As a professional golfer, Andy Matthews fully understands the need to remain calm, focused, and undistracted while doing his job. Ready To Focus is helping Andy achieve that and bring his professional golf game to a new level!

Andy began working with Ready To Focus clinical director Brad Oostindie approximately two years ago. He continues as a Ready To Focus participant to this day because of the help it has provided him. The results are impressive! Andy has achieved some of his best finishes over the past couple of years including a win at the Mexican PGA Championship in 2010! His earnings have improved and he is currently playing on the Canadian PGA Tour where he is having his best year ever. PGA Tour qualifying school begins in October and he will be working closely with Dr. Jeff Van Meter and Brad Oostindie to sharpen his mind, as well as his game, prior to Q-School.

In becoming a spokesperson Andy made this statement, “The type of focus I need on the golf course is the same type of focus your child needs in the classroom or an adult needs at work. There are so many benefits to the Ready To Focus program and I strongly encourage everyone to participate and realize the same benefits I have.”

He goes on to say, “This program has changed not only my professional career, but my entire life in a positive way! I can’t say enough for the team at Ready To Focus and the specialized neurofeedback program they provide. They are committed to each participant and to doing everything with excellence.”

Greg Johnson | The Grand Rapids Press

What started as a public Twitter golf challenge between Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis and Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon has turned into a team event that will highlight golf-related individuals from the rival Big Ten Conference schools in competition.

Two Grand Rapids area professional golfers -- former Michigan standout and Canadian Tour player Andy Matthews and Michigan State Hall of Famer and LPGA Tour player Sue Ertl -- are on the B1G AD Golf Challenge rosters that Hollis has announced on Twitter.

The competition, which can be followed on Twitter with the hashtag #B1GADgolf is set for July 25 at Eagle Eye Golf Course in East Lansing, and Hollis is promising Twitter hole-by-hole updates.

The format will be two best-ball scores of five on each hole from the competing teams. The Michigan team will tee off at 1:30 p.m.

The Michigan State team will tee off at 1:40 p.m. The Michigan PGA, which has its offices at the Eagle Eye complex, has agreed to officiate the competition.

Michigan State's team includes Hollis, assistant MSU golf coach, mini-tour pro and two-time Michigan Open champion Ryan Brehm; 2008 Michigan Amateur champion Jimmy Chestnut; 2008 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion and Masters Tournament participant Jack Newman and Ertl, who currently teaches golf in Sarasota Fla., following a long LPGA Tour career.

Michigan's team includes Brandon, reigning Michigan Tournament of Champions winner Andy Matthews; Lion Kim, who played in the Masters in April as the 2010 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion and recently finished his golf career at Michigan; Arizona Cardinals kicker and celebrity golfer Jay Feely and Elaine Crosby, a veteran of the LPGA Tour who also teaches the game in Jackson.

In recent weeks the two athletic directors have traded lighthearted "trash talk" via Twitter in regards to the event. They will address the media before the competition Monday.

E-mail Greg Johnson: gjohnson@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/gregjohnsongrp

Kelly Hill | The Grand Rapids Press

BOYNE FALLS, MI - Terri Matthews cried Wednesday afternoon at the conclusion of the Tournament of Champions. Not because her son, Andy, had won the tournament, but because of how he won it.

Andy Matthews won the Tournament of Champions on the Alpine Course at Boyne Mountain Resort by two strokes over 15-year-old Henry Do, who had held a four-stroke lead with three holes left to play.

Matthews, 30, who lives in Ada and is a regular on the Canadian Tour, played those final three holes with a birdie, par and another birdie.

Do, a sophomore-to-be at Ann Arbor Greenhills who shot a tournament-record 62 on Tuesday to lead after the second round, played the final three holes Wednesday with a two bogeys and a double-bogey.

While Matthews drained a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th hole and a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th, Do three-putted 16 and 17 and four-putted 18. After Matthews tied Do with his birdie putt on 18, Do missed a 3-footer that would have forced a playoff.

“I was feeling the disappointment of Henry,” Terri Matthews said. “He played so well; I felt bad for him. I was happy for Andy, obviously, but I felt bad for Henry. When Andy was a junior golfer and we had long rides home from tournaments when he hadn’t played so well, we always told him that there is more to learn from those tournaments than the tournaments you win.

“This was a tough way for this to end. I guess it was meant to be for Andy, but I feel Henry’s disappointment.”

Matthews collected the $10,000 winner’s share of the $55,000 purse after shooting a final-round 2-under 70 to finish the 54-hole event with a 9-under 207. Do shot 75 on Wednesday to finish with a 7-under 209.

LPGA Tour pro Allison Fouch of East Grand Rapis shot a final-round 74 to finish third, one stroke behind Do at 6-under 210.

“For me, I couldn’t ask for a better finish, but I feel for Henry,” Andy Matthews said. “I had resigned myself to the fact that Allison and I would battle it our for the check. I never thought I could win the tournament until I made that putt on 16 and Henry bogeyed so his lead was down to two.”

As an amateur golfer, Do was not eligible to collect prize money.

“I thought I needed that birdie putt on 18 to go to a playoff hole,” Matthews said. “I was stunned when Henry missed his. To have that happen to him when he’s 15, he was a true gentleman. I would have liked to go play one more hole and win it the real way.”

Do said he began to lose his focus when Matthews made his birdie putt on 16.

“I was nervous on every shot and I had a hard time focusing,” Do said. “I started to worry about Andy more. Today, I learned that you have to hang in there, take it one shot at a time and focus. My heart kind of stopped a couple of times out there, like when (Matthews) made that putt on 18.

“This will help me learn from my mistakes and help me be a better player.”

by Greg Johnson | The Grand Rapids Press

Thousand Oaks head professional Gary Smithson made a bold run with birdies, while Ada's Andy Matthews couldn't find the birdies needed to keep his lead.

Mount Pleasant's Ryan Brehm took advantage and won a second consecutive Michigan Open Championship at Orchard Lake Country Club on Thursday.

Brehm, 24 and a Hooters Tour player, shot a closing 4-under-par 67 for a 16-under-par 268 total and two-shot win over Smithson and Brighton's Eric Wohlfield.

"It feels really good to win because I beat some really, really good players this week," he said after collecting the $10,000 check.

Smithson, 42, started the day six shots off the lead, but made four consecutive birdies on the front nine. He ended up with a 6-under-par 65 for 270 and his best finish in a Michigan Open.

He had the best chance to catch Brehm by moving within a shot of him after a birdie on the 17th hole. He hit a wedge shot 30 feet above the hole at No. 18, though and missed a 5-foot par putt to make bogey.

"I was probably a little juiced up there and hit that gap wedge too far," Smithson said. "I got up there and knew I was in a bad place on that green."

Wohlfield, a club pro planning to attempt tour golf once again, birdied the last hole for a 70 to tie Smithson for second.

Matthews, the 30-year-old Canadian Tour player who led after each of the first three rounds, closed with a 74 and finished fourth. He said he never gave himself a chance.

"I still felt like I had a chance to win it even with the lack of birdies, but it was just one of those unfortunate days when you say golf happens," Matthews said. "I was between clubs all day, indecisive reading (greens), coming up short on putts and even had to take an unplayable lie (tree roots at No. 9). When those things are going on and you aren't making birdies you are not going to win golf tournaments."

Muskegon's Andy Ruthkoski, the 2007 Michigan Open champion, closed with a 71 for 275 and eighth place.

Six-time champion Scott Hebert of Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, a former Grand Rapids golfer, shot 71 for 276 and a tie for ninth.

Brian Ottenweller of Grand Rapids, a mini-tour pro, shot 75 for 283 and a tie for 23rd, while Boulder Creek's Joe Pollack closed with a 72 for 285 and a tie for 33rd.

Brehm, a former Michigan State standout, is the eighth golfer to repeat in the 93 years of the state championship, and the first to repeat since Scott Hebert won four consecutive events from 1999 to 2002.

"For some reason today I felt kind of at ease with myself," he said after making five birdies against one bogey. "I slowly plodded along, and it turned into a nice fun day."

Brehm won by eight shots in 2009, but had to come from behind this time.

"My playing competitors all week pushed me," he said. "This on feels so great because I beat some really good players."

by Greg Johnson | The Grand Rapids Press

Ada’s Andy Matthews will play on the PGA Tour this weekend in The Honda Classic at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Matthews, a Canadian PGA Tour player, outlasted five other golfers in a sudden-death playoff to earn a spot via Monday qualifying for the $5.6 million event to be played Thursday through Sunday on the Champions Course.

It will be the fifth PGA Tour event for Matthews, who turned 30 and in December narrowly missed making the final stage of the PGA Tour’s qualifying tournament.

Matthews made an eagle-3 to close his regulation 3-under-par 68 at The Fox Club on Monday, then birdied the first playoff hole and made par on the second hole to win in a six-way playoff for the final two spots.

Y.E. Yang is defending champion in a field that also will include Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington.

Matthews, a former Michigan Amateur champion and seventh-year pro, has played in the Buick Open twice, the Puerto Rico Open last year and the 2007 U.S. Open on the PGA Tour.

He had a top finish of second (falling in a playoff) last year on the Canadian Tour.

For the second consecutive year, Matthews will play select events on the Canadian Tour while often attempting Monday qualifiers on both the Nationwide and PGA Tour. Four final spots are decided in Monday play at regular PGA and Nationwide events.