Clemson makes sure it sends out Penley as an ACC champion in his farewell season

    Emotion always seems to play some kind of a role in the outcome of a sporting event. Too much of it can be counter-productive.

   The emotions had to be running high during last weekend’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championship for a Clemson team whose legendary coach, Larry Penley, announced in January that this season, his 38^th at the helm for the Tigers, would be his last.

   For the first time in the history of the tournament, a layer of match play was added with the top four teams after three rounds of stroke play advancing to the semifinals. And maybe that played in the favor of a Clemson team that entered the tournament ranked No. 5 by Golfstat and finished it at No. 3.

   Match play, you see, can be as much about guts as it is about talent and a little added emotion in that scenario just might be a good thing.

   Trailing all day in Monday’s title match with No. 2 Florida State at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga., Clemson gave Penley a pretty nice going-away present, his 10^th ACC championship, as the Tigers pulled out a 3-2 victory when Zack Gordon, a junior from Gaffney, S.C., drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the 21^st hole to defeat the Seminoles’ Greyson Porter, a redshirt senior from Clearwater, Fla.

   “This is very special,” Penley told the Clemson website. “I wasn’t sure I was going to get to 10 ACC championships. This was a lesson in hanging in there. We were never up (as a team) until Zack made that last putt. Our guys just fought all day.”

   Florida State had taken a 2-0 lead in the championship match when a couple of Seminole freshmen, Frederik Kjettrup of Denmark and Brett Roberts of Coral Springs, Fla. claimed victories, Kjettrup edging Colby Patton, a senior from Fountain Inn, S.C., 1-up, and Roberts rolling to a 6 and 5 decision over Turk Pettit, a senior from Auburn, Ala.

   The turnaround started when Jacob Bridgeman, a junior from Inman, S.C. and No. 39 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), rallied from 2-down with seven holes to play to pull out a 1-up decision over John Pak, a senior from Scotch Plains, N.Y. and No. 4 in the WAGR.

   Pak will represent the United States in next weekend’s Walker Cup Match against Great Britain & Ireland at iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. Pretty sure the unusual spring Walker Cup moved up the schedule for some of the men’s conference championships, but, as I mentioned in a couple of previous posts, everybody -- coaches, players, the USGA and the Royal & Ancient -- was on board with doing whatever was necessary to play a May Walker Cup at Seminole.

   Clemson evened the score when Kyle Cottam, a senior from Knoxville, Tenn., claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Vincent Norrman, a graduate student from Sweden.

   Gordon took a 1-up lead over Porter to the 18^th hole, but a nice up-and-down for par by Porter and a three-putt bogey for Gordon sent the match to extra holes with the ACC championship on the line.

   No Clemson player in three rounds of stroke play and two rounds of match play had managed to make a birdie on the tough 216-yard, par-3 third hole at the Crabapple Course, home to the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. But Gordon finally figured it out when his birdie try found the hole. Porter still had a shot to keep the match going, but his 18-foot birdie putt missed by inches.

   The original plan was for 36 holes of stroke play April 23 followed by an 18-hole windup of stroke play April 24 with the semifinals of match play last Sunday and the championship match Monday. Rain wiped out the final round of stroke play April 24, so last Sunday the final 18 holes of stroke play were followed by the semifinals.

   Clemson reached the title match with a 3.5-1.5 victory over No. 9 North Carolina State in the one semifinal.

   The clincher in that match came from Patton, who needed 19 holes to edge the Wolfpack’s Carter Graf, a sophomore from Canada. It’s not often you get to coach long enough at one place to mentor the son of one of your best players, but Patton is the son of Chris Patton, the big man with the soft hands who was a three-time All-American at Clemson under Penley and winner of the 1989 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course.

   Bridgeman had another tough matchup, but earned a 2 and 1 victory over Benjamin Shipp, a graduate student from Duluth, Ga. and No. 25 in the WAGR. Clemson got another full point from Cottam, who claimed a 3 and 2 win over Easton Paxton, a senior from Riverton, Wyo. Pettit got a draw with Christian Salzer, a graduate student from Sumter, S.C.

   North Carolina State’s Maximillian Steinlechner, a sophomore from Austria, got the Wolfpack’s full point with a 1-up victory over Gordon.

   Florida State, meanwhile, earned a relatively easy 4-1 victory over No. 6 North Carolina, which had set all kinds of records in a 15-shot victory in the 54 holes of stroke play with a spectacular 26-under 814 total over the 7,319-yard, par-70 Crabapple Course layout.

   In previous years that would have earned the Tar Heels a smashing ACC crown, but not this year. Still, playing good golf is never a bad thing.

   Peter Fountain, a freshman from Raleigh, N.C., did win the ACC individual title with a 10-under 200 total that included a 7-under 63 in the second round, just the second 63 in the history of the championship. Fountain’s performance enabled him to rocket up 72 places in the WAGR to No. 60.

   Of course, none of that mattered to Florida State’s Kjetterup, who proceeded to ambush Fountain, 5 and 4, Sunday afternoon. If North Carolina manages to make it into match play in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club ini Scottsdale, Ariz., Fountain won’t forget that feeling.

   Florida State’s Porter cruised to a 5 and 4 decision over Austin Hitt, a senior from Longwood, Fla., Roberts earned a 2 and 1 victory over Ryan Burnett, a junior from Lafayette, Calif., and Norrman captured a 3 and 1 win over Ryan Gerard, a senior from Raleigh, N.C.

   Austin Greaser, a sophomore from Vandalia, Ohio, picked up the lone point for the Tar Heels with a 4 and 3 victory over the decorated Pak, the individual champion the last time the ACC Championship was contested in the spring of 2019 at the Old North State Club in New London, N.C.

   Earlier Sunday, Fountain and the Tar Heels put the finishing touches on a tremendous stroke-play performance as Fountain fired a 4-under 66 to lead North Carolina to a 5-under 275 that got them to 26-under. The Tar Heels’ 864 total was an ACC Championship record and a program record for 54 holes.

   Fountain’s scintillating 7-under 63 came in the afternoon of the April 23^rd double round and sparked North Carolina to a 15-under 265 total, a single-round championship and program record. The Tar Heels had opened with a 6-under 274 earlier in the day.

   Fountain opened with a 1-over 71, North Carolina’s final counter of the first round round. He made quite a statement ini the final two rounds against a tremendous field.

   Clemson was solid in stroke play, adding a 6-under 274 to its opening round of 3-under 277 before the Tigers closed with a 2-under 278 that still left them 15 shots behind North Carolina with an 11-under 829 total.

   North Carolina State carded a pair of 6-under 274s in the April 23^rd double round before closing with a 3-over 283 that left the Wolfpack two shots behind Clemson in third place with a 9-under 831 total.

   Florida State struggled in Sunday morning’s final round with an 8-over 288, but managed to hold off two perennial ACC powers, No. 7 Wake Forest and No. 27 Georgia Tech, the ACC champion at the Old State Club in 2019, by a shot with a 5-over 865 total.

   The Seminoles had opened with a 3-under 277 before matching par in the second round with a 280.

   Wake Forest opened with a 3-over 283 and added a 1-under 279 before closing with a 4-over 284. After opening with a 6-over 286, Georgia Tech added a 2-under 278 before finishing up with a 2-over 282.

   It looked like North Carolina State’s Ship was the one to beat for the individual title when he opened with a 6-under 64. A 2-under 68 in the afternoon of the April 23^rd double round still left him two shots clear of Fountain, despite the North Carolina freshman’s 63, and the Tar Heels’ Hitt, who had added a 4-under 66 to his opening-round 68. North Carolina’s Burnett was Ship’s closest pursuer as he added a 67 to his opening-round 66 to creep within a shot of the individual lead heading into Sunday’s final round.

   Shipp’s final-round 69 forced him to settle for runnerup honors, a shot behind Fountain with a 9-under 201 total. Hitt closed with a solid 2-under 68 to finish a shot behind Shipp in third place with an 8-under 202 total.

   Clemson’s Cottam opened with a 3-under 67 and matched par in the second round with a 70 before closing with a 2-under 68 to finish three shots behind Hitt in fourth place with a 5-under 205 total.

   Pak headed a group of four players tied for fifth place, each landing on 4-under 206. After matching par in the opening round with a 70, Pak registered a 3-under 67 before finishing up with a 1-under 69.

   North Carolina’s Greaser and Burnett, making solid contributions to the Tar Heels’ run to the No. 1 seed in match play, and Clemson’s Bridgeman rounded out the foursome at 4-under.

   Greaser added a 2-under 68 to the pair of 69s he carded in the April 23^rd double round. Burnett backed off in the final round with a 73 to fall into the tie for fifth place. After opening with a 71, Bridgeman ripped off respective rounds of 67 and 68 in the final two rounds to get it to 4-under.

   Georgia Tech’s Connor Howe, a senior from Ogden, Utah, was a shot behind the foursome at 4-under as he finished alone in ninth place with a 3-under 207 total. Howe matched par in the opening round with a 70 and added a 2-under 68 in the second round before finishing up with a 1-under 69.

   Clemson’s Pettit and Duke’s Ian Siebers, a freshman from Bellvue, Wash., rounded out the top 10 in the individual standings as they shared 10^th place, each ending up with a 2-under 208 total.

   After matching par in the opening round with a 79, Pettit added a 3-under 67 before closing with a 71. Siebers got it going in the April 23^rd double round, adding a 69 to his opening round of 4-under 66 before finishing up with a 3-over 73.

   It was a disappointing weekend for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish finished in 11^th place in the 12-team field with a 30-over 870 total. Notre Dame, No. 31 in the latest Golfstat rankings, should still hear its name called when the NCAA regional fields are announced.

   Sophomore Palmer Jackson, the 2018 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Franklin Regional, finished with a 5-over 75 after posting a pair of 3-over 73s in the April 23^rd double round to finish in the group tied for 43^rd place at 11-over 221.