Wake Forest comes out on top of a loaded field in the Valspar Collegiate

   There’s a pretty good chance that several of the eight teams that survive 72 holes of qualifying and square off for match play in the NCAA Championship in May at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark. could be found teeing it up in this week’s Valspar Collegiate, which was played at the Floridian Golf Club in Palm City, Fla.

   Three of last year’s four semifinalists in the NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. – the eventual winner Oklahoma State, Duke and Auburn -- were in the field. Another of the teams that made match play at Karsten Creek, Texas A&M, was in the field. And Vanderbilt, which missed match play by one excruciating shot, was in the Valspar field as well.

   But none of those teams came out on top in the Valspar. Instead it was Wake Forest, which moved up from No. 6 to No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings in the aftermath of the Valspar, captured the team title with an impressive 25-under-par 827 total from the Floridian layout’s Valspar Collegiate tees, which make the par-71 course play 6,921 yards.

   The Valspar was originally scheduled to run over three days, but facing a rainy forecast for Tuesday (which proved to be completely accurate), the teams jammed in a 36-hole finale Monday after the event opened with a St. Patrick’s Day single round Sunday.

   The Demon Deacons, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, were coming off a strong second-place finish in last week’s General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. They got a share of the lead in the Valspar after posting a 6-under 278 in Sunday’s opening round.

   Wake Forest then fired a 14-under 270 in Monday morning’s second round when it appears the Floridian layout was at its most vulnerable before closing with a 5-under 279 in Monday afternoon’s final round when the course was toughened up a little to get it to 25-under.

   Reigning Southeastern Conference champion Auburn rattled off a pair of 8-under 276s in Monday’s double-round to keep the heat on Wake Forest, but the Tigers had to settle for second with a 19-under 833 total, six shots behind Wake Forest. The showing bumped Auburn’s ranking up from No. 13 to No. 10.

   Can’t imagine any team has made as dramatic a move in the rankings in a couple of weeks than the one made by South Carolina. The Gamecocks were No. 37 when they ran away with the team title in last week’s Cleveland Golf Palmetto Invitational in Aiken, S.C.

   South Carolina had moved up to No. 31 heading into the Valspar, but its third-place finish, four shots behind Auburn at 15-under 837, pushed the Gamecocks all the way up to No. 20.

   South Carolina, an SEC rival of Auburn, trailed Wake Forest by only a shot after two rounds as it matched the Demon Deacons’ opening-round 278 before adding a 13-under 271 in Monday morning’s second round. The Gamecocks cooled off with a 4-over 288 in the final round.

   That left them a shot in front of the No. 1 team in the country, reigning national champion Oklahoma State, a Big 12 power. The Cowboys, behind individual champion Matthew Wolff, a sophomore from Agoura Hills, Calif. and the No. 2 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), struggled a little in the final round with an even-par 284 to finish fourth at 14-under 838.

   With Wolff going 6-under 65 and 5-under 66 in the first two rounds, Oklahoma State had opened with a 5-under 279 and got it to 14-under with a 9-under 275 in Monday morning’s second round.

   Wolff closed with a 3-under 68 to hold off Florida State’s John Pak, a sophomore from Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 36 in the WAGR, by a shot for the individual title with a 14-under 199 total.

   Fifth place in the team standings went to SEC power Vanderbilt, which was three shots behind Oklahoma State at 11-under 841. The Commodores went low with a 13-under 271 in Monday morning’s second round before closing with a 1-over 285. Vanderbilt came into the Valspar ranked No. 3 and dropped back to No. 5 in the latest Golfstat rankings.

   It was five more shots back to the SEC’s Texas A&M in sixth place at 6-under 846. Like many teams, the Aggies, who moved up from No. 27 to No. 25 after the Valspar, got it going in Monday morning’s second round, firing a 9-under 275 before finishing with a 3-over 287.

   Duke, out of the ACC, was a surprising semifinalist at Karsten Creek. The Blue Devils and Texas, out of the Big 12, each made huge moves in the second round before ending up tied for seventh in the tough 15-team field at 5-under 847, a shot behind Texas A &M.

   The Dookies fired a sizzling 15-under 269 Monday morning before carding a 4-over 288 in the final round. That 269 would have been the low team round of the tournament, except the Longhorns did Duke one better with a 16-under 268 in Monday morning’s second round before finishing with a 2-over 286 in the final round.

   Duke came into the Valspar ranked No. 2, but got bumped back to No. 4 with its tie for seventh while Texas remained at No. 8.

   Wake Forest was led by Cameron Young, a senior from Scarborough, N.Y. who finished in fourth place in the individual standings at 8-under 205, six shots behind Wolff, the winner. Young, coming off an individual title in the General Hackler, opened with a sparkling 5-under 66 before finishing up with 3-under 68 and an even-par 71 in Monday’s double-round.

   Alex Fitzpatrick, a freshman from England and No. 45 in the WAGR, backed up Young as he was part of a four-way tie for 10^th place at 6-under 207. Fitzpatrick competed as an individual in the General Hackler, but his tie for seventh in the individual standings there earned him a promotion into the starting lineup for the Valspar. He sandwiched a 4-under 67 in the second round over the Floridian layout with a pair of 1-under 70s.

   As I mentioned in my post on the General Hackler, Fitzpatrick was on the bag as a 14-year-old every step of the way when big brother Matthew, a PGA Tour performer these days, won the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

   Alex Fitzpatrick returned to the U.S. Amateur as a player last summer at the Pebble Beach Golf Links and reached the quarterfinals before falling to another of the nation’s top freshmen, Texas’ Cole Hammer of Houston.

   And Hammer, No. 6 in the WAGR, also landed in the quartet tied for 10^th along with Fitzpatrick at 6-under. Hammer fired a pair of 4-under 67s in Monday’s double-round after opening with a 2-over 73.

   Eugenio Chacarra, a freshman from Spain, had the low round for Wake Forest in the final round with a 4-under 67 that enabled him to move into the group tied for 19^th at 3-under 210.

   Wake Forest played tremendous team golf as Eric Bae, a junior from Pinehurst, N.C., finished among the group tied for 43^rd at 4-over 217 and Parker Gillam, a sophomore from Cary, N.C., ended up in the group tied for 48^th at 5-over 218, but both were at their best in contributing to the Demon Deacons’ best round, their 14-under 270 in the second round.

   Bae carded a 3-under 68 in the second round while Gillam shared low-round honors with Fitzpatrick in the critical second round with a 4-under 67.

   If you closed your eyes and tried to envision a PGA Tour leaderboard in a decade or so, it might include several of the names that finished among the top 10 in the Valspar.

   Florida State’s Pak was brilliant, opening with a 5-under 66 and adding a 2-under 69 before closing with a sizzling 6-under 65 for a 13-under 200 total that left him a shot behind Oklahoma State’s Wolff in second.

   Texas A&M’s Chandler Phillips, a senior from Huntsville, Texas and No. 12 in the WAGR, was another shot behind Pak in third place at 12-under 201. Phillips opened with a 5-under 66 and added a 3-under 68 before closing with a 4-under 67. Both Pak and Phillips had to be wondering what a guy has to around here to win a golf tournament.

   Heading a group of five players tied for fifth at 7-under 206, a shot behind Wake Forest’s Young, was Oklahoma State’s Viktor Hovland, a junior from Norway and No. 2 in the WAGR. Hovland, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, had fired a pair of 4-under 67s before cooling off in the final round with a 1-over 72.

   Rounding out the quintet at 206 were Duke’s Roy Smalley, a senior from Wake Forest, N.C. and No. 16 in the WAGR, South Carolina’s Ryan Stachler, a senior from Alpharetta, Ga., Auburn’s Trace Crowe, a senior from Bluffton, S.C., and Baylor’s Braden Bailey, a senior from Graves, Texas.

   When Smalley added a 7-under 65 to his opening-round 67, he was only a shot behind Wolff heading into the final round. He fell back with a final round of 3-over 74. Crowe got it going in Monday’s double-round, posting a 4-under 67 before finishing up with a 3-under 68. Stachler and Bailey each closed by matching par with a 71.

   Joining Wake Forest’s Fitzpatrick and Texas’ Hammer in the quartet tied for 10^th were Vanderbilt’s Patrick Martin, a senior from Birmingham, Ala., and Auburn’s Jacob Solomon, a senior from Dublin, Calif. Martin ripped off a 7-under 65 in Monday morning’s second round before finishing up with a 1-under 70. Solomon bettered par in all three rounds, opening with a 3-under 68 and adding a 1-under 70 before finishing up with a 2-under 69.