Daler Freshman Tears up The Links

Back in 2009, Farmingdale's Matt Lowe was the youngest person in the nation to ever try out for the U.S. Open at age 13.

In 2010, he led the golf team to a Long Island championship, and followed up by winning the MGA/Met Life Tournament in Bedford, New York. 

This year, after a rough start, Lowe continued his rise to golf prominence, winning the prestigious New York State Federation title on the last week by two strokes. The NYS Federation is a combined association of public and private secondary schools in the state, including NYSPHSAA and NYSCHSAA.

The next day, he qualified for the New York State Open - a competition for both professionals and highly rated amateurs.

“I hit the ball amazing all day, I think the longest putt I had to sink was five feet,” he said of his performance in the Open qualifier. “I finished with a score of 71.”

Lowe’s story is pretty well known. His talent for golf began at the age of 6 and by middle school he was burning up courses regularly and impressing professionals with his drives.

In the past two years his drives have lengthened. “When I was thirteen I was much shorter off the tee,” he said. “Now that I’ve gained distance it’s more about using short irons, improving that part of my game.”

This season hasn’t all been a bed of roses for Lowe on the links. “It was pretty terrible,” he admits. “Even at counties I didn’t do too good. I’d been doing a lot of training with my swing coach, and I had to take off my short game to work on that. My putting was atrocious.”

But Lowe started to get things straightened out in the states. where he came in seventh, and by Federation time, he’d put it all together. “After I got more fluent in my swing, I just kept practicing the right things with my short game. I worked on eliminating my mistakes, getting a more fluent swing. That was pretty much it.”

Of course it didn’t hurt that Federation was held on Bethpage’s notorious Black Course.

“The Black Course is familiar to us at Farmingdale,” Lowe said. “But you don’t have to play it lots of times to know what it‘s about. It’s just insanely tough. It’s incredibly long. The rough is thick. And there’s trouble all over the place -- 12, for example is a 400 yard par four, and the green is surrounded by bunkers.”

With summer approaching, Lowe has his sights on two prizes. Either that New York State Open July 19-21, or an even bigger prize - the USGA’s Junior Amateurs.

“The biggest junior tournament in the world,” Lowe said.

Farmingdale’s golf sensation has a date with the tee for that one on June 22, in Mendham, New Jersey.