Temple's Brandon Matthews In The Zone On The Links

By Matt Leon

Golf fans everywhere were captivated this weekend by the wonderful performance of Jordan Spieth as he rolled to a four-shot win at the Masters.

A little closer to home here in the Delaware Valley, there is another young golfer that has really been on quite the roll here as of late as well.

Temple junior Brandon Matthews won the Princeton Invitational over the weekend, his third straight tournament victory.

"I've said this a few times, I'm alleviating stress," Matthews tells KYW Newsradio. "The stress really isn't a huge factor on me because my short game has been really good. The par saves are there when they need to be and it's not seven, eight, nine-footers for par, you know, it's tap-ins. It's really a nice thing to see my short game be at the level it is right now and if I get my ball striking up to the standard that I'd like it to be, I think I can go out and shoot some pretty low scores to end the season."

Listen to the entire interview with Temple's Brandon Matthews

A native of Dupont, Pa., Matthews has now won eight titles during his time on North Broad Street and that ties a Temple record. He talks about how his game has grown during his college career.

"I think just straight up efficiency," Matthews says. "It's just gotten so much more efficient week-to-week. I don't have as big of misses and I know my game. I know where to fix things and I know how to play when I don't have my 'A' game. So I think that's the biggest thing, I can go out there and shoot a 68, 67 when I'm not really playing that great."

There is still a lot of golf for Matthews to play at Temple, but he eventually wants to try and go pro and he says success like the 21-year-old Spieth had at the Masters really motivates him.

"A kid that's a year older than me just did that," Matthews says. "I want to get out there and surpass it, I really do. It makes me want to get out there. As any competitor will tell you, you always want to work towards being the best and that's just something that is definitely a goal and he set a standard and I'm going to work toward it."

Next up for Matthews and the Temple golf squad, the Wolfpack Spring Intercollegiate down in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.