No Slouch: Mattiace to be honored by Wake Forest

It's about time that Len Mattiace got some good news.

Mattiace, 40, was thrilled to find out he will be inducted into the Wake Forest Hall of Fame on Saturday, an honor he says is one he appreciates very much.

Mattiace will be going into the Hall of Fame with an impressive class that includes Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Dave Odom.

"I was no slouch myself," Mattiace said about his time at Wake Forest in the late 1980s. He was a freshman in 1986 when the Deacons won their third NCAA championship under legendary coach Jesse Haddock.

Mattiace, whose game hasn't been the same since he tore both ACLs in a skiing accident in December of 2003, is trying to find his way back to the PGA Tour. Mattiace has played a few tournaments the last three years based on his past champion's status, but his goal is to get all the way back on tour.

Even though he has made $6.7 million in his career to rank 135th on the PGA Tour all-time money list, Mattiace is determined to get back to his form of 2002 and '03 when he had his best two seasons on tour. He won his only two PGA Tour tournaments in 2002 and nearly won a major in 2003.

After the 2003 Wachovia Championship Mattiace was ranked 24th in the world, but after the 2006 season he had fallen all the way to 898th in the world.

In 2003 he lost the Masters in a playoff to Mike Weir, a defining moment for Mattiace, who was so moved by his near miss at a major he cried freely afterward to reporters.

It was later in 2003 when Mattiace suffered the skiing accident in Vail, Colo., that required extensive surgery. After the surgery Mattiace was in a wheelchair for three months.

He admits that he came back too soon from the surgery and it caused plenty of damage to his swing. He will go to PGA Tour Qualifying School later this fall to try to improve his playing status for '09.

"I look at myself as I'm kind of making the turn," Mattiace said about his career. "As far as golf is concerned I've played 13 years and I expect to go another six or seven years. With the experience I have now and how much work I've done on my game -- I'm not done."

It's that kind of determination that Mattiace showed during his college career. As a senior in 1989 he helped the Deacons to their last ACC championship.

Mattiace has plenty of memories of his time at Wake Forest, but what sticks out was the sense of team that doesn't exist much in pro golf.

"Winning the national championship was great and the next year we finished second," Mattiace said. "And I remember feeling really bummed out that we finished second, but looking back a lot of people would kill to be a part of a team that finishes 1-2 in your first two years of college."

After graduating in 1990 with a degree in sociology Mattiace turned professional. It was around 1996, after establishing himself on tour, that Mattiace vowed to give back to Wake Forest. Instead of waiting until after his career to give back, he started the Len Mattiace Golf Fund.

The idea was that a percentage of his winnings each year went to the golf program to help with a scholarship. He said that it's been fun to watch that sum grow to more than $300,000.

"I was on scholarship there at Wake and I wanted to do something that would benefit others and I've kind of enjoyed watching that grow," Mattiace said.

Mattiace also recalled the relationship that Haddock had with the players.

Mattiace said that Haddock made it a point to be in his office on campus during the day and players could come by at any time to talk. Mattiace said he often took advantage of Haddock's wisdom and called him one of the greatest sports psychologists ever.

"We talked about everything and there would sometimes be two or three of us sitting there talking with Coach and we'd never even talk about golf," Mattiace said. "But what he was doing was earning our trust, and then we'd go out and play our butts off for him."

Ryder Cup memory

Kenneth Mann, 81, doesn't watch a lot of golf but he watched quite a bit of the Ryder Cup matches this weekend.

Mann, who lives in Colfax, attended the 1951 Ryder Cup matches at Pinehurst No. 2. Back in those days fans wanting to go simply went to the course and bought a ticket.

"There weren't a lot of fans there," Mann said about the 1951 matches that were won by the Americans 91/2 to 21/2.

The cost for a ticket was $4, and Mann also got Ben Hogan to sign the back of the ticket stub. Sam Snead was the playing captain of that winning team.

"From what I remember the matches were over and Ben walked by us and I just asked him to sign my ticket stub," Mann said.

Mann found the ticket stub recently and it is now in possession of one of his grandsons, Jeremy Mann.

"There were no ropes of any kind for crowd control so we just kind of mingled around and followed the players pretty closely," Mann said.

Around the green

Wake Forest's men's golf team finished 10th at the Carpet Capital Classic in Rocky Face, Ga. Dustin Groves led the way for the Deacons with a tie for 13th, shooting 71-71-75. Coach Jerry Haas said: "We played very well. We just needed to eliminate the big numbers. There are a lot of positives to take from the weekend. This was probably the strongest field we will play in this year."...

Cheyenne Woods, a freshman on the Wake Forest women's team, led the Deacons to a ninth-place showing at the NCAA Fall Preview in Maryland. Woods, a niece of Tiger Woods, tied for 26th out of 75 players. Woods said she is adjusting to college very well and could major in psychology. "I knew it was going to be kind of hard managing my time, getting used to college life and being busy with golf," she said. "So that's what I've expected."...

The SAS Championship at Prestonwood in Cary, which will be played this week, has extended its contract with the Champions Tour through 2013. The agreement is for four additional years with an option for 2014. The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, the other North Carolina tour stop on the Champions Tour, isn't as secure with its future. The contract between Rock Barn and the Champions Tour is for next year with an option for 2010, but there's been no movement on any extension beyond that.

■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.