten many lucky breaks on the course according to Quinn.
“He’s winning the golf tournaments and not getting the breaks that someone needs to win the tournament,” Quinn added.
Matthews’ work ethic and demeanor have not gone unnoticed by his teammates – it’s a level of composure that many of them try to emulate.
“He always is so optimistic about everything,” Ross said. “He’s always in a good mood. No matter how he’s playing he’s going to be happy because he’s playing golf.”
But for Quinn, Matthews’ contributions go beyond what he’s done on the golf course.
“I think he has an incredible representative for Temple University as a whole. It just shows you what a quality education you can get at our University and compete at the highest level athletically.”
Greg Frank can be reached at greg.frank@temple.edu or on Twitter @G_Frank6.
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