Jul. 2—With two holes left to play in the 2024 Brick Capital Classic, Todd Matthews faced a challenge that he couldn’t have expected just a few hours earlier.
Matthews found himself in a dogfight as the tournament reached the final few holes Sunday evening, having seen a four-shot lead slip away against a field he had dominated for the first 23 holes of competition. However, with the title on the line, he scored birdies at the 17th and 18th holes and pulled out a one-shot victory over playing partner and 2007 BCC champion Carson Lanier, winning the tournament for the first time in his career.
Matthews had spent the entire first day of the 48th BCC and the early part of Sunday’s final round dishing out a beating to both the 90 year-old Sanford Golf Course and the rest of the field of more than 140 competitors. The Harnett County native, who was competing in the Brick Capital for the third time in his amateur golf career, shot one of the best rounds in the history of the BCC on Saturday, opening up with a round of 7-under-par 64 on the par-71, 6,304-yard course.
Despite a forecast of threatening weather on Sunday, the second and final round went ahead as planned, and the first group of golfers teeing off in the morning went through their rounds with little problem. However, the top flights teed off in the afternoon and ran into all sorts of problems. At first, this didn’t affect Matthews at all. He birdied the 368-yard, par-4 first hole and took a four-stroke lead over Steve Hamby and Kenny Stewart, who had teed off in foursomes ahead of Matthews.
Although he didn’t offer it as an excuse, the intermittent thunderstorms that caused two ran delays on the front nine and the midpoint of the round may have broken Matthews’ momentum. After holding at 8-under through five holes, he made bogey at 6 and then had a disastrous double-bogey at the 329-yard, par-4 eighth hole. Meanwhile, Lanier, who had shot 68 on the first day and who was in the same group as Matthews, started a charge. Matthews recovered to make birdie at the 473-yard, par-5 ninth hole, but Lanier made eagle there and made the turn at 4-under, two shots back of Matthews. Hamby had just made the turn at 3-under after a birdie at 9, and Ryan Patterson, also in the lead group, was also at 3-under.
All of the contenders found the first few holes of the back nine unfavorable after a rain delay of more than 45 minutes affected the course and stopped play temporarily. Fortunately, the storm clouds eventually cleared over Sanford and would not return for several hours, long after the tournament had ended.
Matthews held a narrow lead through the next several holes, but Lanier made back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 to reach four-under for the tournament, and 2016 champion Paul Jett, playing one group back, birdied 15 to get to three-under. Matthews, meanwhile, bogeyed 16 and dropped to four-under himself, after three straight pars following a bogey at 12. For the first time since early in Saturday’s first round, there was a tie for the lead.
“I bogeyed six and then we had to delay on eight,” said Matthews. “(I) double crossed it left and made a sloppy, sloppy double, but made birdie on nine to get it back and went over, and then the back was a dogfight, man.”
What helped Matthews hang on was that he remained cool despite the late challenge, and focused on the competition and the endgame without worrying about the score.
“(Lanier) birdied 15 and 16…I was scared to even look at the leaderboard. Honestly, I knew he was right there with me, but it was a blast.
“I told myself on 17, I said at least give yourself a chance. I mean, make him beat me if you would. Like I said, he was playing really, really good at that point and, uh, made a probably 15-footer on 17. That was awesome.”
At the 17th hole, Matthews struck the ball better than Lanier, but the latter saved par with that long putt. Matthews, however, regained the solo lead when he made a strong approach shot with the 9-iron on the 451-yard, par-4 17th and then putted for birdie. He went to 18 in the lead at 5-under, with Lanier at -4 and Hamby, just finishing up on 18, one shot further back at -3 along with Jett, in fourth place at -2.
“Todd just played great and every time I thought I was gonna get a foot in the door, he shut it,” said Lanier.
At the 483-yard, par-5 18th, Matthews’ second shot went into the rough just short of the green, but he chipped out of the rough and two-putted for another birdie. Lanier had a long putt that could have given him an eagle and force a playoff, but wasn’t able to convert.
“I said on 15, I said, let’s just play four good holes,” Lanier said. “One at a time. (It) was four good holes. I didn’t miss a shot. Been cool to make a putt on 18 for the tie, but that’s just how it goes.”
Brandon Jones, the 2022 BCC champion, came in fifth overall with two-day total of one-over 143, three shots back of Jett in fourth and one up on Dalton Mauldin and Kenny Stewart, who tied for sixth. However, AJ Johnson, who won the second flight, was a shot better than Jones at 70-72 for a two-day total of 142.
The third flight was won by Bo Crooks with a two-day total of 150, and Chase Suitt shot a 72 on Sunday to win the fourth flight with a score of 150. Grant Brown won the fifth flight with a 155 total, with David Newland and Brandon O’Quinn tying for the win in the sixth flight at 164. Ben Baker won the seventh flight and Jacob Gaster the eighth.
Craig Sturdivant, who won the open division three times between 1984 and 2004, was the winner of the senior division with back-to-back rounds of 73.
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