Brandon Matthews is just one of 122 players in the field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week at Bay Hill and you are excused if Matthews’ name isn’t instantly familiar.
He’s never played in a PGA Tour event until this week, has won just once on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica three years ago and now he’s in a field that includes six of the top 10 players in the world golf ranking.
Because he did a sweet thing.
He hugged someone.
Not just someone but a fan with Down syndrome who inadvertently yelled as Matthews was trying to hole an 8-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole to extend a playoff in the Visa Open de Argentina last November.
The noise disrupted Matthews, who missed the putt, allowing Colombia’s Ricardo Celia to win the event and a guaranteed spot in the 2020 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s later this summer.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later, the disappointment still fresh, that a tournament official in Buenos Aires explained to Matthews what had happened. Rather than brood in the locker room, Matthews – who said the noise caused him to flinch on his backstroke – asked to meet the fan.
Matthews found the fan, gave him a hug and suddenly his world felt a little different.
“It was obviously a tough situation. I was frustrated at first, didn’t understand the full circumstances behind it. But once I did, it was a pretty easy situation for me to handle because of the fact that my mom used to work in group homes and I was around that kind of stuff my entire childhood,” Matthews said this week in Orlando.
“My best friend’s little sister has Down syndrome. So I saw it on a daily basis and I just kind of have a special place in my heart for it.”
Shortly after Matthews met the fan, a friend said video of the moment was going to rocket around the internet. Matthews shook it off. His friend was right.
The Today show did a segment on what happened. Same with Golf Channel.
“I’m just happy I was able to make this guy happy and put a smile on his face,” Matthews said.
Fast forward to this week and Matthews is in the field because of his act of kindness. Officials at the Arnold Palmer Invitational saw what Matthews did and offered him a sponsor exemption, saying on Twitter that he responded “just as Mr. Palmer would have – with kindness, humility and grace.”
It’s an enormous opportunity for Matthews, who is inordinately long even by today’s pumped-up standards but hasn’t yet had his breakthrough moment as a professional. He’s 25 years old, having played at Temple, and he has a Pennsylvania background like Palmer.
Ultimately, it was a small gesture, the human touch, that landed Matthews in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Matthews has full status on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica after spending the two previous seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour. He made the cut in just four of 21 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019. He hasn’t played a tournament since a December Latinoamérica event.
Working with swing coach Dale Gray, Matthews said he has focused on finding some consistency to go with an average driving distance of 331.3 yards last year on the Korn Ferry Tour, proof that power doesn’t guarantee success.
At 6 feet 4 and 210 pounds, Matthews is capable of generating extraordinary clubhead speed. It was a challenge from his father years ago, Matthews said, that started him down the path of power golf.
“My dad set me on the red tees when I was like 4 or 5 years old on this one course where I grew up, it’s like a 5,800-yard golf course. It’s great and there was a little pond in front of the red tee. It was like, I don’t know, 70 yards to carry,” Matthews said.
“I sat there with a huge bucket of balls just trying to hit it over, just trying to hit it as hard as I can. And as soon as I did, my dad moved me back a tee and then that process kind of repeated itself until I got all the way back. So I feel like that was one of the big reasons why I was blessed with my length, because I kind of grew up just trying to hit it as hard as I can.”
Ultimately, it was a small gesture, the human touch, that landed Matthews in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“To be a part of Mr. Palmer’s tournament as my first ever PGA Tour start is something that I actually can’t really put into words, it’s pretty incredible,” Matthews said.