Former Temple standout Brandon Matthews will start 2019 on
the Web.com Tour in pretty much the same place he started the developmental
tour in 2018.
Matthews, the 2010 PIAA champion as a junior at Pittston,
fired a solid 4-under-par 68 on the Whirlwind Golf Club’s Cattail Course in
Chandler, Ariz. in the final round of the Web.com Tour Q-School Final Stage
Sunday to finish in the group tied for 25th at 19-under 269.
The 24-year-old Matthews will be exempt for the first eight
events on the 2019 Web.com Tour schedule, his standing subject to a reshuffle
following four events. When he finished tied for 42nd in the
Q-School Final Stage a year ago, he had basically the same status, although 17
places higher does matter.
Matthews, a two-time Philadelphia Open champion while he was
still an amateur, will have to play better than he did early in 2018 to keep
moving forward toward his goal of making it to the PGA Tour. But he should gain
a little momentum off his solid showing at Whirlwind the last four days.
Matthews opened with a 1-under 71 at Cattail and then ripped off
back-to-back 7-under 65s at the Devil’s Claw Course. Saturday’s third round
included a spectacular burst during which he went 7-under for the final seven
holes of his round, which concluded on Devil’s Claw front nine.
Matthews offset two bogeys with three birdies on the front
nine at Cattail Sunday. He then finished up strong, making birdies at the 10th,
13th and 16th holes and no bogeys on the incoming nine.
Only the champion, former Virginia standout Danny Walker,
earned a full-year exemption on the Web.com Tour for next year. I’ve focused so much on the
battle for status for next year on the Web.com Tour for the players in the
Final Stage, I never mentioned that the winner gets $50,000, a nice added bonus
for Walker.
The players who finished second through 10th are
exempt through the first 12 events on the 2019 Web.com Tour schedule. Looks
like the players between 12th and the large group that finished tied
for 34th are exempt through the first eight events.
Every player who made it to the Q-School Final Stage earned
conditional status on the Web.com Tour for 2019, but the further down that list
you are, the harder it is to crack the field for an event.
That’s where a couple of recent Penn State standouts, JD
Dornes, a product of the Manheim Township program, and Cole Miller, who starred
scholastically at Northwestern Lehigh, find themselves.
The 24-year-old Dornes finished strong Sunday, firing an 8-under 64 at
Devil’s Claw to end up in the group tied for 64th at 16-under 272.
That’s the kind of competition you’re facing in the Q-School Final Stage. You
shoot 16-under and can’t do better than tied for 64th.
But give Dornes credit. He battled through Stages One and
Two in the Q-School process to reach the Final Stage. He’ll need a breakout
performance when he gets a shot in a Web.com event in 2019, but the dream of
making it to the big leagues, the PGA Tour, is still alive.
The 23-year-old Miller graduated in the spring after one of the finest campaigns
in the history of the Penn State program, highlighted by his individual title
in the 2017 Washington Regional that helped the Nittany Lions reach the NCAA
Championship as a team.
Miller finished strong Sunday as well, posting a 6-under 66
at Devil’s Claw, but he struggled in the middle two rounds at Cattail. He
finished in the group tied for 125th at 4-under 284. Miller had some
success on the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada – in the summer. Not sure if
that’s an option for him again, but we’ll see.
As I mentioned in a Friday post, Miller made birdie on the
final hole of his final Mackenzie Tour regular-season event, the Freedom 55 Financial Championship in
London, Ontario, that enabled him to finish 25th on the Mackenzie
Tour money list. It also allowed him to bypass Stage One of Q-School.
The winner of that event back in mid-September was Danny
Walker, a victory that enabled him to go directly to the Final Stage of
Q-School.
And Sunday Walker made six birdies on the back nine at
Cattail, including birdies at the last three holes, to post a 9-under 63 that
earned him the victory. They were pretty far apart, but the 23-year-old Walker
has won two straight Web.com Tour starts.
Walker, a High Point, N.C. native, finished third in last spring's
Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, going 13-under in a birdie-fest at the
Old North State Club in New London, N.C., so it’s not like the guy came out of
nowhere. His nine-birdie, no-bogey effort Sunday enabled him to finish at
27-under 261.
Walker finished a shot ahead of the best player in Division
I in 2017-’18, Oregon’s Norman Xiong, winner of both the Haskins and Jack
Nicklaus awards. Xiong, one of the heroes of a 19-7 victory for the United
States over Great Britain & Ireland in the 2017 Walker Cup Match at Los
Angeles Country Club, capped a solid week at Whirlwind with a 3-under 69 at
Cattail that left him at 26-under 262.
One of Xiong’s teammates on that U.S. Walker Cup team,
former Texas standout Doug Ghim, headed a group of five players that finished
tied for third at 25-under 263. Ghim, the low amateur at the Masters last
spring and runnerup in the 2017 U.S. Amateur at Riviera Country Club, finished
up with a 7-under 65 at Cattail Sunday.
Another former Virginia standout, Jimmy Stanger, the ACC’s
individual champion in 2017, was also in the group at 263. Stanger had a share
of the lead after 54 holes, but only managed a 2-under 70 at Cattail Sunday.
Rounding out the group at 263 were Xinjun Zhang, a
31-year-old from China who finished up with a 7-under 65 at Cattail, Timothy Madigan,
a 30-year-old from the Mackenzie Tour who finished with a 3-under 69 at Cattail
and Michael Gellerman, a former Oklahoma standout who posted a 4-under 68 at
Cattail in the final round.
Ghim’s teammate at Texas and on the 2017 U.S. Walker Cup
team, Scottie Scheffler, cooled off in the final round with a 1-under 71 at Cattail to
finish in the group tied for 34th at 18-under 270. Scheffler, the
low amateur in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, is in the same boat as
Matthews. He’ll be exempt for the first eight events on the 2019 Web.com Tour.
Another member of that 2017 U.S. Walker Cup team, Braden
Thornberry, the 2017 NCAA individual champion as a sophomore at Mississippi, posted a
2-under 70 at Cattail Sunday and finished tied for 74th at 14-under
274.
Thornberry competed as an amateur and indicated before the
tournament that he would turn pro if he finished in the top 40 and ties and
earned an exemption into eight events. He’s probably leaning toward returning
to Old Miss for the spring portion of his senior season, but he’s got some time
to think about it.
Every guy at Whirlwind for the Web.com Tour Q-School Final
Stage has a story you could tell. One name jumped out at me in the group tied
with Matthews for 25th, that of Drew Weaver.
Weaver was on the campus of Virginia Tech in the spring of
2007 when a shooter gunned down 33 people in one of the worse mass shootings in
U.S. history. A couple of months later, sort of out of nowhere, Weaver became
the unlikely American winner of The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham &
St. Annes.
Weaver had intended to take a shot at one of the biggest
events in amateur golf, but I couldn’t help but think that the events of that
fateful day at Virginia Tech had to play some strange role in his mental
approach a few weeks later and half a world away. Kind of like, a poor golf shot didn't seem to matter as much in the big picture.
Weaver was part of a talented group of U.S. players – and that
Tommy Fleetwood fella from the GB&I side turned out to be a pretty good player
-- who I got to watch win the Walker Cup Match at Merion Golf Club’s historic
East Course in 2009 just before he turned pro. He’s been pretty much beating
the bushes ever since.
But there he was this week at Whirlwind, the 31-year-old
still chasing his dream. Weaver had four rounds in the 60s, finishing up with a
4-under 68 at Cattail Sunday for a 19-under 269. After all these years, Drew
Weaver can still play a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment