On April Fool’s Day, I did a post on The Goodwin, the annual
spring college tournament hosted by Stanford on its Stanford Golf Course.
At the time, I wondered how it was that the Cardinal entered
that tournament ranked 31st by Golfstat.
Stanford had two seniors in Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco, Calif. and
Brendan Wu of Scarsdale, N.Y. who were ranked among the top 50 in the World
Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
Maybe some of the underclassmen didn’t have the experience
that Salinda and Wu had, but Stanford annually attracts some outstanding
golfers, often youngsters who are just as interested in the challenging
academics they’re going to find in northern California as they are in seeing
how far their golf talents may take them.
Well, if Stanford was struggling on the golf course going
into The Goodwin, that stopped that last weekend in March and the Cardinal
never let up until they earned an NCAA Championship Wednesday with a 3-2
victory over Texas, No. 5 in the latest Golfstat
rankings, in the Final Match at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Stanford followed up its victory in The Goodwin by capturing
the team title in the Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Club, an Alister MacKenzie gem in Santa Cruz, Calif. Then the Cardinal rolled to the team
crown in the Pac-12 Championship at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Then, behind an individual victory for Salinda, the Cardinal
cruised to a 12-shot victory, again on its home course, in the NCAA Stanford
Regional.
Still, they arrived in Fayetteville ranked 10th
and probably an afterthought to a lot of followers of the college golf scene.
But Wednesday, with Salinda, No. 14 in the WAGR, staring
down Texas’ freshman phenom, Cole Hammer of Houston and No. 5 in the WAGR, and
Wu, No. 12 in the WAGR, rolling to a win over another gifted Texas freshman,
Pierceson Coody of Plano, Texas, Stanford just needed to find one more point to
claim a national championship.
The Cardinal got that point from Henry Shimp, a junior from
Charlotte, N.C. whose par on the 17th hole at The Blessings gave him
a 2 and 1 win over Spencer Soosman, a junior from Westlake Village, Calif., and
clinched Stanford’s ninth NCAA championship and its first since 2007.
“I’m just so proud of these guys,” head coach Conrad Ray,
who also guided that 2007 team to a national title, told the Stanford website.
“We battled all week. It’s the longest week in golf and to play that fine Texas
team today, I can’t say enough about our guys.”
Maybe the letdown for Hammer after his thrilling 4 and 3
victory over his friend and rival, Matthew Wolff, Oklahoma State’s newly
crowned NCAA individual champion, in Tuesday’s semifinals was to be expected.
But Hammer and Salinda were both in the semifinals of the
U.S. Amateur last summer at the Pebble Beach Golf Links, so Hammer had a pretty
good idea what he was getting into.
A couple of wayward drives by Hammer in the middle of the
round proved costly and Salinda made him pay as Salinda claimed a 4 and 3
victory. Hammer’s win over Wolff Tuesday probably ignited the Longhorns in
their 3-2 takedown of the defending champion Cowboys in the semifinals. His
loss to Salinda might have had the opposite effect in Wednesday’s Final Match.
It is, as Ray pointed out, a long week. Texas was clearly
amped up in back-to-back wins over its Big 12 rivals Oklahoma and Oklahoma
State – the last two national champions, by the way. The Longhorns might not
have had time to refill the tank in time for the Stanford match, moved up to
the first thing Wednesday morning by the threat of impending weather.
After Salinda completed his victory over Hammer, Wu closed
out Pierceson Coody, 4 and 3. That left it up to Shimp to finish the job.
I’ve mentioned before that Shimp first appeared on my radar
when he showed up for the U.S. Amateur qualifier administered by the Golf
Association of Philadelphia at White Manor Country Club and Aronimink Golf Club
in 2016, the summer before he matriculated at Stanford. And the kid emerged
with a ticket to Oakland Hills Country Club.
He was clearly one of the players Ray was considering this
spring as he tried to find the five to take to the NCAA regionals. And Ray’s
decision to included Shimp in the lineup paid big dividends Wednesday as he
closed out Soosman and clinched the title for Stanford.
Stanford freshman Daulet Tuleubayev, the Kazakhstan Kid who
closed out the Cardinal’s 3-2 semifinal victory over Vanderbilt, struggled in a
6 and 5 loss to Parker Coody, the other half of the Longhorns’ twin grandsons
of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody.
Steven Chervony, a senior from Boca Raton, Fla. who gutted
out the clinching point in 19 holes in the Longhorns’ upset of Oklahoma State
in the semifinals, picked up the other point for Texas with a 1-up victory over
David Snyder, a junior from McAllen, Texas.
With three freshmen on the roster, you might think that
Texas is set for a few years, but it seems unlikely that Hammer will spend all
four of his years of college eligibility. He participated with the group of
amateurs who auditioned for the U.S. Walker Cup team, which will take on Great
Britain & Ireland Sept. 7 and 8 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake,
England. I’d take him on my team any time.
So I expect to see Hammer back in Austin, at least for the
fall portion of the wraparound 2019-’20 season. A lot might depend on how this
summer plays out for Hammer. Wednesday’s outcome may be enough to persuade
Hammer to stick around for another spring and another shot at an NCAA title.
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