Matthews earns some status on Web.com Tour with tie for 42nd in Final Stage of Q-School

   Former Temple great Brandon Matthews continued his slow, but steady march toward the PGA Tour this weekend by finishing tied for 42^nd in the Final Stage of the Web.com Qualifying School, held at Whirlwind Golf Club’s Devil’s Claw and Cattail Courses in Chandler, Ariz.

   The 23-year-old Matthews, who captured the 2010 PIAA Championship as a junior at Pittston, struggled a little in Sunday’s final round, a 1-under 71 at the 7,334-yard, par-72 Cattail Course that played tougher all week. That gave him a 72-hole total of 14-under 274.

   The Web-com Final Stage isn’t quite the all-or-nothing deal that the old PGA Tour Q-School once was. The winner, former Georgia standout Lee McCoy, a 23-year-old from Dunedin, Fla., is the only player guaranteed full-time status all next year on the Web.com Tour.

   The rest of the top 10 has full-time status until the third reshuffle while those finishing between 11^th and 45^th – and ties – have full-time status until the second reshuffle. The rest of the 144-man field at Whirlwind has conditional status on the Web.com Tour in 2018. OK, so now you’re wondering what in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a reshuffle.

   All it means is play good or you get shuffled back in the preference order when it comes time to fill fields. It happens on the PGA Tour as well. The third reshuffle comes after the 12^th event and the second reshuffle comes after the eighth event. And if you’re not playing well, you can get reshuffled right out of the picture.

   So, Matthews isn’t guaranteed much. Still, he’s got better standing than he did this time last year. Matthews, probably the best player in the history of the Temple program, had no status as 2017 dawned.

   He earned a spot on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica in a Q-School for that circuit in Mexico in January and promptly went out and got a win when he captured the Molina Canuelas Championship at Canuelas Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

   Had he finished in the top five in the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Order of Merit, I’m pretty sure he would have been able to skip the Web.com Q-School. He earned $31,500 for the win in Argentina, but added only another $19 grand or so and finished 13^th in the Order of Merit. I was hearing rumors of some back issues hampering his play a little at some point this fall.

   Still, I’m pretty sure that standing on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica was good enough to get him a spot in the field at Whirlwind.

   Matthews made a big move with a 7-under 65 in Saturday’s third round at the 7,029-yard, par-72 Devil’s Claw Course. He ripped off four straight birdies on the front nine from the fifth through the eighth holes and added birdies at 14, 15 and 17 with nary a bogey on the card.

   He got off to a rough start in Sunday’s final round with a triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 second hole. He got a couple of shots back with birdies at the third and fifth holes, but then made a bogey at the seventh, again a par-5, before making a birdie at the ninth. Matthews got the par-5s on the back nine at the Cattail Course, making birdies at 12 and 17, to get the round back under par and get into that top 45.

   As impressive as the 65 was Saturday at Devil’s Claw, Matthews’ 4-under 68 at the Cattail Course in Friday’s second round might have been even more vital. It was solid golf with a pair of birdies, an eagle at the par-5 17^th and no bogeys on the tougher of the two tracks.

   Matthews beat this area’s best players, pro and amateur, to win the Philadelphia Open in 2013 at Waynesborough Country Club and in 2015 at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course before he turned pro.

   He has always seemed to have the kind of game and, maybe more importantly, the kind of temperament, to make it to the big leagues of pro golf, the PGA Tour. He’s on the right path.

   McCoy found himself in a mano-a-mano struggle with 19-year-old South Korean Sung-jae Im for medalist honors in Sunday’s final round after Im torched Devil’s Claw with a spectacular 12-under 60 in Saturday’s third round.

   McCoy, whose progress through Q-School a year ago was halted by a wrist injury suffered in a car accident, outdueled Im with a7-under 65 at the Cattail Course to Im’s 5-under 67 in Sunday’s final round.

   McCoy, who wasn’t too shabby himself in Saturday’s third round with a 9-under 63 at Devil’s Claw, ended up with a 28-under 260 total. Im finished two shots behind him in second at 26-under 262. You think these guys can play a little? And these are the guys, like Matthews, who are just trying to get to the PGA Tour.

   Curtis Luck, the 21-year-old Australian who was the impressive winner of the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., finished tied for third with 35-year-old Mark Blakefield at 22-under 266.

   Luck surged into contention with an 8-under 64 in Friday’s second round at Devil’s Claw and finished up with a 5-under 67 Sunday at the Cattail Course. Blakefield, a standout at Kentucky more than a decade ago, had a final round of 6-under 66 at the Cattail Course Sunday.

   Two of the biggest names in college golf the last few years, former Stanford standout Maverick McNealy and former LSU star Sam Burns, finished in a group tied for 10^th at 18-under 270.

   McNealy, who held off on the start of his pro career so he could help the U.S. team win the Walker Cup over Great Britain & Ireland in September at Los Angeles Country Club, came on strong after a slow start with an 8-under 64 in Saturday’s third round at Devil’s Claw and a final round of 5-under 67 at the Cattail Course Sunday.

   Burns turned pro after being left off a loaded U.S. Walker Cup team, a snub that resulted in some harsh criticism directed at the USGA by many of Burns’ supporters. Burns was solid all week at Whirlwind, opening with a 68 at Devil’s Claw, adding a 68 at Cattail, firing a 66 at Devil’s Claw and finishing up with a 68 at Cattail Sunday.

   Sensing he might need to pick it up a little, Burns made birdies at 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 before finishing up with just a par on the 18^th Sunday.

   One of McNealy’s teammates on the U.S. Walker Cup team, bomber Cameron Champ of Sacramento, Calif., finished in the group tied for 16^th at 17-under 271.

   Champ played the fall portion of his senior season at Texas A&M before turning pro. Making the cut at last summer’s U.S. Open earned him a pass into Stage II of Web.com Q-School and he advanced to Whirlwind and made the most of the opportunity. Champ finished up with a 3-under 69 at the Cattail Course.

   Wyndham Clark, the Pac-12 champion as a senior at Oregon last spring, finished in the group tied for 23rd at 16-under 272. Clark, a native of Denver, played at Oklahoma State before transferring to Oregon and helped the Ducks reach the final of the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms before they fell to Oklahoma.

   Clark matched par with a 72 in his final round at the Cattail Course.

   Then there’s former Virginia standout Jimmy Stanger, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion as a senior last spring.

   The guy can really play, but opened up with a disastrous 80 at the Cattail Course Thursday. Followed it up with a 10-under 62 at Devil’s Claw Friday, improved by 11 shots at the Cattail Course with a 3-under 69 Saturday and then ripped off an 8-under 64 at Devil’s Claw Sunday.

   It wasn’t quite good enough to make the top 45 as he finished tied for 57^th at 13-under 275.    Obviously, if something goes a little right at Cattail Thursday instead of absolutely nothing going his way, he makes the top 45.

   Don’t worry about Stanger, though. He’ll get there.