“People at home won’t understand how absurd this golf shot is.”
That’s what Ben Griffin, who has a PGA Tour card for next season, tweeted about Brandon Matthews’ tee shot on Victoria National’s 432-yard, dogleg right par-4 18th Friday at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Matthews made a double on No. 17 and needed an eagle on No. 18 to make the cut.
The long-hitting 28-year-old already clinched a PGA Tour card for next season by finishing inside the top 25 of the KFT’s regular-season points list. So with nothing to lose, Matthews decided to go all out.
Full-field scores from Korn Ferry Tour Championship
Rather than play the hole traditionally, Matthews, with 370 yards to the flag, decided to take an aggressive line and drive the green. He pulled it off, with his tee shot carrying roughly 360 yards over the water.
The Korn Ferry Tour Championship has been played at Victoria National since 2012, and there is no record of anyone ever driving the closing hole’s green.
“If I wasn’t in that position, I wouldn’t be hitting driver at the green,” Matthews told PGATour.com afterward. “I love doing stuff like that. It’s fun.”
Matthews, however, missed his eagle putt and birdied the hole to miss the cut. But it was still a shot for the ages.
“We thought it might go in when it was in the air,” Ben Martin, Matthews’ playing partner, said, “and then walking off the tee, he said he needed to make eagle to make the cut. We were all pulling for him; that was pretty cool. I said, ‘I don’t think [Tom] Fazio had this in mind when he designed the 18th hole.'”
This past season on the KFT, Matthews averaged 323 yards off the tee, down from 2017 when he averaged 341 yards. The PGA Tour’s driving distance leader this year was Cameron Champ, who averaged 321 yards.
With Matthews having secured Tour status for 2022-23, he’s ready to show off his long-hitting talents against the world’s best.
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