I played a round with Matt when he was a kid, iirc it was after his junior year in HS. I play in a little fun/fundraiser tournament in Daytona every year. This particular year, I decided last minute to go over a day early to play a practice round. Called the course & asked the pro if he could find a few guys for me to play with. He says sure, come on over. So I get there, he introduces me to two of the guys, & tells me your fourth is a local kid who's part of our junior program. He's picking the game up & getting serious about it, so I try to have him play with good players whenever possible (at the time, I was pretty good, playing to about a 1 handicap). It took about two swings for me to realize that the kid was really, really good (something about watching him murder a drive down the middle, then draw a 6 iron around an oak onto the green for a good eagle putt). I laughed & said to the guy I was riding with, "damn this kid looks pretty good." The other guy laughed & said "Oh you don't know Matt? He's won the club championship 3 years in a row & is already committed to go to UF on a full ride." I shot 1 under & felt like I was shooting 90 compared to what he was doing (I think he shot a 65 that could've easily been around a 60).
When we finished, Mike (the pro) sees me in the bar; grins really big & asks "so what'd you think of Matthew's game?" I just laughed & said I think I'll be watching him on tv one day.
