After traveling along what seemed like the entire northeastern coast (and North Carolina) and competing in tournaments in New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut, the Owls returned home to host the Temple Invitational.
After the Philadelphia area got dumped on with rain throughout the duration of the day on Friday, the grounds crew at Philmont Country Club had the course in tip-top condition.
“The course drained beautifully and the super intendant and the staff at Philmont did an amazing job,” coach Brian Quinn said. “It was phenomenal how good of shape the course looked. On Saturday you wouldn’t have known we got rain at the golf course, that’s how good of a job they did,” he added.
Temple tied for fourth place overall with Harvard in the 17-team field and were led again by sophomore Brandon Matthews who carded a 1-over for the tournament.
“I was very proud of how he played,” Quinn said. “He playing great, he’s a great kid and he handled himself like a true professional out there all weekend,” he continued.
Matthews has been a key cog in Temple’s success throughout the fall season, but his putting struggles have plagued him and that continued to be the case this weekend.
“I didn’t putt well at all,” Matthews said. I really struggled a lot with that. We have one more tournament that we’re really looking forward to this year and we think we can win it,” he added.
After a solid two rounds on Saturday, Matthews struggled to find his groove on the greens, but his play still caught the eye of his coach.
“Brandon is hitting the ball probably the best he’s ever hit it,” Matthews said. “He’s hitting the ball phenomenally. He’s swinging beautifully. He did not putt well this weekend, and that’s just kind of golf. You can’t putt well everyday, you can’t putt well every week,” he added.
“The difference between Brandon and other kids is that he hits the ball so far,” Quinn continued. “He has such short irons, they’re not tough par fives and his opportunities for birdies are somewhat frequent. No matter who you are, you can’t make them all, so it can wear you out, especially from Brandon’s stand point because he does have so many opportunities and they just didn’t fall this week.”
Temple was tied for second after the 36-hole day one, but could not string together solid rounds throughout the lineup.
Still, with the fourth place finish, the Owls have three top five finishes in five tournaments so far this year.
“I was a little disappointed with how we played on Sunday and how we finished as a whole,” Quinn said. “Fourth place was OK but were better than that. A couple of guys just aren’t getting the job done,” he added.
Temple will round out the fall season this Sunday and Monday at the Barnabas Health Intercollegiate in Chatham, New Jersey.
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