For golfers, the fine intricacies of one’s game are shaped and honed during the summer season.
Brandon Matthews understands the importance of the summer and is working on coming back ready for the upcoming season.
“The summer is pretty big,” Matthews said. “The summer is individual … and that is when you get your game really sharp,” Matthews said.
Matthews’ busy summer, which has taken the junior to Ireland and will be landing him in Chicago and Georgia in the upcoming weeks, has allowed him to work on getting back to playing to the level in which he expects to compete.
“I need to start playing better overall,” Matthews said. “I need to get some stuff going because I haven’t been playing very well.”
But Matthews has not been the only busy Owl this summer. Senior Matt Teesdale, along with Matthews, qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship in August at Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Ga.
The hard work the team has been putting in over the summer is something that needs to be done in order to improve, Matthews said.
“It’s just expected,” Matthews said. “It’s not something you congratulate someone and pat them on the back.”
The team is working to improve on last season’s woes.
The Owls failed to place in the Top 5 at any competition and were consistently in the bottom third of the final standings. The team’s best finish was a seventh-place result at the Princeton Invitational in April.
“It was a struggle,” Matthews said. “We didn’t play well anywhere. We had maybe one or two good rounds as a team.”
Despite the struggles last season, Matthews is confident the team will turn the struggles around.
“This year we have high expectations as to where our team should be and what we can do, so we are all really looking forward to it,” Matthews said.
A large reason Matthews brims with confidence these days is because of his coach, Brian Quinn.
Quinn, who is entering his seventh season as coach, is a Temple alum and a four-year letter-winner at Temple from 1987 to 1990. Quinn also played professional golf for 16 years and won 17 professional tournaments.
“We are run under a really good coach,” Matthews said. “We have a coach who knows more about the swing than almost anybody on the planet.”
Michael Guise can be reached at michael.guise@temple.edu or on Twitter @MikeG2511.
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