DUPONT, Pa. — Brandon Matthews gave himself a pretty good Christmas present – his second career win on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica.
"That’s what it’s all about, right?" Matthews said, grabbing his trophy. "Getting something like this is obviously amazing, but that what the hard work is to put in all that hard work, the gratification of winning an event, especially the way I did is pretty special. I couldn’t be happier going into obviously a crazy holiday season, but this is definitely going to make it a lot sweeter.”
The 26-year-old shot his age this past weekend - 26 under par to win the Puerto Plata Open in the Dominican Republic. After playing in the LOCALiQ Series this summer, the Dupont-native was thankful to close out 2020 with a couple weeks back on tour.
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”It’s funny. Actually, on the trophy here, it has the 7th and 10th of May," Matthews showed. "So, it’s got the wrong dates on it because that’s when it was supposed to be held. So, we all learned a lot this year and once the tour kind of learned OK, well we can continue on with what we’re doing, run tournaments and limit the fans and fortunately, I was able to play a few good events and the last one of the year being very good."
A good deed is what Matthews is most famous for. Last year, he showed grace when a fan with Down Syndrome yelled during a key putt that cost him a spot in The Open Championship, but that act of kindness actually earned him a special invite to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he made his PGA TOUR debut. That was the first weekend in March – days before the country shut down.
"It was crazy timing and obviously we weren’t thinking about it at the time," Matthews said. "We had full crowds, full everything and the next week, they just shut everything down. It was just like a flip of the switch. It was pretty crazy how dramatic it was, but I look forward to continuing my career on an upward path with this being just the start. I think I’m going to show people that I’m really able to make some noise out there."
Until then, he’s home for the holidays in NEPA – not the worst way to quarantine.
"Holidays with the family," Matthews said. "Very grateful to be able to do that. Relax. Enjoy this trophy a little bit. So, hopefully there’s many more of these in the future."