CLASS ACT: Brandon Matthews Comforts Fan After Costing Him a Win

For being so late in the season, there was a lot of golf this week. The European Tour was in action at South Africa. The PGA TOUR however had the Mayakoba Classic and another overlooked event in Argentina for the Latin American Tour.

That event featured Brandon Matthews, an American who is fighting for his chance to move up the ranks of the PGA TOUR system. Matthews had just been kicked off of the Korn Ferry Tour for failing to qualify while he was competing in playoffs at the Visa Open de Argentina. On the fourth playoff hole, Matthews had an eight-foot putt to extend the playoffs but missed it.

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The reason that Matthews missed the putt was that there was a scream that came from the gallery. The scream came right in the middle of Matthews’ backswing, causing him to flinch, which altered the direction of the putt. A visibly frustrated Matthews then turned with a disgusted look towards the gallery. After leaving the hole, Matthews was approached by the commissioner of the event where he had the chance to explain the situation.

Matthews was obviously upset because of the miss, especially since the winner of the event gets an automatic exemption into The Open Championship. Claudio Rivas, tournament administration manager for PGA Tour Latino América, explained to Matthews that the outburst from the gallery was from a man with Down Syndrome that lost control of his emotions in all of the excitement. Matthews immediately went to find the man.

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Once he met the man, Matthews embraced him with a big hug. “I gave him a hug and I asked him, ‘Hey, are you doing OK? Are you having fun?’ I just wanted to make sure he was enjoying himself, that he had no hard feelings, that he didn’t feel bad about what happened,” Matthews said. “I didn’t want anyone to be mad at him. I didn’t want him to be mad at himself. I wanted to make sure he knew that I wasn’t mad. That’s all I wanted to do.”

Even though Matthews missed out on a major career opportunity, it’s great to see that he realizes that some things are simply bigger than golf. We wish Matthews the best as he moves forward this year on the Latin American circuit and maybe he can still sneak his way into a major later this year.

Cover Image Via Twitter