The 2019 professional golf season did not go as planned for Pittston Area graduate Brandon Matthews, but by the time it was done, Matthews was one of the sport’s most talked-about players.
After taking a step back from the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA’s top developmental tour, to the Latinoamericas Tour midway through an injury-plagued season, Matthews put together a fourth-round charge in the Argentine Open.
Matthews amazingly found himself a putt away from a playoff where a victory would place him back on the Korn Ferry Tour and gain him entry into the British Open, one of golf’s four major tournaments.
The 25-year-old Dupont had his putt disrupted by a yell from a man in the crowd, likely contributing to the attempt being off the mark. Matthews’ reaction to the disappointment was minimal and, when he learned the yell came from a middle-aged man with Down syndrome, he met with the fan in a pleasant exchange that earned him praise.
“When it happened, my first thoughts were that a fan in the crowd had bursted out to try to make me miss the putt,” Matthews said in a telephone interview following the November event. “When I got into the locker room and the tournament director came over and notified me about the entire situation that the middle-aged man had Down syndrome, I immediately asked to go see him.
“I obviously knew that it was the opposite from intentional, what happened.”
Among those praising Matthews was Scott Van Pelt, host of ESPN’s late-night SportsCenter.
Van Pelt, on SportsCenter, described it as: “A moment of pure and uncommon class and humanity after a moment of bitter disappointment. A moment worth sharing and a guy worth rooting for. Proof once again of the old adage that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.”
Matthews said he was not seeking recognition when he met the fan.
“It was solely to try to make the guy feel good,” he said.
In doing so, he made others feel good as well.
Matthews’ actions outside the country joined the performance of the Wyoming Area football team in a state championship game in Hershey as the biggest sports stories of the Greater Pittston area in 2019.
There were other special moments along the way.
Among them …
A year after their first state tournament appearance and victory, the Wyoming Area field hockey team went a step farther, advancing to the state semifinals.
Pittston Area won District 2 Class 5A titles in baseball and softball, then followed each up with a first-round state tournament win.
The softball state victory was a no-hitter and third straight playoff shutout by Alexa McHugh.
Wyoming Area graduate Marc Anthony Minichello finished his freshman season as a javelin thrower at the University of Pennsylvania by earning honorable mention status with a 17th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Tex.
Taryn Ashby from Pittston Area, a sophomore at Villanova University, won her second straight Big East championship in the javelin.
