Matt Mattare holds on to win Philadelphia Open by two
Matt Mattare didn't find the going nearly as easy as he did on Monday when he shot a course-record 63, but a clutch putt at the 16th hole helped him clinch the victory in the Golf Association of Philadelphia major.
What came easy for Matt Mattare during his record-breaking opening round in the Philadelphia Open was not nearly as easy on Tuesday.
Mattare shot an 8-under-par 63 – a competitive course record at Philadelphia Country Club – on Monday and led the 36-hole event by four strokes. But the Saucon Valley amateur did not find the sailing quite as smooth on Tuesday even as he extended his lead to six shots on the front nine.
After carding nine straight pars, the bogeys started to come, four in all. But it was that last bogey, at No. 16, on his only one-putt of the round, that settled his increasingly jangling nerves, enabling him to finish with two pars and a two-stroke victory in the Golf Association of Philadelphia major.
Mattare, 31, finished the day with a 4-over-par 75 and a total of of 138 under the Open's new two-day format, a change from the one-day, 36-hole event that had been used since 1940.
Tony Perla of Philadelphia Cricket Club, who was the closest to Mattare after the first round, made a 10-foot birdie putt on the last hole for a 73 and tied Shawnee's Brian Bergstol (69) for second place, and for low professional honors, at 140.
Mattare did not make a single birdie Tuesday as compared to nine on Monday, and admitted it was more difficult to find the level of relaxation he had in the first round.
"You stand on the first tee, you've got adrenaline going, you've got nerves going, and you just try to go out there and swing smooth and get a good tempo and just stay relaxed," he said. "But no, it's a thousand times harder, way harder."
Mattare led by five at the turn but missed the green at Nos. 10 and 11 for his first two bogeys, and couldn't get up and down out of a bunker on the par-3 15th. Then at the par-4 16th, he blasted a drive to within 75 yards of the green with his ball on a severe downhill lie and the pin tucked over a front bunker.
He flat-out chunked the second shot, or as he put it, "I laid the sod over it." He hit his third shot off another severe lie to the back collar, chipped to 6 feet past the hole, and made the putt for bogey.
"You're not necessarily beating yourself, and I didn't feel like I was beating myself," he said. "The field was coming closer to me, I'm sure, as I bogeyed. But they weren't terrible bogeys. On 16, at first it was a terrible bogey, then a great bogey.
"That was huge, hitting a good putt there. That's the only putt I made today outside of 3 feet. (Monday) I had 13 one-putts and today I had one, and it was on that hole. It was a very timely one-putt."
Mattare made routine two-putt pars on the last two holes, and captured his second GAP major victory, the first being the 2016 Middle-Amateur, a tournament for players 25 and older.
"Being able to do it in a full field and finishing it off as opposed to a reduced field in the Mid-Am, it's huge," he said. "This is definitely the biggest win I've ever had."