Country Club of Scranton member Brandon Matthews reached a pair of career goals while head pro Michael Molino achieved one he’s been pursuing even longer.
In consecutive weeks during June, Matthews played in his first major, the U.S. Open, then Molino played in the U.S. Senior Open.
The two professional golfers reached the milestones at different points in their career and had different results.
Matthews made the cut and was within five strokes of the lead at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. before sliding back to 60th on the weekend.
Molino was not around for the weekend at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem. His highlight was getting into the event through qualifying, a particularly challenging task for a club pro not playing tour tournament golf.
Both got there by surviving playoffs needed to secure their spots at the national championship events.
Matthews, who won a state high school title at Pittston Area in 2010, realized two goals he’s been chasing. He made it into the U.S. Open through qualifying and, a week later, virtually assured himself of a PGA Tour card for next season.
Any possible doubts have since been removed as Matthews opened July by adding a third-place finish to the first-place and tie for second place he posted earlier this year on the Korn Ferry Tour. Needing only a Top 25 finish on the tour’s season points list to make the PGA Tour, Matthews is up to fourth.
“I still have the rest of the tournaments this year and that number-one spot on the points list is really important,” Matthews said in a recent telephone interview. “That’s my goal for the end of the year.
“If we can achieve that, then we can get in some tournaments that we wouldn’t necessarily get in automatically.”
After years of working his way up the professional golf tour ladder, the 27-year-old from Dupont is seeing rapid progress.
“It’s crazy,” said Matthews, who ripped a 412-yard drive during the most recent tournament in Denver. “Those two things happened so close together. Those are two things that I’ve tried to do and tried to achieve my entire life.
“It’s crazy now where it’s one of those things where I now semi expect myself to do things like that and that’s the way I need to think moving forward.”
After going 0-for-2 on cuts in the first two PGA Tour appearances on sponsor’s exemptions, Matthews said he was not surprised to make the cut at the U.S. Open.
Matthews said it was pre-shot errors, not bad swings, that knocked him out of contention.
“I played really well for the first 11 holes on Saturday, but we got the wind direction wrong about seven times,” he said.
From there, Matthews said he lost focus, something he wouldn’t have let happen if he had remained in contention.
Molino’s U.S. Senior Open debut came in difficult weather conditions. He struggled to an opening round 84, but came back strong with a 75. Although the cutline was essentially out of reach, he did manage to pass 15 players on the leaderboard with his second-round score.
Anthony Sebastianelli, a pro from Clarks Summit who led local qualifying at Glen Oak Country Club, was in the same sectional qualifier as Matthews. Matthews made the playoff at 2-under for 36 holes. Sebastianelli finished at 16-over
