Matthew Durkin, the current team captain of the Whitworth men’s golf team, won medalist honors at the golf season opener on Sept. 15, which was hosted by Whitworth. He described the experience as “A dream come true for me.”
Durkin worked at Indian Canyon Golf Course, where the tournament was held, over the summer. He stated that “It was my home course this summer. To get my first college win there, … I couldn’t have drawn it up any better.” He also explained that “To win in the way that I did, just making up on the last hole, it’s stuff that every golfer dreams of. … I’m so incredibly thankful and blessed to have had that opportunity to do that. There’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”
Durkin’s history with golf began when he was three years old. “I grew up on a country club on the South Hill here in Spokane called Manito, and I was fortunate enough to live on the golf course itself,” said Durkin, “When I was just a kid, I’d run onto the golf course with a classic golf club and golf ball, and I would just hit to a golf hole in our backyard and then go on to the course.”
Durkin continued playing throughout his school years. He began reaching out to college golf teams in his junior year of high school. One of the coaches he contacted was Whitworth’s men’s golf coach, Scott Kramer. “Of all the coaches I was talking to, I liked him the most,” said Durkin, ” [Kramer] kept reaching out to me through the entire process, while other college coaches were not responding to my emails again. … I decided to go with Whitworth, obviously, because of the school, but because of him, predominantly, and for the opportunity to play for him.”
Durkin described his experience on the Whitworth golf team as “phenomenal.” He explained, “My first three years, I had a lot of upperclassmen above me, and so I learned a lot from them in terms of leadership. The guys like Jacob Rawley and Sam Pauly, who were just stud golfers here for Whitworth, I immediately attached myself to them, just because those were the guys I wanted to be like, on and off the course.”
He elaborated by saying, “I developed great relationships with those people, and I learned a lot from them and their leadership style and just what it means to be a great golfer and an even better person. … And now, being a senior on the team with a lot of underclassmen on the team as well, it’s nice to be able to give back to them what I’ve been given.”
After he graduates, Durkin plans on immediately heading into accounting. However, he explained that golf will always be part of his life. “I’m not exactly sure what factor it will play, whether it’s just going out with my buddies and playing during the week or on the weekends, or maybe I make a career out of it and become a PGA pro for a course. … I’m always keeping that door open for golf,” he said.
Despite his love for golf, Durkin emphasized that “It doesn’t define me as a person.” He stated, golf “is something I do for fun, but I’m defined by my character and my faith, and just having that perspective makes everything on the golf course so much more manageable. It’s easy to just kind of relish it and be thankful to play the game every day.”
Durkin’s advice to his fellow college athletes, both golfers and non-golfers, would be to “find your ‘why’ for playing sports.” He stated, “Just really enjoy it, no matter if you’re playing really good or really bad. It’s a blessing to wake up every day and to get to play college sports, and I think it’s just important not to take that for granted.”
