Mathis Defeats Nelms in Playoff for Brainerd Win

For years Matt Mathis had played the Chattanooga amateur golf circuit with varying degrees of success—good enough to flirt with the lead every now and again but never able to claim a victory.

“I’d been around the lead a few times,” the 30-year-old Mathis said. “I’d get close to a win. But I’d always find some way to let it go.”

On Sunday, at a most appropriate venue and in the perfect tournament, Mathis once again got a couple of hands around the throat of victory, and this time, instead of letting go he squeezed tighter.

Mathis’s four-foot putt on the first playoff hole at Brainerd Golf Course slipped in the side door for a par and a victory over Josh Nelms, whose 6-under-par 66 thrust him several places up the leaderboard and past first-round leaders Mathis and Josh Coley. It took a heroic birdie at the par-5 18^th for Mathis, who closed with a 69, to catch Nelms at 9-under-par for the 36-hole tournament, forcing a playoff that began at the 420-yard par-4 No. 1 hole.

Nelms hit first and pulled his 3-wood slightly. The ball clipped a branch, slowing it down enough to leave him a 235-yard approach. His 4-iron second shot drifted right, leaving him with a difficult up-and-down to the back right pin.

Mathis, meanwhile, chose driver and pounded a hook to within an 8-iron of the green. His lie wasn’t the cleanest, but he hacked his approach onto the green, about 40 feet from the hole.

Nelms’ third shot fell short of the green, leaving him a 30-foot putt over the fringe, and, typical of his day, he nearly drained his par putt. But when it drifted just past the hole, the stage was set for Mathis.

Mathis’s first putt left him some work to do, and for a second it appeared he left his par putt out to the right. But the ball snuck into the hole.

“I really hammered that one in, didn’t I?” Mathis said. “But that’s the good thing about golf. It doesn’t say how on your scorecard, just how many.”

For Mathis, bagging his first victory at Brainerd was beyond cool. “This is where I learned to play the game of golf,” he said.

Mathis might never have taken up the game if he hadn’t hooked up with the business end of a Skil saw when he was 17 years old and headed for junior college on a baseball scholarship. He actually cut off the thumb and forefinger on his left hand, but doctors were able to reattach them. It was during an arduous rehab that Mathis realized his baseball playing days were over.

The summer after his first year in college, Mathis took a job at Brainerd, enabling him to play, as he likes to say, “from can to can’t” just about every day. A one-time-a-year player previously, Mathis took a liking to the game and showed an uncanny aptitude for it. That first summer, he broke 100, 90 and 80.

The next year, he broke 70 for the first time. Current Chattanooga golf coach Mark Guhne, who was then in the construction business, mentioned Mathis’s name to then-coach Reid Sanderlin, and suddenly Mathis was a Division I golfer. In two-and-a-half years with the Mocs, Mathis played as high as No. 2 man.

After golf, Mathis took a job in the business world and played golf for fun. Sunday was as much fun as he’s had in a long time.

“I’m excited,” Mathis said. “To win on this golf course really means a lot to me.”

Nelms, another in a long line of good young Chattanooga-area players, is about to embark on a similar path as Mathis. After winning the Tennessee Match Play Championship at The Honors last summer, Nelms considered giving pro golf a shot. But the more he thought about those long car rides, cheap hotels and crummy meals while traveling golf’s minor leagues, the more he began to realize he’d be better served taking a sure paycheck. That meant putting the mathematical statistics degree he earned at Middle Tennessee State to work. In a couple of weeks he’ll take a test to become an actuary.

Nelms, who plans to play the Tennessee Open later this month, isn’t sure his new gig will allow him to play much golf. But he’s begun to think that becoming a gentleman golfer won’t be so bad. “Tim Jackson’s had a pretty good career,” Nelms said, referring to one of the most successful amateur golfers in Tennessee history.

It’s safe to say Nelms has started down a Jackson-like path in earnest, albeit with a familiar result. Nelms has played the Brainerd Invitational four times, and three times he’s finished second.

“They need to make up a special trophy for second place with my name on it and just send it to my house,” Nelms said.