Following Up With 1990 U.S. Junior Champ Mathew Todd


March 3, 2005

Pop quiz. Who was the last player to win the U.S. Junior Amateur before Tiger Woods ran off three straight victories, from 1991-93?

David Duval?

Close - he won it two years earlier. Give up? It was a 17-year-old from Visalia, Calif., named Mathew Todd. Todd went on to attend the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on a golf scholarship, but his swing quickly deserted him, he says, and his game went south.

Nevertheless, that week at Lake Merced Country Club in Daly City, Calif., remains one of Todd's biggest highlights. In the first round, he defeated future USA Walker Cupper Jason Gore, 1 up, and then needed 21 holes to eliminate Jason Freeman. In the final, he knocked off stroke-play medalist Dennis Hillman of Rye, N.Y., 1 up, after Hillman handed a then-14-year-old Woods a 3-and-2 setback in the morning semifinals.

Since college, Todd has co-managed a small golf clothing company and taught golf at a driving range in Fresno, Calif. In 1999, he turned pro and tested his game on several mini-tours, with little success.

His latest venture is Fundamental Golf, a custom-putter fitting business that he runs out of his Visalia home. The idea for the business came to him after he turned pro and realized that finding an equipment company "that would take me seriously was very difficult." If he couldn't find a company that would cater to his custom-fitting needs, he reasoned, how could the average amateur?

"I was hoping to help other people," he says.

Story written by Alan Bastable of Golf Magazine Properties