Brandon Matthews played Friday’s last 11 holes in 5-under par to climb into the top 10 heading into the weekend at the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championships.
Matthews shot a 32 on the back nine to finish the day with a 67. He followed up a 2-under-par, 70 on Thursday, putting him at 7-under, 137 to head into the weekend tied for eighth place.
The Pittston Area graduate went into the third of four rounds four strokes behind leader Matt Wallace. That left him in position to possibly post the best finish of his first full season on the PGA Tour where he has now made four of 15 cuts.
A tie for 39th at the Sanderson Farms Championships Sept. 29-Oct. 2 was Matthews’ previous best.
Matthews shot up the leaderboard 33 spots Friday.
After playing the first seven holes in even par, with one birdie and one bogey, Matthews picked up some momentum midway through the round.
Starting from the 10th tee that day, he closed with birdies at 17, 2, 4, 7 and 8.
The Temple University graduate picked up two of his birdies on par-5s and two on par-3s. Matthews reached the 565-yard fourth hole in two and got up and down from the rough on the 515-yard seventh.
The tournament is being played on the Corales Golf Course at the Puntacana Resort and Club in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Matthews, a 28-year-old from Dupont, ranks second on the PGA Tour with an average driving distance of 321.2 yards.
